Thursday, July 25, 2013

Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones

A bit whiny.


Former Queen Beatrix about the book ‘Voor de Troon Wordt men Niet Ongestraft Geboren’ (Translation: ‘One Does Not Get Born For the Throne Unpunished'). She din’t like the book. She said the authors created a prejudice and distorted image of the three Kings. Yeah well, since homely lives don’t make history and we humans have an excellent ability to spot the ugliness, almost anything that’s touched on comes out distorted, because some prejudice opinion thinks a half- or none truth about someone or something. That’s life. It’s even proved we’re terrible in retaling truth. What she was really angry about was that it was not more flattering to her family.

It’s not that I completely disagree with her. To me it seems it’s a bit coincidental that precisely our three Kings turned out to be nutters and/or evil. I don’t think they really were. I think they just were very human. King William I was and is hardly the only greedy man. King William II is not the only pushover and King William III is not exactly the only adulterer on earth. I don’t approve of that behaviour, but be honest, how would you do it with a throne under your arse? You really think you’d be much better? In some cases, sure, but in most, you’ll be just as crap as they were, only maybe just in other areas.

Another question: How many of you are true revolutionairies? My point is, beside the Kings’ obvious flaws, they were also very much products of their time. Colonial belongings were very normal and not frowned upon. Adultery was very normal in upper class families too. It works the same now. And greed and no strong behaviour are timeless.

I’m not telling anyone to get off their backs, I’m just trying to point out that maybe before passing judgement, we should look at ourselves and then judge.

So, anyone care to throw the first stone at target of choice?

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