by Marcos Garcia
The more the human soul rises towards perfection, the more it resembles God. For many, this point is obvious. For most, however, it unfortunately is not. Especially far from obvious is the statement that the Middle Ages were the historic era most directed toward the one true God. The Sweet Springtime of the Faith, as it was called by a 19th century writer, gathered in itself, much like enriched uranium, a potential for unprecedented elevation.
Unfortunately the Middle Ages decayed through the work of the Gnostic and egalitarian revolution sparked by Protestantism.
However, as an echo of the Middle Ages, like the second stage in a fireworks display the elevation of ways, styles and class still blossomed in the Old Regime, the most aristocratic epoch in history.
Especially in France, aristocratic values shone with a beautiful light. The sense of measures, proportions, opportunity, in short, correctness in social life was the golden badge of that nation, so appropriately called the eldest daughter of the Church.
This painting of Marie Antoinette by Madame Vigée Le Brun shows the queen as grand as a monument. As Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira used to say, “Marie Antoinette was the swan of the human race.” How many qualities combined in one person!
Portrait of Marie-Antoinette of Austria by Jean-Baptiste Gautier Dagoty
To be brief, my goal here is to draw attention to a most secondary aspect of the Queen’s figure: her shoe. Yes, don’t be amazed: her shoe!
What lightness, what class, what nobility! It looks like a period placed at the end of the last verse of a poem. It is not there to draw attention but to complete the monumental dress with a light touch, giving it a “soft landing.”
One would say that in order to have that foot a person would have to have that head, that bust, that royalty, and that grandeur.
Let us now look at some sample shoes that fashion is introducing and imposing.
'Zapatos' by Alexander Mcqueen
Their tone is one of most daring extravagance and most blunt illogic, with a glaring lack of balance. What for?
When the French Revolution severed the head of Marie Antoinette, in a sense it cut off the sap that nourished the immense tree of the nobility and aristocracy. Later, like branches of a dead tree, the thrones of Europe fell one after another like dominoes, and with them the aristocracy.
There came republics, democracies, socialism, communism and now tribalism. During this whole period, aristocracy has gone through a long and painful agony.
Today we see an attempt to euthanize the values that characterize the elevation of man: class, refinement, a taste of excellence, a sense of balance etc.
L to R: Herbert Levine’s “Race Car Shoe,” “Barefoot in the Grass,” and “Paper Twist” shoes. Useing her husband's name for her company, these shoes were designed by Beth Levine, also known as "The first Lady of American Shoes Design".
For what end? In order to drive men to madness.
When people no longer notice the madness of certain contemporary behavior, they will have been taken over by it. And the pressure of fashion to drive people crazy is so despotic and brutal that it is absolutely like an arena full of wild beasts.
From L to R: 'Spine heel' by Dsquared2; ‘Heel-less shoe’ and below is ‘Homage to Picasso’ both by Andre Perugia. Middle two pictures: Japanese Geta Platform boots; 'Ballet boots' by Aussieropeworks. Last row: 'Porcupine-spiked shoes'; 'High Tide Heels' by Paul Schietekat.
Let me recall here a well-known phrase by Ruy Barbosa, a famous Brazilian jurist, “By dint of seeing so many nobodies triumph, so much dishonor thrive, so much injustice grow and so much power acquire gigantic proportions in the hands of evil ones, man ultimately shuns virtue, laughs at honor, and becomes ashamed of being honest.” (Federal Senate, RJ. Complete Works of Rui Barbosa, V. 41, t. 3, 1914, p. 86.)
Let us not shun virtue. And let us keep our honor so we will not end up by feeling ashamed of being normal.
