Word: monarchical
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...family. The royal family that we envision is not one of privilege, but of duty, where representing the highest morals of the country is considered a mandatory job. What if the heir to the throne didn't want to be king or queen? Forcing such a person to become monarch would be a violation of his or her right of self-determination. Also, such a person, forced into office, would probably be a terrible monarch...
...supermodels seem to fit the role of the would-be national symbol quite well, as these celebrities increasingly turn to organizing charitable works and fundraisers. Perhaps you could say that the absence of having a monarchy results in the democratic right to create one's own idols in a monarch's stead. You can even dream of becoming a celebrity yourself. On the other hand, celebrities lack a sense of permanence--Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame is an apt description. And these celebrities have no real obligation to represent anyone except themselves...
King Hussein of Jordan, also a near-absolute monarch, ascended to the throne at the age of 17 in 1953. He has since proven to be a formidable and astute monarch. While Jordan has not been a source of natural oil reserves, and has the unfortunate geographical position of being wedged between Israel and Iraq, King Hussein has managed to both modernize his country and maintain a balancing act between the Israelis and the Arab world, perhaps the most successful Arab leader to do so to date...
...seems as if the greatest problem of the modern monarchy is less the fear of despotism, (we have enough former military officers gone amuck in the world to fill that role) but rather a question of whether the character of any particular monarch merits his or her position. We grouse that no one should just be born to a position of such status. On the other hand, watching a person develop to fit his or her position is part of the pleasure of having a monarchy. In a way, it gives a human aspect to the institution of head...
...beautiful fall afternoon not long ago, all 120 eighth-grade students and four of their teachers at the Olson Middle School in Minneapolis, Minn., walked across a grassy playing field down to nearby Shingle Creek. For the past five weeks, they had been raising monarch butterflies--from caterpillar through chrysalis--and now 30 of them were ready for release...