[PAINTING] June Painting Challenge: Royalty

mastermanje · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:20 pm

Damian wrote:

Ha, 'cos the British people can be trused to vote in the right guy yeah. With our national obsession with moronic celebrity cack.

We'll just end up copying the Americans and get Dynastic politics and nepotism. The Kennedys, The Bushes, a Clinton as president and his wife becomes Secretary of State. You get all the power because you were born or marry into a rich political family. Sounds like absolute monarchy and feaudalism to me, not democracy.

It's not just the USA though, democratic countries make some dumb choices of who to lead them when personality and celebrity is brought into the mix, Berlusconi anyone?

Be careful what you wish for. Liz isn't Galadriel, but she's not Dubya either.

Back on Topic. This month has had loads of strong entries and I'm looking forward to seeing them all in a voting thread.

Indeed, that's absolute Monarchy.

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:52 pm

The reason I hate the British monarchy isn't just that they don't get voted in, I can't stand any of the recent Prime Minister's (and other politicians) they're all illegitimate-sons and female-dogs. The main resaon is that Prime Minister's and President's actually run the country, monarchs do absotely nothing. Also, I hate the way the media portrays everything they do as amazing, when it isn't.

Damian · **Joined:** Mon Apr 02, 2012 10:59 pm **Posts:** 246

Queen Elizabeth II is by all accounts a very accomplished diplomat, but constitutional monarchies don't actually have to 'do' anything other than exist. We have a very stable politics in the UK, you don't see the extremes of Left and Right wing politics that you see in other european contries. We are shocked and surprised when the BNP get a local councillor, but in France they regularly have National Front presidential candidates (Jean-Marie Le Pen, and now his daughter). We also don't see politics being passed down through families like the Le Pens, Bushes etc. For example Margaret Thatcher was a towering figure in UK politics, but are her children? No, Carol Thatcher was on 'I'm a celebrity' and Mark Thatcher is subject to an arrest warrant from when he unsuccessfully tried to organise a coup in Equatorial Guinea.
Fundamentally people want stability and a Contitutional Monarchy gives you that just by existing, no politician can ever be bigger than the Monarch and you don't see political dynasties forming or get personality politicians to the same extent as Berlusconi (ok, we have Boris, but he's nothing compared to Silvio). As for the media, what's more scary is that if you read something like The Sun you are not getting balanced reporting, but Rupert Murdoch's political agenda. Be thankful it's not Fox News though. Constitutional Monarchy is balanced in the UK by our fundamental distrust of authority (going all the way back to Magna Carta and before) and so we have nice, boring, stable politics. You're also underestimating the appeal of the 'idea' of monarchy, the nobility that people want in their leaders. Why do you think people like LoTR or Game of Thrones........ it's a historic (and not entirely accurate) ideal that people like.

When Boromir says (in the film) 'Gondor has no king, Gondor needs no king', he's only half right. Gondor likes the idea of a king and Boromir and Faramir are doing their best to be the noble leaders their people want.

Draugluin · **Posted:** Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:07 pm

The thing about America is that the President has no real power. Yes, he can sign stuff into being with "executive power", but it's not supposed to be a permanent thing. Obama is one of the few presidents to try to legislate from the executive branch, which is more than enough to get him impeached. America has a VERY stable government (something we inherited, then refined, from the Brits) not only because it is inherently stable, but also because we as a people like to have stability. If you look at the middle-east, it doesn't matter how stable the government is in theory, all it takes is one thing that the people don't like for there to be a revolution. If Americans had the same kind of disposition as the arabs, there wouldn't be an America as we know it today.

When compared with LotR, you can see that the Numenoreans and the Northmen were more disposed to being stable, whereas the Easterlings and Southrons were much more prone to instability.

warhammergamingnl · **Joined:** Sat Nov 05, 2011 9:06 pm **Posts:** 215

When will the voting thread be up?

Red Corsairs · **Posted:** Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:59 pm

It's up now, sorry for the delay.

lorderkenbrand · **Posted:** Sat Jul 07, 2012 1:18 am

Interesting discussion about Monarchy. Things to remember are Presidents are elected for a term, Monarchs are appointed for life. One is driven by personal gain, the other by duty. Short-termism (a blight on all western politics) is typical of all Presidents. Constitutional Monarchs are not politically or financially driven unlike Presidents.

Draugluin · **Posted:** Sun Jul 08, 2012 2:46 am

Not all presidents were in it for the glory, Reagan was an incredible leader who wasn't in it for personal gain. He did it because he loved America. Only the idiot presidents (like the current one) are in it for personal gain.

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Thu Jul 12, 2012 11:30 pm

Sorry to bring this up again, but I don't expect any replies anyway, and it is vaguely related to the topic.

Nothing anyone says about the Queen and the Royal Family will ever make me like them, or even appreciate their usefulness. Telling me that the Queen doesn't have to do anything makes me like her less, not more. The only way I would like her is if she actually did lead the ountry, and she led them to battle, that would make them think twice about starting wars too. If not, I genuinly hope that she and her family be arrested, and placed in a normal prison, with the country beinghanded to any of Cromweell's descendants, if he has any, and there are still any alive. TTFN.

Draugluin · **Posted:** Fri Jul 13, 2012 3:03 am

GothmogtheWerewolf wrote:

Sorry to bring this up again, but I don't expect any replies anyway, and it is vaguely related to the topic.

Nothing anyone says about the Queen and the Royal Family will ever make me like them, or even appreciate their usefulness. Telling me that the Queen doesn't have to do anything makes me like her less, not more. The only way I would like her is if she actually did lead the ountry, and she led them to battle, that would make them think twice about starting wars too. If not, I genuinly hope that she and her family be arrested, and placed in a normal prison, with the country beinghanded to any of Cromweell's descendants, if he has any, and there are still any alive. TTFN.

Why the heck do you hate the royals so much? They aren't allowed to do anything because that's basically how England works. The queen is just a figure head who sorta unites the British Commonwealth.

Red Corsairs · **Posted:** Fri Jul 13, 2012 5:02 pm

Start a thread in the Off-Topic forum if you want to discuss this further.

[PAINTING] June Painting Challenge: Royalty

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