princess olga
Serene Highness
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2005
- Messages
- 1,282
- City
- san francisco
- Country
- United States
I agree with you a classless society doesn't really exist, although the Netherlands came as close as could be: society there is structured, or was, structured in a way that allowed most people to be middle class. Which today they mostly are. The downside of that structure also was that it was designed so that people would STAY middle class! But that's changing.Alexandria said:By virtue of the fact that a monarchy exists implies some class level in the Netherlands. The Netherlands is not a republic, has a queen whose eldest son will succeed her, followed by his eldest daughter and so forth, so not everyone is equal in the Netherlands since not everyone will be Queen or King one day.
But if you say that 1% of the population is of a higher class than the 99% that is one thing. And I would say that the van Vollenhoven family would be part of that 1% along with the Queen's sons and their families and the wealthiest of Dutch citizens -- of which there are bound to be some since I highly doubt that everyone, regardless of their job or position within their company, makes the same salary.
I think that a classless society doesn't really exist. There can be societies where the classes are not as differentiated but a true classless society, especially one headed (even symbolically) by a monarchy doesn't exist.
As for the Netherlands not being a republic, that is not true actually, weirdly. The Netherlands is still, constitutionally, a republic, and it would literally take erasing ONE single sentence in the constitution to oust the King, (Beatrix may be a woman and we may know her as queen, she took te oath as King of the Netherlands, and that's what she is).
Don't follow? Neither do I, but this is how it is as far as I'm told by people who know more about this sort of thing than I do.
One other point: sure by virtue of the Netherlands having a monarch you'd think that the Dutch would accept that there's some sort of elite in the country, but believe me, most people there used to not see their society that way.
You're thinking to linearly, Alexandria! The Dutch don't always make sense, not even to themselves.