Tea at Trianon: Forgotten

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

Friday, October 13, 2023

Forgotten

From The History Desk:

Whilst we in the West have certainly forgotten that our civilization owes a large debt to the Middle East, the Middle Easterners have forgotten their own roots. Lebanon has totally forgotten their Phoenician origins. Shame, shame, shame. The true inventors of world trade and capitalism, are stuck in the muck and mire of hatred. They have become bullies instead of negotiators. The people who gave us Carthage, are those who now give us ruins.

The past does illustrate how buildings, and the people who inhabited them, come and go. Each generation that takes over from its parent, has the choice to evolve it, or make it stagnant. Evolution, the word itself, means to make progress. If no progress is made, stagnation sets it. People find themselves dead inside, with a body that keeps going through the motions. To such a people, what is death itself except that the body ceases to perform. Making a war can be seen as seeking relief from the tediousness of life. Death in war makes one the ultimate victim.

To constantly be the living victim is to be like the cat that hides away whenever someone enters their space. Or the dog that runs away, tail between its legs, when a human approaches. They have no joy because they have been mistreated by those who are supposed to love and care for them.

People are no different. Picking up the weapon to go to war, is a change, because they have, at last, a way to express themselves as wounded, inside. If the war kills them, they stop hurting. Thus young people make choices that lead to death, not life. It is why, in the Western cultures, the embrace of the negative ideas, when it comes to not only politics, but life choices, disturb us. What does it mean when so much of the world rattles their sabres?

There are many Jeremiahs among us now, telling us to mend our ways. The difference in our Jeremiahs and the ones of times ancient, is that there is no god to turn towards. As Nietzsche said, we have killed him off. Moderns don’t think the sky god is of any use. Certainly, if we look around us, all those monotheists have forgotten him as they make their human wars. Many of these wars are fought over their version of god versus the other side’s version of god. (Read more.)