"A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family." - (C) Wikipedia.
The Royal Family in the United Kingdom is, obviously, a distinctive royal house in the world. It's made up of different members, it has different parts to it, and it's people are separate. Although, politically, the UK has had agreements in the past, it has not succumbed to another. It's remained separate because it's an island nation and distinct because it's a realm like others in the world.
Our defences defend us and no other. Our government serves and governs over us and no others. Our sense and way of life is as distinct as we choose it to be. Yet we still choose it. It doesn't matter at all if another country or realm wants us to do something different. If we're willing to strengthen ourselves against its resolve - as we've done so before - we don't have to succumb to it at all.
This is at least our reality at present. It's a settled matter who our monarchy is and what they do with it. They rule over us in circumspect ways. They inspect who we are as a people because they have to. It's required by reason and it's understood as being a part of the law. There's also a way of accountability which exists across the world we have to adhere to in order to be at peace with it and no threat here at all.
In my view the Royal Family plays an increasingly important role here because of who we are and not due to what it is they think they are. The increase in individual indentity is a remarkable emergence in a realm that used to like its ways over another's. This isn't multiculturalism but it's a way of seeing things more broadly as being about choice over the particular culture we're born into.
It may emerge during long school years in the early part of our lives, and strengthen itself during the years we spend at University, but it's necessarily who we are. These vibrant life-choices make us into people who choose, who believe, and who act and live out differently in front of others. In terms of the positives of government and what a state does it matters that we know each other better. It often falls to those on a higher level of professionalism or on a separate field of play entirely to find this out.
In historical terms a monarch does this before they reach the height of their pre-eminence. They've had to accept the duty of acting as a sovereign steward of their realm after having seen it first. This is the point of the early years of someone who is born to rule; they need to see who they'll rule first. Otherwise it will entail lack of security and compromise because others will take advantage of us. This is not good for our safety, our position here and overseas, and our ambitions as we do things in the world.
The last factor that's included in having a Royal Family is the position we have. The fact is there are proud monarchies across the world. The stronger ones are stable and the weaker ones are unstable. The strong want more power, and the weaker ones want more power also. It may appear a simple calculation but in actuality it isn't far from the truth. As long as monarchies exist in the world we'll need ours to be as stable and secure as we've been before. It isn't a privilege as much as it's a necessity.
Posted: 6 August 2024.