In Which We Discuss some 18th century Thinkers and their ideas

Hello my friend, dear reader of this post! Good morning, and I want to ask, first, how are you, and how have you been? Then I can say, I have been okay, and I am okay. Some changes happened, though, the past few days: essentially, I am quitting yet another course, this one is the one I was doing before, Admin. It was immensely unpleasant, and was causing me to suffer. It felt like an open-air prison. Well, the nightmare of this course is coming to an end, thank Goodness. I still need a college degree, though, one way of wrapping up this period of my life. Oh God, give me strength, I have not told my father yet, and I am sure he will be very angry with those news. He will think of the paperwork. And of the uncertainty that brings. I am unsure if he will pay for yet another course, and if he does not, well, that can be trouble for me. As I mentioned, a college degree would be useful, as to just make my position socially more cemented. I don't expect many job perspectives from the new one I am thinking about, which will be History. And I am already thinking of other ones to do, such as Visual Arts and Economic Sciences. All of those on the intellectual field, none particularly avenues in which to earn money... again, God, give me strength.

Empress Maria Feodorovna, one of the strong and intriguing women of the 18th century!

I am happy to say that I am about to finish yet another book, this one is another great work by Olivier Bernier, on the great women of the 18th century, such as Madame Vigee LeBrun, Lady Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, and even the famous seamstress Rose Bertin, to name a few mentioned on this very interesting piece. What a magnificent world is the one of the 18th century! I can never get enough of it. It was a time before the evil winds of Marxism have started to blow, those destructive malaises that caused so much death, spiritually, mentally and physically. It is not perfect, of course, we still have bad intellectual forces, such as the one represented by Rousseau. We have some atheists such as Diderot and D'Alembert, and to some extent, Voltaire. We have the founder of another evil force, that of Modernism, which will be Monsieur Kant... when we think of it, many bad folk do inhabit the 18th century... I can't think of many good things to say about many intellectuals of the time, they brew the storm of the French Revolution, even if it was not their intention. Voltaire, for example, was a friend of absolute monarchy, what he desired was just for it to be reasonable and wise. He did oppose the church, but it is not to say the catholics did not had some things worth criticizing. Adam Smith was a great thinker, and was so important on redeeming in the eyes of many the trader and the producer. He made some important mistakes when it comes to his ideas on value, that is true, but his ideas cannot be dismissed because of his flaws of judge. The idea of the Encyclopedie is not bad, in fact, it is good, but one can't trust neither of the arrogants that had this idea (not the most original one, for instance) to lead it to practice. I am also thinking of the disciples of those men, such as my dear Empress Catherine of Russia. Her Nakaz was not a bad idea, quite the opposite, the thought of modernizing the Russian Empire, to bring greater liberty and prosperity to its subjects through the rule of law and economic freedom and sound reason, those are very good, but, as she soon found out, it is not really that simple. By the end of her reign, Catherine decided to turn on a more absolute approach, with censorship of ideas that she earlier endossed. One cannot call her a conservative, and I don't feel comfortable with the label "reactionary", so I will say she just went from more friendly towards reform, towards being less open to it. She saw the storm of the french tragic revolution, and she sought to avoid it in her own country. She had a duty with her subjects after all, of keeping the order. One often disdains of law and order when once have it, but in its absence, when the forces of the mob are around, stealing, plundering and murdering... and with money debasement, which is the mother of inflation... Even I, a libertarian, can understand her approach.

Well, this is where I'm leaving you, today! What a nice conversation, that we just had. Let me know what you think! What is your favorite philosopher of the l'Era Des Lumieres? Thank you for being here, dear friend! And no worries, this is no goodbye! With Christmas coming, there is plenty more to talk and share about, on the spirit of my favorite season! I should return soon with more thoughts and ideas and pictures! Hopefully before the end of the week! Till then, happy new week.