Saturday, March 13, 2010

Monarchists Insane?

Today I responded at length to a post at a blog by self-proclaimed "open-minded young traditionalist Catholics" which blithely identified monarchism as the sort of thing that no "sane" person believes in anymore. Infuriatingly, this writer actually concedes the aesthetic appeal of monarchy, while rejecting the possibility of serious contemporary ideological monarchism as "esoteric" or worse. I'm not sure which is more irritating: people who are totally enthralled with republicanism, or people who aren't but belittle monarchists anyway. Since I normally just ignore the former, it's probably the latter.

(I am of course a friend and fan of "The Mad Monarchist," but I'm confident that the name of his blog is quite tongue in cheek.)

Incidentally, while I've had my disagreements with viewpoints expressed on the presumably non-"open-minded" traditional Catholic blog Durendal, after "Renegade Trads" this article by unreconstructed reactionary monarchist Eric Jones was a refreshing contrast.

9 comments:

The Moderate Jacobite said...

I have no inclination to promote or provoke inter-blog conflict, but I think that the critical point here is "self-proclaimed".

The core of tradition is that which as been handed-on, we do not sit and recreate the world ex nihilo from our own intellects.

To be a rationalist, or a modernist, or to hold to any other ideological perspective (honourable or otherwise) is perfectly compatible with an appreciation of the aesthetic within the traditional liturgy of the Roman Rite...but that does not make onto into a traditionalist.

J.K. Baltzersen said...

Sir,

Have you pondered this sentence for a while?:

Of course, sane people don't hold such political views anymore, and neither do I.

:-)

Professor L said...

So he thinks monarchists are insane? I think he doesn't know what sane is.

Still, he makes good points - small government conservatism requires a strong civil society, backed up by a strong sense of ethics and morality (most often informed by religion).

Let him think us insane. Sanity is boring, a box. Insanity lies outside the box, and frankly, I'm perfectly happy there.

Zane said...

It is a sane response to the bizzaro world that most people live in.

It isn't insane to say that this upside down world needs a right side up manifestation of good. It needs to confront the evil in the world and call for its' defeat. We need this call NOW.

I have been making this call for some years.
http://thestateof.net

Theodore Harvey said...

Hmm. I'm not sure the most recent comment or its link are particularly helpful.

Tancred said...

The world we live in isn't democratic and attempts to make it so is another rebellion against nature itself and the nature of man as a social animal and his destiny: heaven or hell.

Seems that Anti-Monarcists don't have much of a leg to stand on either with respect to the track record of Republicanism (Democracy) in regard to the Catholic Church or in terms of Republicanism's treatment of human beings in general.

Remember, the Soviet Union were "Republics"...and the leaders were "democratically" elected. Now, you might quibble that the Soviet Union isn't democratic at all (names notwithstanding) but you have to also contend with the facts that both Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Hugo Chavez among others, were democratically elected.

Besides that, what's with the namecalling? Whatever happened to good old fashioned dialectic?

Nuno Castelo-Branco said...

The "moderate open-minded catholics" should visit catholic countries like Portugal and Spain and concluded about what their religious partners really think about the "republic" in Lisbon... Backwards, caotic, forcing people to pay huge taxes to mantain the president (17 millions Euros/year, when Juan Carlos spends 8...), rulled by a bunch of semi-idiotic crooks that's the "achievements" of the "Portuguese" republic who should die as soon as possible.

M.D.A. said...

It has become a cliché, but it bears repeating, that if insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results, then voting for a head of state is institutionalized insanity.

Tancred said...

Mr. Amesse:

I don't mind elective Monarchies like the Papacy or the Dodge of Venice, but you're right.

I was thinking the same thing the other day.