If you missed our livestream Clubland Q&A earlier today, here's the action replay. Simply click above for an hour of my answers to questions from Mark Steyn Club members around the planet on American guns, Bermudian gays, Irish scams, Canadian totalitarianism, and a few philosophical musings on republics and monarchies, all leading up to the happy ending - a big dive into the post-civilizational abyss.
As I indicated at the end, I'm a little under the weather today, but I hope it wasn't too obvious. In my floundering around re the Westminster system, I think I was trying to channel this thought from Simone Weil that I referenced a few years back:
Working for the Free French in London during the war, Simone Weil found herself pondering why, among the European powers, only England had maintained 'a centuries-old tradition of liberty'. She was struck by the paradox of the Westminster system — that ultimate power is vested in one who cannot wield it in any practical sense. Endowing the sovereignty of the nation in an absentee monarch — as Australia does — is an even more exquisite refinement of the Weil theory: vesting power in its literal rather than merely political absence.
What Malcolm Turnbull objects to most — she doesn't live here! — is what I find most appealing. A minimalist monarchy is perhaps the most benign form of government one could devise — except that no hyper-rationalist would ever 'devise' such a thing at all.
Notwithstanding that finale, we like to have fun in The Mark Steyn Club, so, if you're considering signing up, for the full year or a trial quarter, you can find out more info here - and don't forget, for any Steyn fans among your loved ones, there's always our limited-time-only Gift Membership.
