What is behind the Royal wedding?
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The existence of the monarchy as the head of state is by definition exclusive of all egalitarian rights and principles, for no-one except a member of the Windsor family can become the head of state. Unless you swear allegiance to the monarchy and their family, you cannot serve in the armed forces, the police, the judiciary, the Church of England, or as an elected member of parliament.
The British monarchy and their Lords maintained dictatorial control over their own people for over a thousand years. Rule by the sword backed by the mental tyranny of religious mania, ensured that kings, queens and their entourage of titled hangers-on, treated their serfs as sub-humans. It was therefore natural that the much-revered Queen Elizabeth the First had no qualms in offering her direct support to the birth of the English Slave Trade led by Hawkins and Drake. The British Empire, based on sea-faring plunder, robbery and enslavement of peoples and nations, provided a financial cushion that sustained the enrichment of merchants and monarchs alike.
The British monarchy stems from 18th century German royalty. Naturally, the "foreignness" exacerbated animosity towards the royal family. Eventually their German ties forced them to change their name from "Saxe-Coburg" to Windsor in 1917, as a precaution against republican revolution. The millions who were sent to die by their monarchs in trench warfare in the First World War developed a healthy disdain for their "natural superiors". In Germany and Russia, monarchies fell in the revolutionary wave that ended the war.
Britain's inegalitarian state structure is based on an unnatural pre-modern ideology. It requires monarchical "mystique", extravagant rituals, pageants and traditions to ensure its perpetuity. Most of these "ancient traditions" were invented over the last 150 years and were foisted on the populace, who simultaneously were made to pay all the bills in gratitude.
The jittery reaction by the state to anything that might disrupt the wedding reminds one of the class-struggle comedy in Bertolt Brecht's "Three Penny Opera". In the play the beggars of London demonstrate their misery at the royal coronation. Peachum, the beggar king, warns the head of the police, "You've forgotten what an immense number of poor people there are. When you see them standing outside the Abbey it won't be a festive sight."
Any mood of national celebration generated by the royal wedding circus, will soon give way to grumbling from below at the contradiction between the ostentatious extravagance of the privileged few, and their demand for frugality and sacrifice from the majority.
The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/node_7084903.htm
Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn
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