Quote of the Month

Writes “Anti Democracy Blog”:

Soviet Communism, too, talked incessantly about being “on the right side of history”; of ultimate, global victory being “inevitable”.

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Bertrand de Jouvenel at 111

Eleven decades and a year ago today, Bertrand de Jouvenel was born.

Writes Bruce Frohnen over at The Imaginative Conservative:

Ironically, Jouvenel observed, what made the state so dangerous in modern times was precisely what to most people gave to it its legitimacy: democracy. To many, this recognition of the dark side of democracy rendered Jouvenel’s thought suspect, at best.

Professor Frohnen writes further:

The greatest danger in democratic times, Jouvenel (like Tocqueville) saw, was the emptying out of society of all the institutions and communities in which people actually live. The resulting landscape of atomized individuals and the state, the mode of society propounded by too many who claim to seek the protection of individual “rights,” would spell the end of liberty, and of any decent social order. Too often overlooked by many libertarians, the “makeweights” of social institutions (including, of course, the church) were necessary for both human flourishing itself and for the cabining of political power within the bounds necessary for any decent society.

Happy Halloween!

Want to have a scare?

Take a look at modern civilization unmasked!

Turkish Interregnum at 91

Seven baker's dozen years ago today, Turkey was proclaimed a republic.

Four years short of a century ago tomorrow, the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of the Great War agreed to an armistice.

What Uncle Sam Has Money For...

H/T: The Daily Paul (no, your host blogger does not endorse this way of using the word “like”)

Oscar II Abdicated

A year short of eleven decades ago today, King Oscar II abdicated the ancient throne of St. Olav, formally ending the union of Sweden and Norway, being a step on the march towards ever increasing democracy.

George III, King of America

A dozen score years ago today, the First Continental Congress petitioned His Majesty George III to address grievances.

It was on his 14^th Accession Day. 254 years ago today George III ascended the Britannic throne.

Constant at 247

Three years short of a quarter of a millennium ago today, Benjamin Constant was born.

A quote:

The choice of the people belongs to men who command attention, who attract respect, who have acquired the right to esteem, confidence, and popular recognition. And these more energetic men will also be be moderate. People always take mediocrity as peaceful. It is peaceful only when it is locked up. When chance invests it with power, it is a thousand times more incalculable in its motion, more envious, more obstinate, more immoderate, and more convulsive than talent, even when emotions lead the latter astray.

Lecky Passing at 111

Eleven decades and a year ago today, William Edward Hartpole Lecky, who stood up against the rising age of democracy, passed on from this world.

I read his two-volume work Democracy and Liberty from start to end not too long ago. One of his many insights are:

No danger in representative government was deemed greater than that it should degenerate into a system of veiled confiscation—one class voting the taxes which another class was compelled to pay.

Feast Day of Blessed Charles

Today is Blessed Emperor-King Karl's Feast Day. A century and three years ago today, then Archduke Karl married Princess Zita.

Propaganda Depicted

German mockery (with option of English subtitles):

H/T: Daniel McAdams, The LRC Blog

Ortega y Gasset Passing

A year short of three score years ago today, José Ortega y Gasset passed from this world.

Queen to the Guillotine

In this year of 225 years since the outbreak of the French Revolution, 221 years ago today, Queen Marie Antoinette was brutally murdered.

The Real Climate Monster

Over at Enter Stage Right, says Mr. Tom Harris and Dr. Bob Carter:

But he [Mr. DiCaprio] has identified the wrong monster. The real one is the climate scare – something DiCaprio promotes with his sensationalist, error-riddled movie. That is the real threat to civilization.

Anatole France Passing

In this year of the centennial of the outbreak of the Great War, three quarters of a century and a year ago today, François-Anatole Thibault, also known as Anatole France, passed on.

Some quotes:

Another quote:

For every monarchy overthrown the sky becomes less brilliant, because it loses a star. A republic is ugliness set free.

Swiss Gold Initiative

The Swiss are to vote on gold and money this upcoming November 30.

Mr. Lukas Reimann, member of the National Council from the Canton of St. Gall, has given this speech in favor of the Swiss gold initiative (English subtitles):

More information (via LRC).

Poll Results: World War One Was the End of Western Civilization. What Is this Statement?

The results for the poll, with the question “World War One was the end of Western Civilization. What is this statement?,” ending at midnight between September and October, are as follows:

Total votes: 29.

• almost completely true: 11 (37%)
• completely true: 6 (20%)
• mostly true: 6 (20%)
• a bit more true than false: 2 (6%)
• a bit more false than true: 1 (3%)
• mostly false: 1 (3%)
• almost completely false: 1 (3%)
• None of the [alternatives]: 1 (3%)
• half truth, half falsehood: 0 (0%)
• completely false: 0 (0%)

A new poll will be up soon.

Quote of the Month (September)

Writes the host blogger of Once I Was A Clever Boy:

Those who thought that getting rid of the Hohenzollerns and the other German dynasties and bringing in the age of the common man were, of course, to be in for a very nasty shock when they saw what the common man could, and indeed did, turn out to be like.

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Randoms of September

Over at LewRockwell.com, writes Dr. Michael S. Rozeff:

The White House lawyers create their own judicial and legal interpretations so as to give the presidents what they want as justifications for their wars, their torture, their assassinations, their anti-constitutional activities, and their executive orders.

Also at LewRockwell.com, Mr. Patrick J. Buchanan gives his thoughts on the RMS Lusitania.

Again at LewRockwell.com, Dr. Ralph Raico gives his take on the outbreak of World War I.

Further, “Bionic Mosquito” provides a list of historical myths.

The Daily Mail reports that Emperor Hirohito was opposed to war according to a new biography (via LRC).

Over at The American Conservative, Mr. Alan Pell Crawford writes of George Washington's fear of political organization.

Also at The American Conservative, Dr. Lee Walter Congdon reviews Daniel J. Mahoney's The Other Solzhenitsyn: Telling the Truth About a Misunderstood Writer and Thinker.

Further, Dr. Patrick J. Deneen says:

Tocqueville expresses discomfort of how best to call this kind of government, since at all times in the past, a tyranny implied a form of government imposed by force upon a people against their will. But this new specter, “democratic despotism,” arises through the invitation and desires of the democratic citizenry itself.

The Mad Monarchist most fortunately ends his strike and gives accounts of the British and Russian armies of World War I.

P.D. Mangan makes a case for stop subsidizing degeneracy.

The host blogger of Tea at Trianon has read Gareth Russell's The Emperor's: How Europe's Rulers Were Destroyed by the First World War and gives an insight.

Portuguese Interregnum at 104

Eight baker's dozen years ago today, the interregnal government of Portugal commenced.

Viva o Rei!