Hacker News Reader

Comment by seclorum | Hacker News Reader

I think that the dependency of the English people on their Matriarch for comfort and compassion is a sign of ill-health, personally, as a society. I find it repugnant that in a time of dire circumstances, the dependency on cult figures is still a resolute component of the human social experience. Until we do away with such crutches, we'll always have the very threat of war upon us ..

View on HN

I'd be interested to hear more on this. At the minute I'm not sure what dire circumstances you mean, or how having a leader implies a threat of war. It seems like a lot of what you wrote could be applied to any leader of any nation.

I went through a vehement anti-monarchy phase when I was younger, since then I'm starting to appreciate the idea of a head of state who isn't a career politician that campaigned or even bought their way into office.

The human proclivity towards cult behaviour is what I'm talking about. The UK Royals have no real function other than to promote the English personality, as a cultural artifact, to their subjects. In that regard, it functions as a cult, one of the most effective in the world, for promulgating collective reality.

This, after all, is how wars get started.

Edit: the dire circumstances being, of course, WW3 - the subject of the Queens' speech.

I'd prefer that we had a ceremonial President like Germany, Ireland or Israel.

Having said that, I prefer having the Royals to an elected non-ceremonial Head of State. Having the Head of State separate from the head of the executive branch of government seems like a good idea to me.

That's a direct result of being social creatures. You have to take the good with the bad.

If we were all loaners things would be much worse. You might not have war, but you would have lots of individual killing, and very little progress.

Your best option is not to fight it, but rather to use it: Get people in various countries to consider themself all part of one group. (One of the reasons I think the Olympics is a huge impediment to world peace. I almost never think of MY country as better than YOUR country - except during the Olympics.)

We are much better off in the State with our well working democratic republic based on a advanced enlighten populous!

The president in the US makes similar speeches at time of crisis. Someone has to make a speech and personally I like that at the very top it is someone who is not a political figure. That even in a nuclear war Margret Thatcher would still have to answer to someone.

> I think that the dependency of the English people on their Matriarch for comfort and compassion is a sign of ill-health, personally, as a society.

Bit of a selection bias there. Those of us who don't care just tend not to talk about it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com