Fiddling on the margins
I'm a great one for the 17th century in Great Britain. Lemuel Gulliver and Robinson Crusoe were about, Moll Flanders was abed somewhere and Shakespeare shared its course until 1616. Great times were had by all. What with the bubonic plague and the great fire of London — them were the days.
But people forget that it was also during those years that the English people rose up and necked their king. Charles I was executed in 1649 with the avid support of folk like the two Johns: Milton and Bunyan.
If you are in the least literary, it comes as something of a surprise to learn that Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress — one of the most popular books in world history — was a pilgrimage set on a republic. Of course, the English parliament soon lost its nerve, and after a generation the monarchy was "restored". But for a time there — despite the no theatre, no dancing, no fun & games signs up everywhere, the English were free of their monarchical parasites.
If they'd only held the line, and listened to Milton, our world would be a different place today.
In truth, the ideologues who cleaved Charles in two were fundamentalists. Feisty Protestants akin to some of the earlier forms of militant Islam. The shah of Iran suffered a similar fate.
Perhaps you get the message: this business with the king was a revolution. That's right. There was an English revolution way back then. There were citizens' militias — the New Model Army — and a civil war, just like so many revolutions since. It followed the game plan. Made all the right moves. "Qualified" as the real thing — except it lost its nerve.
So come last weekend, we were dealing with the fallout from a massive upsurge 350 years ago. We were stuck with the leftovers and the republic referendum was a polite way — an English gentleman's way — of putting things to right.
As you no doubt now realise: when the opportunity presents itself to change the world — you do it right the first time. Remember that if perchance the opportunity should ever present itself.
By Dave Riley