Thursday, August 25, 2011

Archduke Otto's legacy debated

This summer at Chronicles, Serbian Orthodox paleoconservative Srdja Trifkovic wrote a venomous obituary of Otto von Habsburg (for whom respect in the former Empire remains high):
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2011/07/18/otto-von-habsburgs-ambiguous-legacy/

to which Roman Catholic Habsburg loyalist James Bogle (who I suspect is the blogger behind Roman Christendom) responded:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2011/07/28/archduke-otto-responding-to-dr-trifkovic/

Trifkovic responded to the response:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2011/07/29/otto-von-habsburg-the-facts/

and Bogle responded to the response to the response:
http://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/2011/08/01/archduke-otto%E2%80%94the-smears/

Readers (some more knowledgeable than others) weighed in as well. Obviously as a generally pro-Habsburg monarchist I'm closer to Bogle's (whose lovely biography of Otto's parents Karl & Zita A Heart for Europe I own) point of view, but am not entirely sure what I think of the whole Austrian/Serbian/Muslim question. Catholic/Orthodox divisions are perhaps particularly painful for those of us who would like to see Christians and monarchists united. Not that Trifkovic is a monarchist at all; indeed, it is partly because of right-wingers like him who do not seem to regard the fall of monarchies as particularly regrettable and do not demonstrate any respect for royalty that I no longer subscribe to Chronicles (despite having enjoyed its summer schools as mentioned in the previous post) and no longer identify with the paleoconservative "Right," even if it does remain preferable to neoconservatism.

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