It has been more than a week since Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96, yet the ceremonies of her death are still dominating media coverage.
The evening news programs spend most of their time lying in state with her corpse. The morning talk shows present Elizabeth II as an icon for women, a symbol of decency and civility, and a steady hand on the rudder of the British state.
The adulation is why. Elizabeth was the only one who contributed. It is difficult to think of anyone less historical than her. She lived for nearly a century and was protected from everything that happened in that century.
The five-mile long queue to view the queen’s coffin is troubling. Three-quarters of a million people will have to wait for 22 hours to pass by her remains. The death of a woman who never contributed anything to anyone’s life is seen as a meaningful figure because of the emptiness and shallowness of public life over the years. The queue will bring them into the past, but they won’t find it at the end.
The spectacle surrounding her death is like her life. It’s hard-bitten and pregnant with a crisis. Energy costs have risen as much as ten-fold in Britain. Half of the population might not be able to adequately heat their homes.
The spectacle has nothing to do with the passing of the elderly woman and everything to do with the royal institution that encrusted her and the monarchic principle she embodied.
The republicans’ ghosts were buried by the capitalistclass. Confronting social and political crises of unprecedented magnitude, they turn to autocracy and authoritarianism as bulwarks in defense of their privileges.
Monarchy is a barbarous vestige of the feudal past and is an embarrassment to humanity. The monarchic principle was founded on heredity, shored up with inbreeding, intermarriage and claims of divine right, and maintains this lot with the force of authoritarian power.
The kings and queens are not the only ones who are affected by this principle. Their social function is the most focused. King Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 and headed off to Germany with his Nazi-sympathizing wife in order to support Hitler.
The royal family is marked by the kinds of scandals that develop among those with a lot of money. Her son, Prince Andrew, paid £12 million to cover up his involvement with sex traffickers. Prince Harry wore full Nazi regalia when he was a child.
The American Declaration of Independence states, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The American Revolution was sparked by this conception. Historian Gordon Wood said that Common Sense was the most popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era and that it directly attacked George III.
In England a king hath little more to do than to make war and give away places; which in plain terms, is to impoverish the nation and set it together by the ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand sterling a year for, and worshiped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived.
Clause 8 of the US Constitution states that no title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.
Immense concentrated private wealth, founded on exploitation and inequality, and the endless expansion of empire have stamped out any traces of democratic sentiment in the American ruling elite. The phrase “hard liberty before the easy yoke of servile pomp” is no longer used by them. They look upon the principle of monarchy as a way of defending their interests.
The US flags were flown at half-staff for 12 days because of the death of the queen. Biden and Jefferson are separated from one another by an unbridgeable historical chasm.
Empire is not susceptible to democracy. Washington launches wars, stages coups, bombs small countries, and ignores the opinion of the American people. The United States is one of the places where capitalism has produced unprecedented levels of inequality and social misery. Imperialism is the act of reacting all the way down the line. The pretense of democracy can no longer be held.
Over the past six years we have seen a turn among the ruling elite around the globe to openly autocratic and dictatorial forms of rule as social and political crisis have turned deadly. This is the reason for the excessive adulation of the dead queen in the American media. There is a political crisis in the US. The idea of a monarchical system with a head of state who is above the conflict appeals to the bourgeoisie.
The mediapackage these longings for consumption. The phrase “snobbish subservience, the admiration of wealth and rank, the corrupt survivals of the inequalities of feudalism” was written by J.A. These qualities are cultivated by the talking heads of television news. The monarchic principle is often dressed up as progressive by identity politics, and it’s not hard to see why.
The amount of adulation for the dead queen is mind numbing. It’s tempting to hunker down in the face of stupidity. It needs to be taken seriously for it is a warning.
Capitalism can’t play a role in human development, but it can cause all sorts of reactions. The bourgeoisie are looking for a way to secure their social position. The principle of monarchy is one of the most backward ideas in history.
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