Tea at Trianon: Beware of Problem-Solvers That Benefit from Never Solving a Problem

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, December 5, 2024

Beware of Problem-Solvers That Benefit from Never Solving a Problem

From Culturcidal:

This bleeds over into the philosophy behind our whole medical system as well. Don’t get me wrong, our hospitals have lots of talented doctors and nurses that really care about their patients. Additionally, if you have an acute injury, like a broken leg, you get stabbed or you have a heart attack and need immediate treatment, there’s no better place to go than the American medical system.
The “but” here is that our medical system is focused like a laser on dealing with symptoms but isn’t that great at targeting the root causes of a problem. Do you have a symptom? They’ll give you a pill to handle it. If that causes a problem, then their fix for that is…another pill or maybe two. If you want to figure out how you got there in the first place, the American medical system is in many cases, generally unhelpful.
Again – and this is no reflection on all smart, talented, caring professionals who got into medicine to help people – it’s hard to help noticing that hospitals make a lot more money treating you than curing you. (Read more.)