Enlight My Fire

How much of a bell-end is Prince Charles, out of 10? At least 14 I'd say.

The guy has a habit of guffing brain fart style opinions to anyone who'll listen about things he doesn't really know jack shit about, all because he's lucky enough to have been born into circumstances where he never has to work, and owns enough land to grow all the holistic organic carrots with Prince of Wales official seals on the packet to sell for four bazillion times what they're actually worth he could possibly desire.

His latest bumcast somewhat takes the cake, however, as he attempts to debunk the bedrock of our entire modern civilization and contradict the ideas of some of the cleverest people who've ever lived. Ol' jug ears has now decided that all modern ills are caused by Enlightenment. Specifically 'The Enlightenment', the philosophical doctrine that any problem can be solved via the application of reason, proponents of which include the likes of Descartes, Voltaire, Locke and Leibniz. Some of the biggest of cheeses that ever did cheese.

The Enlightenment is the just the foundation of things like the American Declaration of Independence and the modern scientific method. But Charlie organic potatoes recons he knows best. Of course he fucking does. This is a guy who after probably saved the world from being turned into homogeneous grey sludge by rogue nanobots after all. This is a guy who thinks architecture as a field should have been frozen in time about a hundred years ago so that everything would look like his house.

His Royal High-Horse thinks that the principles of The Enlightenment no longer apply because social conditions are different now. He wants a more 'holistic', localised approach that works in harmony with nature.

Whenever I hear the word 'holistic' it makes me physically sick, because it's usually being said by a monumental prick. For those who don't know, Holism is the concept of a system as a whole and the interdependence of its parts. Often though it's used as a euphemism for an approach based on 'feelings' rather than reasons.

I struggle to see what Charles' reasons are for jettisoning applied rational thought in such a brazen manner. I don't really see what precludes Enlightenment from being truly holistic. When you look at something like climate science, that's some pretty hardcore holism right there.

Instead I think Charles has gotten mixed up between rational thought and his favourite pariah, technology. Charles is probably the world's most famous, most technophobic Luddite. If you asked him, I think he would really struggle to think of any form of technology he approves of, even things he might use every day. I think I might have to stop thinking about him before I spontaneously combust.

Yes, Charles is the enemy of enlightenment. I guess at least he's been good enough to come out and admit it.