Skip to main content

Pompous and circumstantial


The Queen of England gave her annual speech to 'her people' on YouTube this year.
I watched it and felt a renewed distaste for the concept of monarchy.

She talks about the disadvantaged in society and how it is the duty of us all to help relieve their situations. Of course she says so from a position of unearned privilege, is that a Ming vase I see at your right elbow ma'aam?

The concept of monarchy, divine right and fealty to an idea that is simply an anachronism in the 21st century is absurd.

I found it offensive that Elizabeth Windsor broadcast a message showing her soldiers in Afghanistan (and though the British Troops in Iraq have stepped back from a 'combat' role the imagery certainly is representative of the military presence of the UK in the middle east). She refers to the seriously wounded and killed in the service of her commonwealth but neatly avoids commenting on the casualties inflicted on the local population, many of them innocent non-combatants.

She may well be a nice old lady in a personal sense but she represents something vile. Not only imperialism and oppression, wrong headed devotion to a cult of succession without merit but also the continuation of dullard ideas such as supporting the war with and ongoing occupation of Iraq.

I know there are British people who love their queen but that doesn't make it morally right. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the Germans were smitten by Herr Hitler and even a significant number of Soviets who were stupefied by Stalin.

Before you start wanting to flick me with a wet Charles and Diana tea towel I am not even remotely suggesting that Lizzy is personally responsible for any atrocity. Her position is the atrocity and popularity doesn't make things right - any more than agreement equates to thinking.

I would like to hear in her next announcement that she is stepping down, and closing the shop. Neither Charles nor William will succeed her throne (photogeneity is no grounds for authority). Parliament will attach the family's wealth and grant her and Philip a pension and a pensioners flat somewhere nice, Brixton or the like. All titles and lands will be handed back to the people. Taxes will be reduced (now that the assets can be used for the public good and dividends distributed to the community).

And the world will be a better place.(Sung)

Footnote. Interesting that the YouTube channel has no embedding feature and comments have been disabled. Very telling. A desire to use social media but not to conform to its conventions. Monarchy is a monologue, not a polylogue.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ze Frank thinks so you don't have to

Ze Frank appeared on my radar when I saw his presentation among the excellent TED Talks videos . This morning I was reading Russell Davies planning blog in which he referred to a clip by Ze Frank - Where do ideas come from. Here's the transcript: "...Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima [sic] writes, "Are you ever gonna break into song again? Are you running out of ideas?" Hungry Hippo licks Aunt JEmima, that's a good question. I run out of ideas every day! Each day I live in mortal fear that I've used up the last idea that'll ever come to me. If you don't wanna run out of ideas the best thing to do is not to execute them. You can tell yourself that you don't have the time or resources to do 'em right. Then they stay around in your head like brain crack. No matter how bad things get, at least you have those good ideas that you'll get to later. Some people get addicted to that brain crack. And the longer they wait, the more they convince themse...
1 comment
Read more and leave a comment

Johnny Bunko competiton

The Great Johnny Bunko Challenge from DHP on Vimeo . There's a young chap in Indiana, one Alec Quig , who has written to me about creating a career based on a polymathic degree, from which he has recently graduated. He's an interesting young man and his concerns about going forward in life are the anxieties we all face at crossroads in our lives when we are forced to make choices. Dan Pink's latest book The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need might help: "From a New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Washington Post bestselling author comes a first-of-its- kind career guide for a new generation of job seekers.There's never been a career guide like it.the fully illustrated story (ingeniously told in Manga form) of a young Everyman just out of college who lands his first job. Johnny Bunko is new to parachute company Boggs Corp., and he stumbles through his early days as a working stiff until a crisis prompts him to find a new job. St...
Post a Comment
Read more and leave a comment

Why billboards must go.

The problem with billboards and advertising in public places is they are an invasion of privacy. Unlike magazine, tv, radio (etc) advertising you cannot choose to turn it off or avoid it. Nor does it offer anything in return. It is a medium that offers no benefit or advantage to the person it is inflicted on. At least television ads subsidise the programming. Without doubt some billboards are entertaining - I thought the anti GE poster for short lived MADGE activist group was particularly good. But most are rubbish. Literally. Badly executed. Nothing important to say. The debate has led to a great deal of hysteria - mostly from people with a vested interest in perpetuating the deployment of hoardings. Perhaps the idea that the issue at stake is 'property rights' is the creepiest. If you own a building you have every right to plaster anything you like on its external surfaces. Is that an antisocial point of view? I think so. In the UK you could have an ASBO slapped on you for si...
Post a Comment
Read more and leave a comment