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Queen Elizabeth II has died

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281–290 of 1001 posts

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#281

Time to end on a high? Shall we just abandon this whole monarchy thing and time to flip over to a republic and leave the much revered queen as the last ever monarch of the UK? Seems like Scotland is going to go independent, and if Scotland do Wales will only be a matter of time so may as well just can it now?

I believe that Charles is now officially already king.

Yes I think this is the case. The death announcement from Buckingham Palace refers to him as such.

"The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon.

The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#283
post #213

I adamantly reject the belief that some people are inherently better and deserve special treatment by society and before the law because of their ancestry. This includes all nobility and royalty titles. Historically and traditionally, nobles are/were the owners of the land. Shoddy job they've done at taking care of the environment. Overpowered by the industrialists, the new ruling hegemonic class (since the aftermath…

It's weird that this is met with such hostility on a website like hn. Probably just the sensitive timing.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#284

Time to end on a high? Shall we just abandon this whole monarchy thing and time to flip over to a republic and leave the much revered queen as the last ever monarch of the UK? Seems like Scotland is going to go independent, and if Scotland do Wales will only be a matter of time so may as well just can it now?

I think it's overdue. IMO Brexit would not have happened if GB wouldn't be a monarchy.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#285
FYI: When people are this age, they can die suddenly without much warning. I saw a headline a few hours ago about her family coming to visit, and I thought we'd have a few days.

Both of my grandmothers died at 91 without much warning. Cherish your time with your elders, and don't procrastinate a visit.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#287
post #36

RIP. As a Canadian I've always liked that we technically had the Queen as our head of state. I wonder how attitudes will change now that her 70 year reign.

I have an idea that's only half insane. Bear with me. Let's assume we want to get rid of the monarch as Canada's head-of-state. Canada will not be able to feasibly do so because it opens up too many difficult questions about re-structuring our government. Ergo, we will probably just coast on the status-quo. But we could use the desire for everything to stay the same to our advantage by declaring the Queen Elizabeth I…

Constitutional amendments that only come into force upon the death of the next monarch; I like it!

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#288

As a Brit who's never really "followed" the Royals - I gotta say this makes me sad. The Queen stood for so much, in such a dignified way. May she rest in peace

As a former Hong Konger from before the handover but has long ago become American, the news also made me sad. I've always maintained a degree of affection for her throughout the years. I think the dignity you mentioned really helped in that.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#289

Time to end on a high? Shall we just abandon this whole monarchy thing and time to flip over to a republic and leave the much revered queen as the last ever monarch of the UK? Seems like Scotland is going to go independent, and if Scotland do Wales will only be a matter of time so may as well just can it now?

Quoted post unavailable.

Why should we?

It's a perfect moment to think about this.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#290

To everyone who feels sad by these news, my condolences. I respect your pain. However, I have to confess that to whenever I hear that someone aged 90+ (80+, even) died, I don't really feel sad. Actually, I feel an urge to praise this person's achievements, as I'm aware we are all mortals, and death is unavoidable. I prefer to rejoice in how much this person has witnessed throughout her life, how she had enough health…

> What else can we humans aspire? Living forever is out of question. As soon as we are born, we are bound to die.

I don't know, living to anywhere between 1'000 to 1'000'000 years of age would surely be quite the interesting experience, lots of things to learn, lots of things to experience. Such numbers might seem humorous but in the grand scheme of things that's still nothing, given the age of Earth and all that.

I get the feeling that if humans approached aging and death as an engineering problem, in a few centuries to a few thousands of years a viable solution might just spring up.

If nothing else, then fighting aging and everything that comes with it is definitely worth it, so the last decades of your life don't consist of being trapped in a degrading flesh prison and possibly suffering from ailments that will take away your ability to be a person (e.g. Alzheimer's or other neurodegenerative conditions, or serious health conditions due to aging).

Of course, most people don't like to think about their own mortality or consider it (or diseases that may affect them later in life) a serious problem, much less a solvable one. For some religion is enough, for others ignorance does nicely. It feels like we might benefit from more focus on this and research in this direction.

Realistically, one just has to take care of themselves as best as they can and spend their time well.

> Actually, I feel an urge to praise this person's achievements...

Regardless, this is admirable. A life well lived is one worth celebrating, with its many achievements and its impact on the people around them.

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