I'm copying here the text of an online blog post (http://www.ybf.org.uk/2012/06/guest-blog-monarchists-should-be-grateful-for-republicans/) which appeared recently on the Young Britons' Foundation site. Excellent article!
"YBF Research Fellow Nick Hallett has written a very sound blog to commemorate the Jubilee celebrations
Now it’s time for the Diamond Jubilee, I’m reminded of the common cliché that during the Civil War the cavaliers were wrong but romantic and the roundheads were right but repulsive. Looking at those who call themselves republicans these days, I’m tempted to agree with Professor Kenneth Minogue that they embody the worst aspects of each side: they are wrong and repulsive.
Alongside the popularity and dignity of the current monarch, one thing monarchists should be eternally grateful for is the modern republican movement. A shambolic collection of hard-line leftists, north London chattering-class liberals and various other cranks and eccentrics, they are a movement for the excessively ideological, the overbearingly rationalist and the eternally miserable.
All of this shows through in their campaigns. When the government announced a public holiday to celebrate William and Kate’s wedding, republicans called for it to be scrapped. When the Duchess of Cornwall launched ‘Cook for the Queen’, an attempt to get primary school children baking and thus teach them cookery skills, republicans called it indoctrination. And whenever the celebrations come round, a gaggle of self-satisfied leftist commentators invariably indulge themselves in denigrating the event and mocking the people who turn out to celebrate.
In fact, you may notice some this weekend, holding their placards and maybe shouting their slogans. Sullen, angry faces among crowds of joy. They may occasionally manage a smile, but it will only be a sneering one. The group Republic are even organising a protest against the jubilee flotilla, no doubt shouting political clichés and angry bile at the gathered crowds.
Telling the public they shouldn’t have a day off work, telling schoolchildren they shouldn’t bake cakes, protesting against a national celebration and insulting the intelligence of all those who join in with that celebration: the bad PR just writes itself!
None of this should surprise us, however. Republicanism borrows heavily from its cousin, Marxism. In particular, modern republicans have adopted the idea of “false consciousness”; just as the proletariat are indoctrinated by their bourgeois masters into loving the capitalist system, so the masses are indoctrinated by the media and institutions into loving the monarchy. If only this indoctrination were removed, everyone would see how “unequal”, “irrational” and “anachronistic” it all is.
This idea is astonishingly insulting. It assumes ordinary people have absolutely no critical thinking skills, and are just passive receptors of whatever propaganda is thrown their way. The word “sheeple” is often used. This view is ironically elitist, and it also undermines one of the key pillars of republicanism: if the general public are really that stupid, why on Earth would you trust them voting for a president?
A further irony is that the only method republicans have of remedying this is their own propaganda. The difference is, very few people are enthused by shouty, grumpy, holier-than-thou campaigning. Can anyone remember a successful political campaign that preached at and insulted the electorate?
The words of C.S. Lewis are most appropriate here:
“A man’s reaction to Monarchy is a kind of test. Monarchy can easily be “debunked”; but watch the faces, mark well the accents, of the debunkers. These are the men whose tap-root in Eden has been cut: whom no rumour of the polyphony, the dance, can reach – men to whom pebbles laid in a row are more beautiful than an arch. Yet even if they desire mere equality they cannot reach it. Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.”
Perhaps one day, if the popularity of the monarchy decreases, people may be open to republican ideas expressed calmly and sensibly. Until then, the best thing republicans can do for their cause is just keep quiet."
I wish!
