I just wanted to post something that was not in the nature of, "I'm reading this." So hear goes *Musters courage*
I thought I might share this; Stephen Maturin's perspective on Monarchy is a government in his era, in addition to some following reflexions concerning the logical fallacies of men. He is a character of Patrick O'Brian, and although his tone may exhibit a certain irascibility, I find the excerpt to be attractive for how it illustrates the man's opinion, as susceptible it may be to contradiction from impassioned modern advocacy. What matters is how imbursed the character is with consideration for his era, and the politics that mattered then, which very successfully portrays one who is authentically integrated into his scene, and not lazily so.
For the scrupulous among you, the environment is the year 1812; the other man is a certain Mr. Evans, who is citizen of the young United States of America. Stephen has been captured after one of America's several initial victories of that conflict, and is prisoner of war throughout his dialogue.
"Can you really maintain that the hereditary king cuts a very shining figure?"
"I cannot. Nor is that to the point: the person, unless he be extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad, is of no importance. It is the living, moving, procreating, sometimes speaking symbol that counts."
"But surely mere birth without any necessary merit is illogical?"
"Certainly, and that is its great merit. Man is a deeply illogical being, and must be ruled illogically. Whatever that frigid prig Bentham may say, there are innumerable motives that have nothing to do with utility. In good utilitarian logic, a man does not sell all his goods to go crusading, nor does he build cathedrals; still less does he write verse. There are countless pieties without a name that find their focus in a crown. It is as well, I grant you, that the family should have worn it beyond the memory of man; for your recent creations do not answer - they are nothing in comparison of your priest-king, whose merit is irrelevant, whose place cannot be disputed, nor made the subject of a recurring vote."
