Why Does Britain Still Have A Queen? | Philosophy Tube

[Music] I used to love the royal family I used to like the idea of Britain being a monarchy and I don't anymore over the last few years I've gotten steadily more left-wing and I've changed my mind about a number of things but strangely the wolf family was one of the last things that I let go of and for a long time I asked myself why I was so reluctant to become an anti-monarchist but now I realize what it is I want to Queen part of my job is having conversations with people about big ideas I've chatted to people about God and gender and government and ethics and death and in all those areas I have at least at one point successfully changed somebody's mind or introduced to them a new way of seeing the topic and frequently it also happens the other way around but in all the time I've spent talking to people about the royal family I have never successfully convinced somebody who supports the monarchy to change their mind ever and so I started to get curious about why people can be so stubborn on this if I were to take a rational approach and you know how I need you we love being rational to try and convince a monarchy supporter what arguments could I use well I could make a very left-wing argument and say that you can't abolish the class system and have a monarchy but if you're not already on board with abolishing the class system that might not do it for you I could tell you that the way we talk about the Royals is often pretty dehumanizing reducing them to just their clothing choices or their ability to [Music] but that might not bother you either especially if like me you harbor a secret burning desire to the Queen I could say that they're expensive plenty of people take that angle including Republic the organization here in the UK who are dedicated to abolishing the monarchy YouTube's own Shawn just did a great video on this which you should check out and he shows that even taking into account the very common arguments that the royal family bring in tourists or profits from the crown lands they are in fact a massive expense the thing is I could mention the expense but I don't know if you'd be persuaded by that either cuz a lot of people in my country are just ok with that some people are okay with spending millions of pounds on a battleship whilst cutting funding for domestic violence shelters for instance at least ok enough to vote for it millions of people in my country are ok enough to vote for that and I'm not but if you are I don't think I'm gonna persuade you just by telling you that I'm not and even if they aren't ok with it a lot of people might just say but it's gonna fly fish gonna swim government gonna enforce economic inequality I might have more luck if I made some comparisons and told you that next year Buckingham Palace is gonna be renovated to the tune of 369 nice million pounds whilst there are more homeless people on the streets of London than there are people in Norwich again though for right now a lot of people in my country are ok with that if you're one of those people you might say well obviously it looks bad if you compare them side-by-side but that doesn't necessarily mean we have to get rid of the Royals we could keep the monarchy but fund more affordable housing through social development progressive social mark markets in the first time by helping first iPod with mortgages and you know opportunity opportunity opportunities for the first-time mortgage have is in the social mobility the development development it's so important to button the Morgan tap with the foot come ba ba ba and everyone's eyes will glaze over so much they won't notice you slowly take out a ten pound note and begin to wank over it I could tell you that the monarchy is undemocratic and it is but so it lots of stuff our electoral system House of Lords for instance hell Theresa May was prime minister of the country for a whole year before ever winning a general election she wasn't even elected to be the leader of her own party because members of the Conservative Party are not allowed to vote on who leads them we live most of our lives in very undemocratic institutions the companies that you work for and interact with your landlord really our state democracy is a very thin layer of paint over a society in which were used to not having control so if we got rid of the monarchy on the grounds of their undemocratic we'd have to get rid of all of that stuff as well now as a matter of fact I think we probably should get rid of all of that stuff but I imagine it would probably be a harder sell if I tried to pitch you abolishing the monarchy as part of a big revolutionary package like that and if there's one thing I know about my country it's that we never rush headlong into massive irreversible political decisions without knowing exactly what kind of a deal were gonna be getting some might say that a constitutional monarchy is a good thing because an a political head of state act as a potential barrier against tyrants and for the sake of argument I'm just going to assume that that's correct and not mention that an elected head of state could do that same job so yes the British monarch does have the power to refuse royal assent to acts of Parliament which they could do if Parliament ever tried to do something really bad however no monarch has actually done that since 1708 which means that in 310 years either the prevention of tyranny has not been required all those lazy bloody Royals living on benefits haven't done their one job neither one of which makes the institution of the British monarch look particularly good some like 19th century writer Walter Paget argue that the royal family represents us on the world stage they're the faces of Britain but we could elect somebody to do that job what budget means is he wants these people in particular to be our representatives because he wants to [ __ ] them and this is the thing no matter the rational arguments I make everybody wants to [ __ ] the Queen where DTF hm in a heartbeat so much so that not giving us not actively wanting them the Queen is kind of a radical and noteworthy stats in the essay royal bodies Hillary Montel writes that when it comes to the monarchy were almost compelled to take it seriously what they wear where they go well they name their kids so much of the media about the Royals presumes by its very existence that this is important that's what discourse about Royals comes to a compulsion to comment a discourse empty of content mouthed rather than spoken in fact the BBC newsreaders Simon McCoy is kind of infamous for refusing to take part in this performance and openly not giving a toss about the royal family mr. broker cue the music please their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to confirm they are expecting a baby I'm not sure how much news this really is but anyway it's April so clay Adar is get the time booked off because that's what I'm doing hopefully you should be able to see Megan roundabout now can you see her I know what she looks like Sarah we can't see her plenty more to come from here of course none of it news because that will come from Buckingham Palace but that won't stop us Simon McCoy the only man in Britain who wouldn't between wanting to [ __ ] the Queen is so baked into our national complex that when an anti-monarchist was elected leader of the Labour Party the country's biggest opposition and the biggest political party in Europe it was a big deal in barely concealed tones of outrage The Daily Express called his views shocking and said that they would come as no surprise to those who had branded him disloyal and disrespectful why won't you [ __ ] the Queen Jeremy why won't you just get in there and give it so with your socialist penis in fairness since then the leader of the Labour Party has said that he probably would for a queen if the majority of British people wanted him to although he would still be reluctant to come inside so often especially in philosophy we like to think about different types of governments in terms of the moral and philosophical principles that are supposed to underlie them principles like freedom and democracy and the facts but one of the things I found in all the conversations I've had with people about the royal family is that it kind of comes down to taste some people just like having them there and hearing about them which is a bit of a funny way to describe somebody's attitude towards the system of government that controls their life but there you go Megan looks absolutely fantastic she's obviously considered her outfit quite carefully it was very appropriate she was wearing a dark dress by a label called parish and a white belted jacket coat by a label could line the label which was from Toronto very fitting leaves us the city where she's been based to film suits quite recently and I think it was it was a very understated elegant look that made maximum show of her diamond ring which is what everyone was clamoring to see today I think we will see something slightly different this time it won't be on quite the same scale as the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge [Music] [Music] I could tell you that the Royals are expensive and outdated and daft but plenty of the things that we cling to our christmas is just around the corner and i love christmas carols even though i don't believe in god and i actually find some of the moral messages of a lot of curls to be kind of distasteful so I'm honestly stumped when it comes to making rational arguments against the monarchy because so often the response is to spin hey don't kink shame me for loving the royal family I'm sick of being loved and respected all the bloody time I just want a regal dominating top to invoke their royal prerogative and control me like a filthy [ __ ] peasant that I am or alternatively I get off on dominating other people and I like a challenge so naturally I'm gonna find the most powerful and influential person I can and then [ __ ] them alternatively alternatively both and they go on to say what would Britain even be without the monarchy we're a nation of weird perverts United in our desire to all the same old rich person and then when they die their eldest adult child why don't we have a president you want president Theresa May and would be just like the bloody Americans president's hard sexy except for James Aaron Garfield the royal family and wanting to [ __ ] them is a huge part of some people's British identity and I could point out that British identity is in the philosophy jargon an imagined community or put it in layman's terms a bunch of made-up bollocks what it is to be British or indeed from any nation is pretty vague and woolly and quickly unravels once you start pulling on it simply because we have a lot more in common with the other peoples of the earth than we do differences so once you take a step back you start to wonder why you made such a big deal out of those differences in the first place and whether they really did divide you from your fellow human beings as sharply as you once thought I could say that but again I don't know if he'd be convinced because even though Britishness is kind of a vague and woolly idea it does a lot of work just because it's hard to define doesn't mean people aren't using it politically conversate theoretically emotionally sexually British values British values the values our Parliament represents being British cannot be defined but I would defy anyone in this chamber this evening to tell me that I'm not British you cannot define the term but it's a feeling and when I've got that feel I would Britishness is invoked a lot like the name of a spirit in a magic spell so me just pointing out that maybe it doesn't make much rational sense I don't think it's gonna work and one of the major ingredients in Britishness is an unquenchable lust for royal pee and ass I mean if you stand up in the right room of people at the right time with a drink and say Cheers god save the queen people will join in I've seen this happen and I've even been like hang on a minute I know for a fact that none of you believe in God and half of you don't give a toss about the monarchy so good god save the queen at work what's that what's that what is that I've even had it done to me people have gone cheers all it got save the queen and I've got yeah she's got to know god damn it this is bullsh wah propaganda hang the parasites all part of the workers there's an interesting parallel between how a lot of people see the royal family and the internet phenomenon of waifu ism initially I was planning on making this comparison as a joke but the more I researched it the more I was like actually yeah for the blessedly uninitiated a waifu at least as the english-speaking internet uses the term refers to a female anime or manga character for whom the speaker has some affection originally it started as the English word wife it was incorporated into Japan as a loanword sometime in the 80s and then came back to the West in the early 2000s where it's surfaced on four Chan's anime and manga board as usual with 4chan memes it was simultaneously used both sincerely and ironically so for instance somebody might post a picture of ryuko from Tenchi Muyo ryo-ohki with the caption my waifu and by that mean that she's their favorite character or they find her cute somebody else might post a picture of Mike Rugnetta with the caption my waifu just because memes and of course extended debates can be heard about which character it's the best waifu material the correct answer being of course Satsuki kiryuin some people indulge in wife who is encouraged le or for fun others appear to take it very much more seriously if you browse the wife who is embedded you'll find people asking whether it's okay for them to watch pornography or date real girls if they're in a committed relationship with their fictional waifu and there's no way of telling whether that's posed to cincy it but if they're not they're a pretty serious commitment to the joke you'll also find some people saying apparently sincerely that their relationship with their waifu helps them overcome social anxiety and provides a kind of emotional fulfillment that they can't get from real-life interactions and if that's true then Who am I to judge I'm just a para social character in a YouTube video I'm probably somebody's waifu as well I spy husband oh I think would be a male Tim why foods do have to be fictional at least according to the wife wisdom subreddit and Elizabeth Windsor is a real woman but the Royals are surrounded by this mythos by these constructed stories and they are the figureheads of this imagined community of Britishness so I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that the queen is like the British state waifu we've naturalized wifeís and just like wife is for some people is just a bit of fun and others take it really seriously and want to [ __ ] them okay seriously though I'm using sex as a kind of leftist meme a magic shorthand for desire obviously there are plenty of people in the UK who wouldn't literally the Queen like Simon McCoy and Sean and anybody who's asexual but my point is a lot of people want to be associated with the Royals they want to know them they want to know about them they want to be close to them they want to be very close to them because the Royals have pristine and prestige they're celebrities love celebrities Elizabeth is serving up some looks we spam a literal hereditary queen she is this she's some money she's literally on all of the money yeah [Music] my wig is snatched 49 the music is it inappropriate if I appropriate language from drag-race that the makers of that show themselves appropriated from ball culture answers on a postcard please but this is why so many people don't care about the democracy arguments or the cost and it's why the Americans love the royal family too prestige is sexy and it's tough to get more prestigious than royalty the psychologist Carl Jung gave an interview to the New York Times in 1912 in which he said you think your young girls marry European husbands because they are ambitious for titles I say it is because after all they're not different from European girls they like the way European men make love and I say those two desires aren't necessarily that far apart or confined to women for that matter but just like Beauty standards and standards of sexual attractiveness the prestige of the royal waifu is more easily associated with some people than with others for instance when you imagine a prince what DPJ probably a tall white cisgender able-bodied man conventionally handsome some kind of a military uniform or maybe probably nowadays suit some sort of European accent if he is from the north of England he probably isn't sound like it or maybe you think of Prince but again very sexy Britishness or the idea of Britishness that includes the war family stuff anyway was made for people like me who still disproportionately hold power in this country in fact when Prince Harry got engaged to mega Markel he actually had a shoe a statement asking the British media to please stop being so casually racist about his mixed-race fiance who foreign secretary Boris Johnson said could bring exotic DNA to the royal family so evidently some people can more easily assume the prestige of the royal family than others even when they're literally in the process of marrying in and those of us for whom it is very easy to assume that prestige have the strongest incentive to hold on to the institution of monarchy I mean look at me I make this look good who doesn't want to look good it's people like me people with privilege who see ourselves reflected in the glint of the crown jewels and in my case well let me give you a bit of a history lesson [Music] king charles ii died in 1685 leaving no air but he did have a lot of illegitimate children one of whom was a woman named Anne Fitzroy Charles's daughter by his mistress the Duchess of Cleveland in 1674 and married a man named Sir Thomas Leonard 15th baron de coeur and subsequently earl of sussex master of cheering mansion and her small so castle amman thomas had children who survived who had their own children who had children of their own and Charles's royal blood was passed down the line of history through time and bad luck and Sir Thomas's gambling habits they lost the mansions and the titles and the castles and nowadays the official residence of their ancestral home in Ch evening Manor is Boris [ __ ] Johnson but Charles's line survived and one of those descendants I actually happen to know the identity of you see some people say that contra points is the queen of YouTube others that h-bomb a guy or Donelson are the woke kings we should recognize worthy rulers all before whom I would gladly get on my knees but there is actually another youtuber whose veins really do flow with ancient royal blood who really is no jokes descended from Kings the long-lost illegitimate Stuart heir who can trace their lineage back through generations of aristocrats and Nobles right to charles ii and beyond through centuries of British royalty the bustard Prince of YouTube revealed at last me and I want my [ __ ] mansion back Boris the point is if anyone has a reason to want to maintain the sexual allure of monarchy it's me and yet I did change my mind not because of democracy or even cost really but because of what the monarchy does it tricks us into feeling closer to the people who really run the country than we actually are if you want to be associated with the prestige of a normal celebrity you can buy that perfumes buy their t-shirts watch their movies get their trainers spot the patreon campaigns so that you can appear in the credits of their shows but if you want to be associated with the prestige of a royal celebrity you first of all have to not publicly question the institution of monarchy and secondly internalize this vague sense of Britishness which can obscure some important truths for instance what are the things that we could change about Britain that would make my life easier my family doesn't have wealth and titles and castles anymore there are no piles of ancestral gold and this is not my horse she's just a very good girl I borrowed for the afternoon so what would make my life easier is things like lower rents better wages jobs social services being funded properly universal health care all the stuff I need to get on in life and one of the things that would make life better for somebody who isn't British and immigrants who arrived yesterday what's all the same stuff so we should be naturalized even though my country is at times very anti-immigration most people have most of their material political interests in common with immigrants and what are the things that would make life easier for the people who actually run the country well our MPs are disproportionately landlords and have controlling stakes in businesses their interests are disproportionately lower wages higher rents more work for Less pay tax cuts and privatizing social services so they can sell them off to their friends and yet somehow millionaires and the slimy it's dick heads ever just think across the face of these sector dials have convinced millions of people and they're just like us and those immigrants they're not like us because of this weird drug Britishness which were all doped up on and the royal family isn't the only ingredient in it but they are an active substance but there's Britishness keep the lights on can I eat my sense of national pride will it keep me warm will it heal me when I get sick if we crash out of the European Union and have to start stockpiling medicines no it's just a trick Britain I'm sorry to say it but your waifu is trash in his video essay waifu ism and you which gets pretty edgy at times youtuber JT sex cake rights you know what all this stuff is it's four walls walls that you put up to protect yourself from getting hurt by other people that's all it is you go I don't want to be social and go to parties anyway that's what normal facts do I don't want those people to be my friends anyway they're nerds I don't want a girlfriend anyway girls are all [ __ ] my 2d waifu is all that I need see that's not a lifestyle choice that's denial but it's crazy denial its walls walls walls walls walls wars wars wars walls everywhere Wars like the [ __ ] Fist of the North Star and though these walls may protect you they imprison you as well so how fitting for me to be an heir to the Stuart's a royal line that is now dead what a fantastic allegory for the royal family in general to have inherited this grand legacy that is ultimately just an empty symbol that I can use to trick other people and myself into thinking that I'm special when really I'm not and that can kind of suck believe me I know better than most it sucks to be totally to special and then realize that you're not to realize that everything you were given on the basis of that empty specialness is actually kind of an unfair advantage in leftist circles when we talk about privilege and coming to realize that we have it we don't often mention that checking your own privilege is not a fun and sexy time it sucks to find out that in fact we do not live in a meritocracy and so your position relatively closer to the top of society is an unfair advantage that will have to be given up it imperils the soul a little bit it's kind of like when somebody tells you that they're a vegan and you get a little bit uncomfortable because if they have strong moral reasons for doing that well then that might mean that I'm in the wrong and I hate being in the wrong nothing wilts Maier action faster than injustice and yes the requiem for privilege should be played on the world's smallest violin but I think that we lose ground to the right by not acknowledging that subjective suck by exposing the trick but not offering anything genuinely special in place of it so remember an Fitzroy Charles's daughter she married Sir Thomas but she left him for a woman she had a lesbian relationship with a noble woman named Hortense and was sent away to live in a convent in Paris in disgrace where she subsequently had another affair with rampaging seventeenth-century sex Chad Ralph Montagu and outlived her husband she's my ancestor to that amazing brave woman that is a legacy I'm proud to bear a history of following the heart among other organs and being courageous that means more to me than any royal goals that might mingle in these veins in Shakespeare's King Lear the character of Edmund second born bastard son has this amazing monologue where he rails against royalty and nobility and he says thou nature art my goddess to thy law my services are bound wherefore should I stand in the plague of custom and permit the curiosity of Nations to deprive me for that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines lag of a brother why bastard wherefore base when my dimensions are as well compact my mind as generous and my shape is true as honest Madam's issue why brand they us with base with baseness bastard a base base who in the lusty stealth of nature take more composition and fierce quality than Duff within a dull stale tired bed go to the creating a whole tribe of fops queen elizabeth ii probably gonna be dead pretty soon and Charles is technically the next in line although he doesn't quite have the same big dick energy as his mum does he when the Queen does die they'll probably be a period of national mourning but it could be an opportunity for us to just not crown the next one the death of our longest reigning monarch will take us from a state in which nothing can be done to one in which suddenly anything is possible again instead of a coronation we could spend that money on anything we could give it to the NHS we can spend it on education we could buy a whole lot of apples and carrots for you we could have a massive piss up in Buckingham Palace and anybody who makes a minimum wage gets free drinks all night we could do any number of things any one of which would be more fun and sexy than watching a septuagenarian put on a shiny hat I do think that ultimately whether we keep the royal family won't come down to a rational argument it will come down to just how horny the British public is but if I can let go of the Royal kink then baby anyone can do it whatever your own experiences this year wherever and however you are watching I wish you a peaceful and very happy Christmas [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good girl no can agitate it yeah you put me off in you know oh you were very good you're a sweetheart good girl take it easy look give me those is very good just a little bit man okay your manual and automatic darling good girl good girl thank you for being so patient yeah you just want to be the star don't you your first guest I've had on the show in a long time you know don't give me those ears don't give me those you just like Marilyn Monroe you act up and then as soon as the camera turns on you're perfect [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Philosophy Tube

Views: 1,078,812

Rating: 4.8985538 out of 5

Keywords: Queen, Royal Family, Oliver Thorn, philosophy, Philosophy Tube, British, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, hindi, hindi subtitles

Id: x2W7P3wGBI8

Length: 33min 7sec (1987 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 21 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Beorns-Bear]

THE BASTARD PRINCE OF YOUTUBE

[u/RealPhilosophyTube]

Nationalise waifus

[u/lukasmukaspukas]

I think this video raises a point I've been wondering about, too often we find ourselves on the back foot describing injustice and arguing against something people hold dear like nationalism. We won't convince people just by being right.

I don't want to fall into aesthetic obsessions or start overtly worrying about 'optics', it's more just a sense that we actually do offer more to the average person than Trump/Farage/Fashies and I think its worth focussing on that a tad.

I think we saw a bit of that with Labour over here in the UK putting out a manifesto which was quite (relative to the overton window) leftist and it just revitalised things to some extent.

To use Olly's sex analogy, What do people think is sexy about the left?

[u/[deleted]]

Another question is why does Canada still have the Queen?

[u/GriffonsChainsaw]

husbandu

Oh Olly, you know perfectly well that you're Daddy to us.

[u/CakeLikeLadyGaga]

BREED

[u/Lillandoniril]

Does this mean Olly is literally Kropotkin, renouncing his princeship?

[u/Solarn40]

I think there are several things that draw people to the royal family. The two that are personally relevant to me as a non-Brit are:

• People looking at elected heads of state and seeing how their position can be used by populist politicians to legitimize themselves. In my own country, Hungary, the current President of the Republic (an entirely ceremonial position) is fully a creature of our Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and he manages to use the minimal authority he has to prop up Orbán and present his positions as unassailable truth or even the only possible position there is. Compared to that, a head of state who gets the job just for being born sounds almost fine.
• Everyone has a grandma, and Elizabeth II has, in her twilight years, managed to either construct or chance upon the image of being kind of everyone's grandma. And that sounds silly, but it's a powerful emotional anchor. Familial connections are some of the strongest that exist, and to people who like their grandparents (or at least one of their grandmothers) this makes Her Maj immediately sympathetic just on its own, with no accompanying arguments needed. Even people who consider the rest of the royal family shitty are often fond of Elizabeth.

[u/Siantlark]

Olly on a horse is my new favorite interjection, and the video hasn't even come out yet.