Tea at Trianon: Wanted: An Ideal American Childhood

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

Tuesday, March 10, 2026

Wanted: An Ideal American Childhood

Saturday Evening Post Patriotic Band Concert Stevan Dohanos July 7, 1951 Delhi New York

From Matriarch Goals:

This first generation of culture-rebel parents in the 70s-80s maintained a kind of libertarian philosophy of raising children. The main objective was getting kids out of the primary, popular culture. A rugged, denim-jumper individualism, if you will: Keep the children clear of corruption, and save their souls. For many devout Christians at that time, America’s embrace of abortion, contraception, homosexual lifestyles, and modern education curricula presented a five-alarm fire. They prioritized getting the hell away from it.
Courting the Village
Their children—my peers—grew up and tried to correct some of the downsides of their parents’ cultural rebellion: instead of isolation, they were more likely to seek out community and homeschool groups in order to mirror or even replace the popular culture they still rejected. What that first homeschooling generation learned through experience was that kids can’t really be raised without a larger culture—without a village. It doesn’t matter how much the parents try to provide a home culture, and it doesn’t matter how ideal the home life is.
There is a distinct and necessary third level between home and “the world.” That third place (heh) is the village or the group of families we raise our children in and among. That village is composed of other adults who are given nearly equal respect and deference as the child’s own parents. (Read more.)