One day soon I’ll finally get my philosopher-king proposal worked out (Intellocracy), and the coup will follow shortly thereafter. I’ve had it (after this past election) with democracy. It’s a failed experiment, and it’s more than time to abandon it. In the new order, under the benevolent monarchy of the intelligentsia, all will be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things will be well.

Of course, in the meantime, we’ll probably need a century or two of plain old monarchy–beginning with me, HRH Joe I, and continuing through my descendants. After a few generations of that, we should be set.

Here’s Stephen Maturin on monarchy:

Man is a deeply illogical being, and must be ruled illogically. Whatever that frigid prig Bentham may say, there are innumerable motives that have nothing to do with utility. In good utilitarian logic a man does not sell all his goods to go crusading, nor does he build cathedrals; still less does he write verse. There are countless pieties without a name that find their focus in a crown. It is as well, I grant you, that the family should have worn it beyond the memory of man; for your recent creations do not answer – they are nothing in comparison of your priest-king, whose merit is irrelevant, whose place cannot be disputed, nor made the subject of a recurring vote.