Thursday, November 29, 2018

C.S. Lewis 120

C.S. LewisA dozen decades ago today, C.S. Lewis was born.

We recall some of what C.S. Lewis told us:

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
And:
There, right in the midst of our lives, is that which satisfies the craving for inequality, and acts as a permanent reminder that medicine is not food. Hence a man’s reaction to monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be ‘debunked;' but watch the faces, mark the accents of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach - men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire equality, they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Hungary Power Renunciation

replica of renunciation of power of King Charles IV of Hungary
A century ago today, King Charles IV of Hungary renounced his involvement in the state affairs of the Kingdom of Hungary at Eckartsau.

The desk of Charles of Austria-Hungary at Eckartsau.

Eckartsau on September 18, 2011


The top photo is of the replica of the renunciation declaration at display at Eckartsau. Photos taken by yours truly at Eckartsau on September 18, 2011.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Armistice at 100

A century ago today, the guns of the Great War fell silent.

This also marks the end of German-speaking monarchy, save Liechtenstein.

Hundert Jahre Interregnum sind ganz mehr als genug!