Tea at Trianon: Modernity and Postmodernity

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

Thursday, August 22, 2024

Modernity and Postmodernity

From Peter A. Lawler at Modern Age:

Thinkers usually regarded as conservative, from Leo Strauss to Jacques Maritain, trace the beginning of modern thought to Niccolo Machiavelli. The Machiavellian innovation was to devote human beings to the conquest of nature, to turn human efforts toward the acquisition in freedom in this world of what God had promised in the next. Machiavelli redefined human virtue as whatever works in transforming the world in the name of human security. He reduced religion to a useful tool in achieving political goals. Machiavelli even deprived philosophy of its high and independent status of contemplating the truth about nature and God by holding that the truth is that we only know what we make. Every human claim for wisdom must be tested practically; we can only know the world by changing it.
Thus, moral and political life in modern times no longer aims to cultivate human souls but to protect human bodies. The attempt to use political means to elevate the soul turned out to be ineffective and needlessly cruel. We cannot make human beings good through an appeal to moral and religious motives, but we can make them act as if they were good by using fear to predictably control their bodies. So the modern premise is that human beings are free individuals with no duties given to them by God or nature; their only duty is to obey those contracts, ultimately based in fear, which they have made with other individuals.

Characteristically, modern government uses strong political institutions—such as the separation of powers and checks and balances—to limit and direct human action. The main goal is to protect human beings from the tyranny of unlimited government without expecting too much of either rulers or ruled. Modern government, in fact, is to be limited but strong; free human beings consent to be ruled in order for their bodies to be more secure and comfortable. But they would not consent to be needlessly afraid of government or to have their souls cruelly tortured. So the American Constitution, for example, creates a strong presidency that is limited both by Congress and by the necessity of securing reelection.

This moderate and modern form of government must be praised for its effectiveness, for its protection of human security and liberty, and for providing a context for unprecedented human prosperity. But conservatives would add that no decent modern government has been wholly modern. Decent modern governments have relied heavily on their premodern inheritances, including respect for tradition, religion, and various kinds of uncalculating virtue. Strong institutions are not enough for a free society to work; good government always depends also on the existence of free and responsible citizens, and these do not just happen. Modern society, conservatives add, erodes its premodern capital. It sows the seeds of its own destruction. (Read more.)