It is conceivable that Prince Charles watched the abdication by the 85-year-old Emperor Akihito of Japan, the first in 200 years, on account of his age and wondered what if his mother, the 93-year-old Queen Elizabeth II followed suit.
Japan has had an emperor for over 15 centuries while Britain 12 centuries and both countries are steeped in royal traditions and protocols. As Akihito’s 59-year-old heir Naruhito takes over, the 70-year-old Charles ought to wonder when it might be his turn. I have never hidden my antipathy towards monarchies and their self-proclaimed nobility, titles and privileges. Nevertheless, I can’t but point out the difference between Charles’ eternal wait and Naruhito’s ascension. Not that either makes even the slightest difference to my common life.
I would have rejected monarchies at any time in history but they are particularly anachronistic in this century and beyond. There are, of course, millions who see merit in having a benign, refined queen or king as a figurehead. They seem to them as reassuring continuity in fractious and fraught political and cultural times. I find it very hard to agree.
Akihito’s abdication has made worldwide news, only proving the continuing fascination with royalties around the world. It is true that the rise of new ruling elites around the world is almost like a natural order of things. Many “popularly elected” leaders in the world betray monarchic impulses as they attempt to cling on to their power.
One can at least make the argument that “royal families” of the vintage of Japan or Britain have the virtue of not being vulgar in their assertion of power since they have had inherited it for so long. To me it is a specious argument but I am willing to hear it. This is in contrast to the new ruling elites who are often cruelly exploitative and power-hungry. Whether monarchies should remain or not is, of course, the decision of the people of the countries where they exist. If a majority of them are fine with it, my antipathy is irrelevant. The best I can do is not to bow and scrape in abject obsequiousness if I ever have an occasion to meet them. Standing in a line to meet a “royalty” is also absolutely out of the question.
It is true that the British and Japanese royal families are not meddlesome for the citizens of their respective countries in the everyday sense of the word. I suppose many citizens of these two countries think that curtsying in their august presence is an acceptable price to pay. The expectation that one has to stand up or bend in ritualistic reverence to a fellow human is anathema to me.
Coming back to Charles and Naruhito, it is an interesting contrast. One is an emperor at 59 and the other a prince at 70.