That Queen Elizabeth II discharged her role with grace and dignity appears to be the view of most people, even staunch republicans (witness Malcolm Turnbull’s tearful farewell).
Whatever illusions contribute to that were possible only because she ascended to the throne too young, too long ago, to have done or said anything so weird that it would colour her reign.
How’s that going to work with King Charles III?
Homeopathy
His royal highness has long advocated for the “basically a glass of water” branch of medicine. As recently as 2019 he became the patron of the Faculty of Homeopathy, which “regulates” homeopathic “medicine”. The Good Thinking Society — a non-profit organisation that gets all hung up on science needing to be supported by actual evidence — called Charles’ endorsement “obscene”.
Detox
Along similar lines, did you know Charles has an organic food brand he sells at posh supermarket Waitrose? In 2009 it started selling a “herbal remedy” detox mix of artichoke and dandelion — Duchy Herbals’ Detox Tincture — that it promised would “help eliminate toxins and aid digestion”.
Again those “scientist” killjoys wanted “proof”.
“Nothing would, of course, be easier than to demonstrate that detox products work. All one needed to do is to take a few blood samples from volunteers and test whether this or that toxin is eliminated from the body faster than normal,” Professor Edzard Ernst said at the time. “But where are the studies that demonstrate efficacy? They do not exist, and the reason is simple: these products have no real detoxification effects.”
Oh yeah, and the mix cost £10 (about A$20 at the time) for 50 ml. Remind us, what else was going on around that time? Any global shocks people might be recovering from?
The jury is still out on science
Indeed, Charles’ long-time advocacy for the environment seems to come in spite of a suspicion of science.
In 2010, the then prince gave a speech at Oxford on his great subject, making the strange argument that the real problem is we’re too hung up on the work of trendy new thinkers like… Galileo. Apparently the main problems with humanity arise from a “deep, inner crisis of the soul” — and that the “de-souling” of humanity “goes back at least to Galileo’s assertion that there is nothing in nature but quantity and motion”:
As a result, nature has been completely objectified — she has become an it — and we are persuaded to concentrate on the material aspect of reality that fits within Galileo’s scheme.
Way to plant
Charles has revealed several times that he talks to plants: “I just come and talk to the plants, really. Very important to talk to them; they respond. I happily talk to plants and trees and listen to them. I think it’s absolutely crucial.”
This was long taken to be a sign of his chronic odd-ballery, although we have to be entirely fair on this one: there is some research that indicates plants may respond to sound.
