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Queen Elizabeth II has died

bbc.com

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Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#431

Post by Emma_Goldman »

dijit wrote: post #332
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #240

I realise she has just died and it's unbecoming to do anything but laud the person, but this is just moral obsequiousness. She claims fealty by right of blood, reigned as the crown of an extraordinarily cruel empire, and frequently interceded in the democratic government of Britain to protect her private interests.

> reigned as the crown of an extraordinarily cruel empire Queen Elizabeth presided over its dismantlement. No famines occurred during her reign and no rebellions violently suppressed. The Empire was cruel, but it's unfair to wash her with the cloth of empire.

That was not my intended emphasis, but I think you could make a good case for it anyway. It involved the dispossession and genocide of native peoples in North America and Australasia. It was built on slave plantations in the Caribbean, and led to state-engineered famines in India. The total human toll is enormous.

Yes, the Queen took the throne at the twilight of the British Empire. But it was in the midst of the Malayan emergency, the Mau Mau uprising, the Suez crisis was on the horizon, and South Africa had just launched the apartheid regime. Those were all, in different ways, attempts to stamp out democratic independence. Britain didn't relinquish its sub-Saharan African and Caribbean territories until the 1960s. You cannot cleanly separate the Queen from the empire which she crowned.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#432

Post by JAlexoid »

racktash wrote: post #115

This is probably the only death of a public figure that has really hit me hard. The Queen was a constant all of my life, all of my parents' lives and, indeed, a good deal of my grandparents' lives. The comfort she could bring to many is not to be underestimated in my view. When Covid-19 was kicking off in the UK, and our lives were changing in ways we couldn't predict, I remember being immensely comforted by her spee…

Her speech was almost perfectly engineered.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#434

Post by Beltalowda »

henriquemaia wrote: post #222

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…

“Don’t go overboard. She’s a very old woman who had to go some time” were the last instructions Peter Sissons received before announcing the death of the Queen Mother (aged 101) in 2002. I thought that was quite funny.

I think what's "shocking" (not necessarily sad) thing about this is that she's been a presence for such a long time. Who here can remember a time from before Elizabeth II was the queen? She's been queen from before most people here were born and has always been present.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#435

Post by nemo44x »

shadowgovt wrote: post #346
saberience wrote: post #71

It's weird, I've never considered myself a "royalist" but this news has affected me quite strongly. I just burst into tears unexpectedly on hearing this news and I don't quite understand why I feel so very sad. I guess I have grown up and lived my whole life (as a Brit) seeing and hearing the Queen, singing "God save the Queen" etc, and this news made me suddenly feel very old, very nostalgic, with the sense that all…

Royalty is interesting. I think it's a very understandably human urge to hold up someone for emulation. The only odd thing about a noble class in that sense is that we decide the job of "role model and leader" should be hereditary. But I think it's a very understandably human reaction to feel sorrow when someone who millions of people have invested so much energy into making the best person that can be is still morta…

> The only odd thing about a noble class in that sense is that we decide the job of "role model and leader" should be hereditary.

I don't think it's odd at all, in fact it's pretty normal when you look at a long stretch of history. I'd wager that heredity based monarchy is probably the most common form of regime.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#436

Post by [deleted] »

drewg123 wrote: post #327

This is an interesting world event, but I'm confused that it is considered on-topic here on HN. I had thought that non-technical news did not belong on HN. Can somebody please clarify the guidelines as to what is considered topical?

[deleted]

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#437

Post by JAlexoid »

citilife wrote: post #372

Fun facts: - She ruled for 30% of the time since the American Revolution - She oversaw the largest reduction of landholdings of any empire in the history of the world. Notable because it was also one of the most peaceful transitions in history -- Australia, Canada, South Africa, Israel, Egypt, etc. - She oversaw the loss of Sterling the world reserve currency and the rise of another (the USD, EU).

> She oversaw the largest reduction of landholdings of any empire in the history of the world.

Notably, without loosing their royal power over those landholdings.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#438

Post by mns06 »

Hamuko wrote: post #109
simonswords82 wrote: post #48

Winston Churchill (1951–55) Anthony Eden (1955–57) Harold Macmillan (1957–63) Alec Douglas-Home (1963–64) Harold Wilson (1964–70) Edward Heath (1970–74) Harold Wilson (1974–76) James Callaghan (1976–79) Margaret Thatcher (1979–90) John Major (1990–97) Tony Blair (1997–07) Gordon Brown (2007–10) David Cameron (2010–16) Theresa May (2016–19) Boris Johnson (2019–22) Liz Truss (2022 (two days ago) - current) Quite the re…

I feel slightly bad for Liz Truss, since I imagine that one of the things she will be remembered is that the Queen died less than 48 hours into her government.

She was an abolitionist in her youth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qfg1AQnWIM

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#439

Post by oceanplexian »

drieddust wrote: post #355
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #240

I realise she has just died and it's unbecoming to do anything but laud the person, but this is just moral obsequiousness. She claims fealty by right of blood, reigned as the crown of an extraordinarily cruel empire, and frequently interceded in the democratic government of Britain to protect her private interests.

She and her family is responsible for a lot of atrocities around the world. Yet a lot of people here are eulogizing as if she was a saint who taught art of living to the people. To me this is a demonstration of power of conditioning and media management.

My family is Argentine. The Queen’s son personally boarded a war ship to travel 7000km away to kill Argentines because they dared assert sovereignty against another country in a completely separate hemisphere of the Earth. The idea that the days of empire building are behind us is false.

Re: Queen Elizabeth II has died

#440

Post by simonh »

drieddust wrote: post #355
Emma_Goldman wrote: post #240

I realise she has just died and it's unbecoming to do anything but laud the person, but this is just moral obsequiousness. She claims fealty by right of blood, reigned as the crown of an extraordinarily cruel empire, and frequently interceded in the democratic government of Britain to protect her private interests.

She and her family is responsible for a lot of atrocities around the world. Yet a lot of people here are eulogizing as if she was a saint who taught art of living to the people. To me this is a demonstration of power of conditioning and media management.

Can you describe what they did, personally, that makes them responsible for atrocities? Yes I know she was head of state, but she had no significant executive or legislative power. I don't see how she's responsible in a practical sense for such things any more than any British citizen.
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