God Save the Queen?
The Queen of England is celebrating her 50th year on the throne. But I can’t get very excited about this jubilee event trumpeting the British monarchy. Oh, sure, Elizabeth seems like a nice enough lady and all that, but I can’t abide kings and queens, royalty of any kind, the very idea of it.
This radio program is entitled Common Sense, a title I borrowed from my long-deceased friend Tom Paine. Tom Paine’s pamphlets “Common Sense” and “The Crisis” were widely circulated throughout the colonies during the American Revolutionary War and kept the public’s morale high. Many historians say he did as much as any man could with paper and ink to win America’s freedom.
Paine hated all monarchy everywhere in the world. Especially King George III. He once called King George a “stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man.” And Paine wrote that “Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon their families.” Paine agreed with the sentiment from the French Revolution, “Kings are in the moral order what monsters are in the physical.”
Sure, I know the queen is popular, and she doesn’t seem like a monster but what she represents is monstrous. So like Tom Paine, I’m not interested in hearing about the British monarchy. Call me a party-pooper, but I’m glad we threw the British monarchy out of our country a long time ago. Now, if we could just get them off our TV sets too.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
If we cannot by reason, by influence, by example, by strenuous effort, and by personal sacrifice, mend the bad places of civilization, we certainly cannot do it by force.
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20
PM
Mr. Jacob:
To what is this website entitled?
Perhaps you meant to say, “This website is _titled_ Common Sense.”
That would have made sense.
Only thing I hate worse than Kings who think they’re entitled…
Is regular folks who do.
I don’t have to deal with kings every day, but the regular folks who think they’re entitled to this or that, as though their act of breathing gives them ownership of others’ time and talents, are all around us.
Please be careful to use the e-word only as an epithet.
Best,
sg