Not really a meme, I know, but I thought this was amazing and worth sharing and I didn’t know where else to share it on Lemmy.

Ursula LeGuin was an incredible person and, although she did live a long life, her death was still a huge loss.

  • Skasi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    107·
    3 months ago

    We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.

    To me that seems like a bold claim considering “the divine right of kings” has not been successfully resisted nor was it escaped from. Monarchies still exist on every continent, people of royalty still get more rights and better treatment than others, once-royal families still possess loads of wealth, still rule countries in high political positions, still own many companies and other wealth generating assets. Humans have gained unfair advantages due to their lineage for thousands if not tens of thousands of years and I highly doubt that this will change massively in the next thousand years.

    Regardless, it still sounds like a really nice speech though.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      281·
      3 months ago

      In general, monarchs no longer claim to rule by divine right. Monarchs are not necessarily running their country as more than just figureheads by reasoning that it’s what a god wants. That’s a big change.

    • NONE@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      3 months ago

      Monarchies still exist on every continent

      Sorry, but where are the monarch in the American Continent? And I mean from the north of Canada to the South Of Chile.

      Where are they?

        • howrarEnglish
          10·
          3 months ago

          While true on paper, they don’t have any actual power here.

            • grrgyle@slrpnk.netEnglish
              6·
              3 months ago

              Inertia.

              Also while a wealthy family enterprise, they neither

              • a) rule over any nation(s)
              • b) receive any authority through divine appointment

              It’s actually a huge step down from the kind of power royalty used to enjoy.

      • tegs_terry@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        3 months ago

        The US president reminds me of the kings of old - more so than anybody actually called a king. The kind of fawning exaltation their current and former leaders receive is way, way over the top. ‘Presidents Day’ like there’s a pantheon that needs worshipping: pathetic. The fear/respect people close-to treat them with reminds me of the servile peons under some all-powerful autocrat, and not for no reason. The power these people have is way, way, way over the top, power that - rather than helping disillusion an entire population brainwashed by the lie of superiority - wages revenge wars and swings dicks.