It was the same when most of Europe’s monarchies were dethroned. Heavily armed militaries were there, it was the time of the Great War after all. Inscrutable government ties? Half the monarchs were cousins, the ruling class was essentially one family. A large fraction of our population thinking that the system is infallible? Divine right of kings, everyone was religious as hell, and you literally had your church in your ID cards.

The system still rolled over when millions of armed men came home from the war, their friends brutally killed for four years, their country which they were taught to sacrifice for debased, themselves having lived in a trench for four years.

The thing is, systems where the few accumulate ever more resources by taking it from the many is not sustainable. Of course, it seems we’ll give up democracy before giving up capitalism. The thing is, democratic traditions are the difference between what happened to the Windsors and the Romanovs when the inevitable change comes. It also is the difference between the experience of the common man living in England vs Russia.