Sixty Joyless De-Britished Uncrowned Commonpoor Years (1949-2009)

Elizabeth II Vice-Regal Saint: Remembering Paul Comtois (1895–1966), Lt.-Governor of Québec
Britannic Inheritance: Britain's proud legacy. What legacy will America leave?
English Debate: Daniel Hannan revels in making mince meat of Gordon Brown
Crazy Canucks: British MP banned from Canada on national security grounds
Happy St. Patrick's: Will Ireland ever return to the Commonwealth?
Voyage Through the Commonwealth: World cruise around the faded bits of pink.
No Queen for the Green: The Green Party of Canada votes to dispense with monarchy.
"Sir Edward Kennedy": The Queen has awarded the senator an honorary Knighthood.
President Obama: Hates Britain, but is keen to meet the Queen?
The Princess Royal: Princess Anne "outstanding" in Australia.
H.M.S. Victory: In 1744, 1000 sailors went down with a cargo of gold.
Queen's Commonwealth: Britain is letting the Commonwealth die.
Justice Kirby: His support for monarchy almost lost him appointment to High Court
Royal Military Academy: Sandhurst abolishes the Apostles' Creed.
Air Marshal Alec Maisner, R.I.P. Half Polish, half German and 100% British.
Cherie Blair: Not a vain, self regarding, shallow thinking viper after all.
Harry Potter: Celebrated rich kid thinks the Royals should not be celebrated
The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower

Tuesday 13 January 2009

Genius and Aristocracy

If The Monarchist can be accused of eccentric behaviour, it is apparently because we stem from a mind so original it cannot be conformed to societal norms:

Eccentricity is not, as some would believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.

— Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), English Poetess

Gentlemens-Club-Print-C10201402

Speaking of eccentricity, I suspect that if you commissioned a scientific poll and asked people if they generally thought our shared monarchy was an ancient glory, harmless eccentricity or intolerable relic, 5% would declare it a glory, 60% would decide it was harmless and 35% would spit and wail intolerable, or somewhere thereabouts (we have opened a new poll in the sidebar, you are encouraged to generate grossly unscientific results).

2 comments:

Bolingbroke said...

LOL, Beaverbrook.

Yes, sometimes I think we do have a slender grip on reality, but then we make up for it by maintaining an acute awareness of the vulgarity of our times.

Anonymous said...

I think you are onto something here, but the genius is more the result of the heredity tendency strengthened through centuries of breeding and
inbreeding by ruling dynasties and the upper social class.

The fact is that ruling families all intermarried and formed a
single breed and therefore had biologically a better qualification for their
profession than the average man. It seems to be a proven
fact that there is a noticeable difference in the I.Q.‘s of
different social classes, and there can be no doubt
that the intermarriage of those endowed with a superior talent
for specific tasks results in a breed with an aptitude above
normal.