20 May

Are you a monarchist or republican? Or something else? And why? I edge towards constitutional monarchy. When we look at kings and queens and their children, we see only a tiny tip of all of the traditions that monarchy embodies. What puts me off republics: loss of a measure of quality outside what humans decide, the loss of tradition and inter-generational thinking. I watched the royal wedding not because I cared about the wedding, but because of the rich traditions on display going back centuries. Those traditions stretch into society far beyond just that top royal level. Republics lose that a bit I think, they focus mostly on power and the present day. And most republics try to reinstate that sort of magnificence and tradition anyway, the US President is as Royal a figure in the US as the Queen is in the UK. But they tend to do it without the same link to tradition and institutions. The Royal Seal of approval is applied to everything from making cheese to making dresses, and represents a marker of quality, quality based on long tradition. A monarchy like we see today stretches to every level of society. And despite its flaws, the whole aristocratic system of Dukes and Earls etc. had at least some sense of mutual obligation built into it, the aristocracy were thought to have some degree of responsibility for those who worked for them (even if they didn’t always observe it). You don’t see much of that from the modern business-driven world. Humans will always have hierarchies, it’s best to have ones with mutual obligation and tradition built into them.