Thank you for this thoughtful article Simon. I too, grew up in working class Britain & from where I am standing, I don’t& didn’t feel any loss from the Queens passing. Her establishment & power never influenced my life & that of my family or peers in a positive way. It indeed, did what you said, kept us in our rightful place, dependents with no ability to find our own voice, for who would listen? We need to be empowered as we are all sovereign, the greatest leveller of them all, in death, we are all the same. So I find it hard to understand why anyone would give their power away to the already mighty & powerful, to people who have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us. To people who lives exist & flourish from the many who work to enable them to live in unrivalled luxury & opulence. Many of the reporters ( as these are not true journalists) gave the same old line,” her dedicated service.” Firstly, she never served anyone, she turned up a few times a year and cut some ribbons. She was “dedicated”, no, she didn’t sweat blood & tears in her role as Queen & we have no idea what she did in between the ribbon cutting, but I expect, it wasn’t any real graft like you or I have done throughout our lives. This demeans the poor souls who do back breaking work everyday to feed themselves & their families. They are the real dedicated, as what other choices do they have? But I agree, we need to empower everyone to discover & act upon their own agency not looking to their “ betters” to do that for them, and that starts with being really honest about the power structures & the games they play. Once the wool is taken from your eyes, then the real work can begin to liberate & empower the masses, the workers of this world. Until then, it’s business as usual for the firm & their sycophants.
Thanks for your comment Terentowicz, I agree with you- although its important to understand this -- "So I find it hard to understand why anyone would give their power away to the already mighty & powerful, to people who have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us." The question of why people subjugate themselves and project power onto others, is a mixture of fear, of false hope from an ingrained ideology that entraps us - it is this ideology that requires undoing
Thank you for this thoughtful article Simon. I too, grew up in working class Britain & from where I am standing, I don’t& didn’t feel any loss from the Queens passing. Her establishment & power never influenced my life & that of my family or peers in a positive way. It indeed, did what you said, kept us in our rightful place, dependents with no ability to find our own voice, for who would listen? We need to be empowered as we are all sovereign, the greatest leveller of them all, in death, we are all the same. So I find it hard to understand why anyone would give their power away to the already mighty & powerful, to people who have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us. To people who lives exist & flourish from the many who work to enable them to live in unrivalled luxury & opulence. Many of the reporters ( as these are not true journalists) gave the same old line,” her dedicated service.” Firstly, she never served anyone, she turned up a few times a year and cut some ribbons. She was “dedicated”, no, she didn’t sweat blood & tears in her role as Queen & we have no idea what she did in between the ribbon cutting, but I expect, it wasn’t any real graft like you or I have done throughout our lives. This demeans the poor souls who do back breaking work everyday to feed themselves & their families. They are the real dedicated, as what other choices do they have? But I agree, we need to empower everyone to discover & act upon their own agency not looking to their “ betters” to do that for them, and that starts with being really honest about the power structures & the games they play. Once the wool is taken from your eyes, then the real work can begin to liberate & empower the masses, the workers of this world. Until then, it’s business as usual for the firm & their sycophants.
Thanks for your comment Terentowicz, I agree with you- although its important to understand this -- "So I find it hard to understand why anyone would give their power away to the already mighty & powerful, to people who have no understanding of what life is like for the rest of us." The question of why people subjugate themselves and project power onto others, is a mixture of fear, of false hope from an ingrained ideology that entraps us - it is this ideology that requires undoing
Yes I agree Simon. Food for thought. Question, why do we not fall for this ideology?
Fabulous article, nothing left to say on the topic. Well done Simon for capturing and contextualising all this so eloquently
Thank you my friend!