Monarchy? No Thanks!

Juan Carlos of Spain abdicated today. Abdication seems to be a thing these days: first the pope, then Beatrix, now Juan Carlos and hopefully the Swedish "King" ends his freak show soon as well. With the exception of the pope who is of course not even an actual king this royalty business has reached the peak of my tolerance level. As a political scientist I find it impossible to understand why monarchies still exist. I love Kate and William, I think they're awesome people as far as I could say that about anyone I've never met, but what is the freaking point? I'm so confused...

I'm definitely not a cynic but why do they have monarchies in places we've had democratic elections for decades? Sure thing, the British Queen has a symbolic value, and she gets to make people knights (for which I don't see the point either). Fact is, all this royalty stuff is really good for is to supposedly have a nation-building effect. In Sweden, of course, even the crown hates the crown, as Madeline impressively demonstrated over the past couple of years. Now I spent most of my adult life in Scotland, part of the United Kingdom, where the Queen could not be more unpopular. Although this stems from the fact that the Scots basically hate the Union I think they got it pretty right; all the Queen really does for them is cost money. Nobody in Scotland wants a nation-building queen.

I realize that unnecessary tax doller is always spent on something but why that has to be certain individuals who did nothing but being born into a certain family is ludicrous to me. This ain't the 18th centrury, or even the 19th century anymore where having a monarchy would already have been pointless. We don't make our decisions based on divine right anymore. And indeed, monarchs hardly have any actual power anymore so why do they stick around and live in a palace, live a public life and get attention from the media if they strip in a hotel room in Vegas? Prince Harry is just another kid who did nothing to not deserve to go a little crazy...

Despite living in the public eye which some of them are really bad at they do good and wave at crowds while wearing expensive clothes. They genuinely do nothing more. Right, they have babies. They don't decide squat, just sign whatever is asked of them although nobody would need the signature to begin with. If you're the Spanish or Swedish king you might have an affair here or there but other than that there's not much to do that actually makes your country better than the ones without a monarch. My country doesn't have one, and ridiculously enough you can't tell. If anything our tax doller is spent on complimentary holidays of our delegates, however, not a new pair of pants for the crown prince.

I enjoyed the Royal Wedding and I like the Dutch crown princesses but I just don't see how it's the 21st century and we keep an expensive relic of the past. It's like we realized that dictatorship wasn't that great of an idea but we keep the dictator around as a figure head. There was a point when they came up with democracy and unfortunately for the aristocracy that meant a good bye. Why in heaven's name do they still kick about and cost money? Aren't the Kardashians of this world enough to entertain Daily Mail readers with? I genuinely don't get it. I for one love history but for the love of God, let a story become history and not clog my freaking state system...