The Passing of a Monarch

**Chuck Naill** · September 9th, 2022, 06:23 AM

With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, I am again reminded of Thomas Paine's writings. I realize she was an exceptional person and no disrespect intended because she held things together as best as she could.

" We have heard the Rights of Man called a levelling system; but the only system to which the word levelling is truly applicable, is the hereditary monarchical system. It is a system of mental levelling. It indiscriminately admits every species of character to the same authority. Vice and virtue, ignorance and wisdom, in short, every quality, good or bad, is put on the same level. Kings succeed each other, not as rationals, but as animals. It signifies not what their mental or moral characters are. Can we then be surprised at the abject state of the human mind in monarchical countries, when the government itself is formed on such an abject levelling system?—It has no fixed character. To-day it is one thing; to-morrow it is something else. It changes with the temper of every succeeding individual, and is subject to all the varieties of each. It is government through the medium of passions and accidents. It appears under all the various characters of childhood, decrepitude, dotage, a thing at nurse, in leading-strings, or in crutches. It reverses the wholesome order of nature. It occasionally puts children over men, and the conceits of non-age over wisdom and experience. In short, we cannot conceive a more ridiculous figure of government, than hereditary succession, in all its cases, presents."

When I watch my Brit Box subscription I see where many British folks live, in crowded conditions. I also see the conditions prevalent in Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol. As an American, I know that injustice also occurs, but when I see how royals live and what they contribute, it still surprises me that it can continue to exist. Are they still relevant?