Are you?

[t-stoff]

Well, in some EU country's (with no monarchy) there's some envy on what royal family's transmit in terms of heritage and tradition, gathering more or less consensus and unity as opposed to another political figure on the semi-presidential states (like Portugal).

When you have another politic figure as representative of a country and armed forces, you eventually loose that bond that kept the nation solid through out history, the patriotic values, mostly because his mission is limited to the years in office, so its just another step for him.

You kinda feel that and somehow know you're misrepresented as citizen of a nation, when the same president has probably been in the office as a prime-minister or mayor or something like that. It lacks the glamor and power to unite, its just another dull payed puppet.

I understand some frustration towards the royal family, its probably from decades of procreating between each others;pp

Now seriously, there was a study about the costs of the monarchy in Spain and the republic president of Portugal, and the monarchy was much cheaper to the taxpayers. Not to mention that they feed a huge industry of tabloids;D

 

[David B]

Not to mention that they feed a huge industry of tabloids;D

Although to some extent, here in the UK at present the tabloid industry is the news.

David

 

[Piperdave]

Nice can of worms...... :twisted:

Firstly we need to read The Golden Bough, by Sir James Frazer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough
to establish why we need leader figures

Then we need to look at the history of Rome, and Byzantium, to see what happens when the leaders fall from popular acclaim.

Next we need to realise that paliament was formed to stop the royal family abusing the populus, as was communism. But wait a minute, the leaders of these establishments also abuse the prolateriate.

We had a good civil service, up to about 25yrs ago, who would guide the politicians through their work in a just, and it seemed to me, slightly left wing way, ensuring that the lower ends of society were not disadvantaged, or left behind. This has now largely been broken up/ put out to tender.

Since the loss of "The divine right of kings", and the ceding of royal prerogative in 1689, the monarch has really only had a role as titular leader of the country.

To be "Patriotic" requires many things. It requires us to be proud of who we are, (most of us have foriegn blood in us, or don't live where our family lived in bygone days); where we live, in a good and encompassing way, rather than a protective and reclusive way; of the services we can offer, and that work for this country ( in this we fail most misrably...take water, electric, gas, railways, buisness...most of these are now owned by concerns outside the UK, making a profit that could so easily be going into improving things here. We moan, yet are happy to have shares in these companies); in our leaders . The royal family actually does a good job of representing our interests abroad; in our culture, though brit art, and brit pop leave a lot to be desired, what about our own customs, local produce, history etc.

Our most well known folk hero, Merlin, prophesied that Britain would prosper only when the flags of its countries were united, which came about with Edward 1. We are now on the verge of losing this, and discord and atrophy are all around. :?

If you want to be patriotic, look to yourself, and work to make this island better for all who live, and visit, here. If you don't, just enjoy the day off...

 

[silverclaws]

Interesting you reference the Golden Bough, and yeah our leaders can do that if they want, in fact am sort of all for it ; king for a year and a day then run about a field doped up bleeding to death as he blesses the land, at least he would have been useful and we would not have to suffer them that long and perhaps it might become that vying for the top seat becomes less attractive there ensuring some honesty?

But leaders imply control and everything is about unification, the United kingdom, the United States of America and Europe of course perhaps the United States of Europe by another name ?

Is it a good thing to centralise everything, does everything have to be centralised, as we know money and resources only go so far and we already have examples of those out on the furthest edges going without or receiving a lesser service or it costing more for the same ?

Can something be too big is the united anything only useful up to a point ?

Society is fragmenting and not all of that fragmentation is healthy, and with it I do believe for the purposes of control via divide and conquer wedges are deliberately being driven into british if not world society. Immigrants, we all have immigrant in us except the royals who are largely inbred, hence the need for new blood via Diana Spencer and the space hopper fergie.

But what is a major topic in the UK now, immigrants, it's not their fault they are here, face it, we would do the same and have done the same with what is the population of a few other countries and what people are doing now, emigrating to a couple of those countries. But what allows what is happening is authority, is it they are just out of touch and inept or is there a policy to cause infighting via the reduction of resources due to excessive population ? Then we have the degradation of services, everything being sold off and we are finding those services degrade adding further problems to the increasing population.

Myself being a sort of tin foil hat wearing alternative thinker, I happen to believe this is not incompetence at work, what is happening is by design, to what end I am unsure, but control is definitely part of the plan, who knows, perhaps a slave population as it was Britain's wealth was built on the backs of slaves. But what sort of mind is doing this, well I don't think the elected and not elected politicians, they are just facilitators, i believe there is something else far more powerful than mere politicians who are just interfaces with the people.

Patriotism is a tool of control, just like religion.

But I trust authority not and will always question it and suspect the worst until I know better.