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11/18/2004 Archived Entry: "Prince Charles rebuked for 'old fashioned' views"

Posted by steve @ 03:40 PM EST [Link]

WHAT DID HE SAY THAT WAS SO WRONG: I'm republican to the core but I admit that there is a small streak of monarchism in my soul, thanks in part to a nearly dead tradition of Toryism in this country. I am still a man who refers to the country he lives in as the Dominion of Canada. At any rate, Prince Charles is in a bit of hot water after a memo he wrote was read at an employment tribunal yesterday.

In his memo Prince Charles declared that, "People think they can all be pop stars, high court judges, brilliant TV personalities or infinitely more competent heads of state without ever putting in the necessary work or having natural ability."

"What is wrong with everyone nowadays?'' the prince wrote. "Why do they all seem to think they are qualified to do things far beyond their technical capabilities?"

Prince Charles was critical of the British education system in his handwritten note.

"This is to do with the learning culture in schools as a consequence of a child-centred system which admits no failure,'' he wrote.

"This is the result of social utopianism which believes humanity can be genetically and socially engineered to contradict the lessons of history.''

Naturally people are jumping all over him, declaring his views as classist and Edwardian. Perhaps, but he's also right in my opinion. Everyone thinks they can do everything without the hard work necessary to get them to that position. I happen to disagree with the prince's preference for an agrarian society and anti-modernist views when it comes to architecture but I can't see why his remarks in the memo are controversial.

I don't think the message was that people shouldn't try to rise above their station in life, but rather that not everyone can be everything. It takes a lot of hard work to become something and many people aren't putting in the required work. How many times has someone told you what they'd do if they were ever elected leader of your nation but didn't know what the hell they were talking about?

Read on.