This is what you get when you found a political system on the family values of Henry VIII. At a point in the not-too-remote future, the stout heart of Queen Elizabeth II will cease to beat. At that precise moment, her firstborn son will become head of state, head of the armed forces, and head of the Church of England. In strict constitutional terms, this ought not to matter much. The English monarchy, as has been said, reigns but does not rule. From the aesthetic point of view it will matter a bit, because the prospect of a morose bat-eared and chinless man, prematurely aged, and with the most abysmal taste in royal consorts, is a distinctly lowering one.
Christopher HitchensTag: politics foreign-policy henry-viii britain monarchy kings family-values ugliness 2009 thatcher british-monarchy british-royal-family charles-prince-of-wales anglican-church elizabeth-ii
So this is where all the vapid talk about the 'soul' of the universe is actually headed. Once the hard-won principles of reason and science have been discredited, the world will not pass into the hands of credulous herbivores who keep crystals by their sides and swoon over the poems of Khalil Gibran. The 'vacuum' will be invaded instead by determined fundamentalists of every stripe who already know the truth by means of revelation and who actually seek real and serious power in the here and now. One thinks of the painstaking, cloud-dispelling labor of British scientists from Isaac Newton to Joseph Priestley to Charles Darwin to Ernest Rutherford to Alan Turing and Francis Crick, much of it built upon the shoulders of Galileo and Copernicus, only to see it casually slandered by a moral and intellectual weakling from the usurping House of Hanover. An awful embarrassment awaits the British if they do not declare for a republic based on verifiable laws and principles, both political and scientific.
Christopher HitchensTag: science politics truth reason stupidity religion atheism universe law souls scientists revelation principles islam newton credulity fundamentalism darwin enlightenment britain monarchy khalil-gibran francis-crick republicanism turing 2010 copernicus british-monarchy british-royal-family british-scientists charles-prince-of-wales ernest-rutherford galileo house-of-hanover joseph-priestley
In the controversy that followed the prince's remarks, his most staunch defender was professor John Taylor, a scholar whose work I had last noticed when he gave good reviews to the psychokinetic (or whatever) capacities of the Israeli conjuror and fraud Uri Geller. The heir to the throne seems to possess the ability to surround himself—perhaps by some mysterious ultramagnetic force?—with every moon-faced spoon-bender, shrub-flatterer, and water-diviner within range.
Christopher HitchensTag: controversy credulity gullibility scepticism monarchy 2010 british-monarchy british-royal-family charles-prince-of-wales frauds john-g-taylor psychics uri-geller
The prince's official job description as king will be 'defender of the faith,' which currently means the state-financed absurdity of the Anglican Church, but he has more than once said publicly that he wants to be anointed as defender of all faiths—another indication of the amazing conceit he has developed in six decades of performing the only job allowed him by the hereditary principle: that of waiting for his mother to expire.
Christopher HitchensTag: christianity religion atheism conceit separation-of-church-and-state britain monarchy 2010 british-monarchy british-royal-family charles-prince-of-wales anglican-church elizabeth-ii
If I follow the inclination of my nature, it is this: beggar-woman and single, far rather than queen and married.
Elizabeth ITag: empowerment women freedom marriage self-determination self-reliance independence bachelorhood singles matrimony dignity queens spinsters preference british-monarchy british-royal-family
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