Tea at Trianon: The Best Place On Earth to Be a Parent

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

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

The Best Place On Earth to Be a Parent

From Helen Roy:

Despair is a lie, perhaps the most insidious one available to American parents. Of course difficulty is real and inevitable, but despair paralyzes us precisely in the moment we, as the nucleus of democracy, are called to act in spite of our challenges. So… don’t despair. Plant the community garden. Start the co-op. Lobby for the rights of children and parents, and openly debate the particulars of what that really means. Run for the school board. Host the potluck. Become the village. We should clearly articulate the challenges of parenthood in the modern world, but not without a sincere and demonstrable effort to become of service to one another in real life first.
Our freedom—however fragile—is still real enough to wield, and it actually depends on our mutual trust, reliance, action, and willingness to engage with the truth. If Tocqueville was right, and I believe he was, the future of democracy—and the future of our children—depends on what we choose to do with that freedom right now. (Read more.)