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It’s amazing to me how otherwise intelligent people keep getting surprised by kings¹ choosing monarchy² over democracy.
¹ billionaires
² fascism
@aral I'd argue that you're beeing soft on them. Fascists are far worse than your run-of-the-mill monarch.
@aral unfortunately, intelligence doesn't necessarily imply dignity and self-respect.
This raises a question I would like to ask a medievalist: Do lords tolerate kings because the nobility needs a monarchy? It’s as if they recognize the need for an umpire or something.
Related: The Founding Fathers were as lords in their way, and created a government they could dominate. (I’m thinking of the Senate in particular.) Many of today’s lords, the billionaires, treat government as a beneficent king, dispensing favors and overlooking the lord’s crimes.
@patrickgillam Of course; without monarchy, there is no nobility.
And we so often mistake power plays within the monarchy for popular resistance or democratisation.
Take the Manga Carta, for instance. Often portrayed as a bill of rights for everyday people, it was just a power play between the nobility and monarch.