Steady as she goes...

"Steady as she goes" is not only the title of a brilliant song by The Reconteurs (a new project band including the honourble Jack White), its also an order often given by sea captains when they want the boat or ship to keep a course. Steady as she goes is, further more, the term I would like to use when it comes to the monarchy in Sweden.

Yes! The King can, at times, be very silly or perhaps princess Madeleine is the royal slut the paporazzo want her to be (she probably is), but they are our own lasting royal tale to talk, gossip or complain about. Is it unjust that they do last? Is the pain too severe for the ordinary self righteous swede to know that there will always be one family, despite everything that could happen, that will live on easy street? Hey! They would live comfortably even if we refused them the crown, a crown not used since 1873 by Oscar II. Very few of the thousands of kronor the state send their way can found in their pockets at the end of the year.

Many people complain that we support a deprived culture of excess by upholding the monarchy. That may be so. Money deprives, there's no question about it, especially new money. The Royal Family, however, is made out of old money, as old as money possibly can get. If there is one family that every degenerate von, af, or other semi-germanic surname look up to, it's the royal family. And we control the royal family, we do! We ruthlessly judge and rule on the behaviour of the one family that in their turn set the rule of etiquette for how to behave in the Swedish high society... at least I hope so, but it could be wishful thinking on my behalf.

The strongest personal argument of mine is history and tradition though. I just love history. And when I look upon a ruin of something I can't help to think how it was back then. And I can't bare the thought of a future where my children will look upon the Royal Castle and barely see a fragment of something that has, like no other thing, marked the history of Europe as the monarchies have. Imagine the horror of a Royal Castle turned into a hotel for the elite. A castle where the history within have been gutted out for all to see (or not, since many of the items would surely be stored away) at some dust collecting museum.

Let's keep the history alive with a living history.