Tea at Trianon: Ever Grifting in Uncertainty

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Ever Grifting in Uncertainty

From Kristen van Uden at Catholic Exchange:

In addition to the Woke, Inc. narrative that has overtaken mainstream secular voices, conservative politics & media and the Catholic Faith have become prime targets for the grifter personality. Like lemmings, wannabe influencers all fall into (Party) line on the next pet topic, violating principles they previously held in the all-out race to be heard. (The recent “conservative” media glorification of pornographer Andrew Tate is a disturbing lesson in the politics of grifting.)

Catholic grifters are among the worst breed because they commodify and manipulate the Faith, the source and summit of our lives, the only thing eternal and spotless and true. They are a new generation of moneychangers in the Temple. What may begin as a pious, well-intentioned desire to spread the gospel can easily devolve into a self-serving vanity affair of clout chasing. This is why priests and religious have historically been discouraged from celebrity. All people with public platforms would do well to keep humility in the forefront of their minds, lest they lose sight of God among the clicks and applause (or hate mail). (Read more.)