When Dominic Flandry has said, "Sayonara," to Kossara in St. Clement's Cathedral:
"Bodin Miyatovich and his wife waited outside... Walkers cast glances at the three on the stairs, spoke to whatever companions they had, but didn't stop; they taught good manners on Dennitza." (p. 577)
Somewhere in Julian May's Galactic Milieu Trilogy, a planetary head of state and her colleagues walk the short distance from a government building to a restaurant specializing in a local species of fast-growing mushrooms. The proprietor makes no mention of the fact that she has just seen them speaking on live TV on a large screen on the wall of her restaurant. Good manners.
I think that there should be less distance between the public and public figures so that it would be less of a sensation to see them outside a Cathedral or in a restaurant immediately after they have been on TV. In Britain by now, anyone who wants merely to see our head of the state, the Queen, should have been able to do so and most of us must know someone, if not several people, who have met her. "Long to reign over us..." has gone on for a long time!
As sf readers, we always wonder about the near and further future and to many of us here it will be a real sensation to have a different monarch.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
There are reasons, from both practicality and security, why there is some distance between most heads of state or gov't and their people. Practicality, an active leader has many people wanting to see him or her, for reasons both major or minor. That inevitably means a staff arranging and regulating the flow of people meeting the king, president, or PM. Security, we both know from history how many heads of state has been assassinated, which means that same staff also has to vet many of the people desiring an audience.
Your comments here also reminded me of what S.M. Stirling wrote about the "Rule of Seven" in Chapter Four of DRAKON (Baen Books: Feb. 1996, page 76), Gwen Ingolfsson speaking: "Nobody is more than seven acquaintances from anyone else. For instance, you know this Senor Mondragon--"...."--and someone we meet will know someone who knows someone, and we'll be led to Senor Mondragon, soon enough."
So, if you really, really did URGENTLY need to see the Queen or PM, for a good reason, you know someone who knows someone else and eventually you will get to somebody who could arrange a meeting with either of these persons for you. Say, thru a member of either House of Parliament.
And, yes, Elizabeth II has indeed LONG reigned over the UK! Her father George VI died on Feb. 6, 1952. That means in only a few more days the Queen will begin the sixty ninth year of her reign, the longest of any British monarch.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
We discussed this before. I know my Member of Parliament who knows the Leader of her Party who knows the Prime Minister who knows both the Queen and the President of the US.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Oops, I was repeating myself! But it kinda developed from the first paragraph of my comment above. Yes, if we really, REALLY wanted to, we could get into contact with the top people in our countries.
And the current Prince of Wales will be the oldest British crown prince to succeed his father or mother as king in UK history.
Ad astra! Sean
It's also a function of the size and composition of the population; a small, homogenous (either ideologically or ethnically or both) population can allow more informality. A large population (given contemporary mobility) or one where substantial numbers hate their political opponents like poison, makes it just too dangerous.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I should have thought of those points as well. A "small" or homogenous population can allow its a king, president, or PM more informality in contacting their people. A large, turbulent, faction prone population makes this simply too dangerous. Regrettable, but a hard fact of life.
Ad astra! Sean
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