
Monarchism and the Illusion of Necessity
Human society as we know it has its roots in the Middle East around 12,000 years ago. It was at this time that temples and cities began to pop up in the region, soon to be followed by other regions across the globe. The societies that later formed were all vastly different, but still remarkably similar. Hierarchies, monarchical rule and vast societal inequality were staples of all the most highly advanced civilizations to appear in our early history. One must then ask; were these factors of our civilizations inevitable? Or does human society have the potential to morph into something wildly different?
One of the most important aspects of nearly all cultures up until very recent history was the idea of monarchism. From the dawn of civilization up until the 20th century, monarchies ruled the world. However, the fiction of their necessity has been disproven by the existence of our modern world. Monarchies still exist, but monarchs with actual governing power are few and far in between. This calls into question the other perceived necessities of our civilizations, and the very notion of government as we know it.
The abolition of monarchism in much of the world was only made possible by the introduction of alternate forms of government. Democracies, republics, dictatorships, confederations and other forms of government were ready and able to replace the monarchy. To some extent, all features of modern societies; their hierarchies, notions of necessary leadership, centralization and elitism, are but illusions.
A centralized government is not needed for a country to prosper, which one may only need to look at Switzerland to prove. The anarchists of the Spanish Civil War show that the notion of undisputed government leadership being a necessary evil is arguably untrue. Although the effectiveness of these countries in the near future could be called into question, many Scandinavian countries have proven that the harshness of government and mass inequality are also not necessities.
If so many of our current notions about government are indeed untrue, then the question of exactly how fundamentally different our societies could be becomes a natural one to ponder. The answer lies in the willingness of a society to radically change itself for the benefit of all humanity. It has been done before. Communism shows a perfect example of a radically altered society that proved a disastrous expansion of dictatorship. Yet there are countless other ways to alter a society, and the only thing preventing these changes is the perception that they are impossible to achieve. If true change is what one desires, one must only look to themselves to find the start of a new revolution.
