Tea at Trianon: The Marxist’s War On Reason

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

Sunday, July 14, 2024

The Marxist’s War On Reason

From Unskool:

Soft sciences — especially sociology, history, and humanities — rely on interpreting facts that can be difficult or impossible to quantify compared to hard sciences such as earth and life sciences. Soft sciences place more emphasis on the narrative than the facts they use to create them and, because of this, can more easily be influenced by political and other biases.
Not long ago, reason served as a reliable deterrent to these biases. A historical narrative, for example, had to make logical sense by accounting for as many facts as it had at its disposal, not just the ones that agree with the preferred narrative.
A glaring example is the 1619 Project, the invention of Nikole Hannah-Jones and her motley crew of wannabe revolutionaries. The Washington Post observed, “The 1619 Project started as history. Now it's also a political program.” The left-leaning new outlet almost got it right. If the writer omitted the word “also” so the sentence reads “Now it’s a political program,” it would be a solid assessment.
Not a political science program — unless it was a Marxism in-action practicum — but a blatant attempt to rewrite history according to the tenets of critical race theory. Instead of the proletariat pitted against the bourgeoisie (oppressed and oppressor), the 1619 Project crew wanted to sow hatred among blacks against whites which, in turn, would spawn hatred across the Western gamut. (Read more.)