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King Charles: why the monarchy has a power & warmth problem
There were some strong anti-monarchy protests during "king Charles" coronation.
And it's very telling which was one of the most popular videos shared by the "not my king" campaign.
It was this one:
Spare a thought for the genius who placed the subtitles right where the main action takes place
King Charles went so extreme with tasking that he even broke the "law of least effort".
It would have indeed taken him less time and effort to move it himself, at least to push it to the side, than to refuse to touch it at all.
However, he wanted to send the strong message that "the king does nothing himself that the aides should be doing for him".
And that's exactly what annoyed most people.
From a power dynamics point of view, that mindset and attitude are extremely disempowering to the people around -to the "non-blue blood", at least-.
Not just socially, but at a human level.
At that level of disempowerment, the sub-communication isn't just "you're lower status" or "lower power", which would be normal, but it becomes "you're below me" (as a human being)".
This may have been OK, or even good, in an era when "different and better by birthright" was part of people's mindset and expectations.
Then, Chale's behavior would even be effective because it would confirm in people's minds the "reality" of the ruling class being more and better than all the other commoners.
However, in an era where people expect democracy and equality (at least a human-worth level) and in an era where more people are becoming empowered individuals (still a minority of course, but a lot more than back in the days), the monarchy is intrinsically anachronistic.
The monarchy as an institution is an unfair lose-win sucker trade to the non-monarchs and intrinsically disempowering to the aides who must follow a bunch of stupid rules that always remind them "you're SO beneath me".
Funny enough, we already talked a lot about this issue here, albeit in different shapes and forms.
The monarchy's power problem is the same problem as any manipulator, asshole, or despot faces: the empowerment of its victims.
That is the monarchy problem.
What makes it even worse is the entitled attitude of some monarchs, which then compounds everything with a power and warmth issue.
To avoid that issue, the monarchy should really refrain from those extremely disempowering old traditions and instead adopt a warmer and power protecting stance towards others... At least a little bit more -no need to start acting chummy, just avoiding the extremes would help-.
Instead, the king who approaches social relationships with the mindset of "you must do everything for me and don't dare even look at me" is bound to stoke even more anti-monarchy sentiment.
At work, the same dynamics are at play when bosses expect their reports to do menial tasks for them.
It will annoy a lot of high-power people who may yes respect the boss's status and the skills gap, but who expect at least some equality in human worth and some minimum level of power protection.
