A side effect of the pandemic is that it has made me reevaluate my lifelong aversion to the concept of a monarchy in the modern world. I used to be appalled by the aristocratic sanctimonious of it all but reading about the singular, magnetic force of George Washington and how it literally held the fractured colonies together during the chaotic years of the early Republic fostered an appreciation in me for the social utility of a leader who is admired simply because they are admired. Why have a Monarchy for your nation? So that in the times of even the deepest, most fractured turbulence, everybody who hates each other are still oohing and aahing at the same shiny object.