For as long as homeopathy has existed, the British royal family has been a supporter of homeopathy. The now king Charles III, when he was still Prince of Wales, not only promoted homeopathy, but also many other alternative medical procedures. What's striking is that he only ever picks out the most bizarre and implausible, leaving aside those that are remotely evidence-based. This may be because he always prefers the mystical and anti-scientific. Even as a young man he was led on this path by Laurens van der Post, an esoteric and self-proclaimed South African guru.
This is all the more frightening as Charles III is also ignoring the memory of one of his predecessors of the same name in office. Charles II (King from 1660 until 1685) was a great patron of science. Under his reign, for example, the Royal Society was founded in 1660 and is still one of the most important scholarly societies in the world today. But 250 years later, his follower on the same throne Charles III became notorious in proudly claiming to be called an "enemy of the Enlightenment". He probably wanted to express that he opposes rational thinking.
While that is a shocking quote, I am not sure it still describes his beliefs.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, Charles has publicly recommended that people get vaccinated against Covid:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59571036
However, the whole idea of kings and queens and princesses is of course rather silly and anti-Enlightenment by itself.
But in history, some kings (or even emperors or khans in other monarchies) were even great supporters and defenders of science and enlightment. For instance Friedrich II (1220-1250 emperor of the holy roman empire), Katharina the Great of Russia or sultan Ulug Beg in Samarkand. "Thanks" to the metaphysical influence of religious authorities to ordinary, poor people, there is a widespread acceptance of pseudo-science in the general population. Sometimes, in needs a mighty order from a political ruler to pave true science its way to the minds of their subjects.
ReplyDeleteHi!
ReplyDeleteSchön, dich hier wiederzusehen.
Du warst ja immer ein Follower meines 1001-Nach-Blogs. Ich bin jetzt auf Wordpress umgezogen und schreibe nach langer Pause weiter. Falls es dich noch interessiert - du findest mich hier: https://www.danrichter.de/tag/1001-nacht/
Tschüss
Hallo Dan, auf jeden Fall interessiert es mich weiterhin zu lesen, was Du schreibst. Durch meine geografische Entfernung von Berlin habe ich immer seltener die Möglichkeit, die alternative Literaturszene dort zu verfolgen. Eure Strasse der Enthusiasten fand ich immer sehr aufregend und unterhaltsam. Ich habe mitlerweile auch noch einen umfangreicheren Wordpress-Blog, allerdings in der Billigversion: https://brokenradius.wordpress.com/.
DeleteBeste Grüsse, Micha