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Prince Philip has died

royal.uk

321–330 of 553 posts

Re: Prince Philip has died

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is such a thing as 'alternative medicine'. There is medicine, and there is not-medicine. Just like there is treatment and there is not-treatment. Calling things 'alternative' puts them on the same level, which they are not.

Part of the issue is that the practice of medicine predate scientific medicine (which is known as just 'medicine' today). For example, many medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine are effective for a variety of ailments, and some have been proven scientifically. So how do we reconcile that with scientific medicine without stigmatising possibly effective remedies.

> many medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine are effective for a variety of ailments, and some have been proven scientifically. So how do we reconcile that with scientific medicine without stigmatising possibly effective remedies.

If those treatments have been studied in a scientific manner, then the reconciliation, so to speak, has already happened. But, how do we define the effectiveness of treatment? In some cases, using a placebo has shown some effect, but that's because the hypothesis about the effectiveness of a proposed treatment didn't pan out.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Queen is the disabled root user of the constitution. The government are the sudoers. She doesn’t get to ‘vet’ laws in any meaningful way. She rubber-stamps them. The fact that the armed forces swear an oath of loyalty to the Queen is simply because she is head of state. Nothing in your comment actually demonstrates politicality.

The crown is just a rubber stamp, until it’s not, like in the Australian constitutional crisis

Link for the lazy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1975_Australian_constitutional...

Re: Prince Philip has died

#324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because a lot of people get enjoyment from it (e.g. my mum), and removing it wouldn't save much money.

It perpetuates the idea that you cannot rise beyond the class you're born into; indeed also that class still exists and still commands respect.

As an American I've spoken with a number of other Americans who have worked in the UK and are shocked by how strong the notion of class still is.

Example: I know an engineer and process optimization (six sigma) expert who worked with a major US aerospace manufacturer that had operations in the UK. He observed that in the UK the management and much of engineering was from elite UK schools like Oxford and Cambridge, and that these people basically refused to mix with the regular shop floor folks. He had to drag these upper crust UK people kicking and screaming into donning proper gear and walking out onto the shop floor to look at shit. In the US he hasn't encountered nearly as much implicit classism, though there still is a little. The US has its own elite university system but he says it's nowhere near as powerful as in the UK and its strength diminishes (in the US) as you move West.

I can attest to the latter point. I have lived in Cincinnati, Boston, Asheville (NC), California, and now I'm back in Cincinnati. The further you get from "BosNyWash" (the Eastern Seaboard) the less often anyone ever asks where you went to school. In Boston it's the first question, and I got the sense there that if you didn't go to a top-ten school there was a ceiling for your career. In California I was never asked about where I went to school in eight years of working and living there. I've only rarely been asked in Cincinnati and NC and it's mostly about "where are you from?" than class distinction.

Edit: this is in-re a peer of the parent post but it wouldn't let me post it so here it is... thought it was interesting enough to copy/paste here.

A friend who went to Harvard in the USA once told me that the #1 thing he got from Harvard was "permission" to excel. "At Harvard they tell you you're the best, so you try to be the best." That stuck with me.

Search for research on social self-limitation. There have been some interesting experiments, like putting A students in a class and telling the teacher they're C students and vice versa. Hint: the students tend to conform to expectations.

This is part of why I am so skeptical of people who try to put too much weight on IQ and draw vast conclusions from it. IQ is a mushy psychometric number with a lot of variance within the same person, not a hard physical measurement like mass or distance. It's also why I am open to ideas like "internalization of oppression" and the idea that eliminating discriminatory rhetoric from society might help people who have been historically told they're inferior. When someone is told they're inferior, maybe they believe it and act accordingly?

Lastly I have this weird speculation that this may be a reason that psychopathic personality types often rise to great heights (if they don't end up in jail). A side effect of their antisocial nature may be that they do not self-limit. No idea how you'd test that, but I wonder about it. Same goes for some high-functioning autistic types.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#325
post #241

99 years of tax subsidies, he surely had a good life without many regrets. It's beyond my comprehension why humans still keep these hereditary regimes, constitutional or absolutist, alive

Because we need myths, stories and institutions to keep alive and have everyone agree on the 'legends' we've made up in the world. https://erenow.net/common/sapiensbriefhistory/8.php

Re: Prince Philip has died

#326
post #241

99 years of tax subsidies, he surely had a good life without many regrets. It's beyond my comprehension why humans still keep these hereditary regimes, constitutional or absolutist, alive

Please don't take HN threads into predictable flamewar. It's tedious and not what this site is for.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Prince Philip has died

#327
post #241

99 years of tax subsidies, he surely had a good life without many regrets. It's beyond my comprehension why humans still keep these hereditary regimes, constitutional or absolutist, alive

I suspect big reason is that untangling the mess that is the personal/private dynasty of Windsors, the Crown, and the State is far too much more trouble than keeping the status quo. We are kinda past the times when we could have just heads roll, and lands and castles seized.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#328

Sixty five years as the husband of the head of state of a G7, nuclear armed nation, that brought the world Thatcherite individualism and the first cracks in the EU. Philip, like it or not, wielded influence and power beyond his constitutional station. One doesn’t have to like him, but one should respect him.

Wow, why should I respect that this unelected aristocrat "wielded great influence beyond his station"?

I'm with you on this. I see no reason to respect someone simply because they may have had a significant impact on something because of his birthright.

Re: Prince Philip has died

#330
post #177

As I can't be the only one curious, the South Pacific tribe that deified him plan to worship Charles now. To me, signifying that they are doing it for the publicity now. https://nypost.com/2021/02/27/islanders-who-call-prince-phil...

Once you get Internet access, legitimate cargo cultism probably fades quite quickly. Why revere John Frum when Jeff Bezos lets you buy in one click?

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