A recent episode of “Downton Abbey” featured a spirited defense of limited government.
In the episode, Dowager Countess Violet Crawley’s motives are questioned due to her adamant refusal to relinquish her family’s control of a hospital. The Crawley family matriarch soon makes it clear she is more concerned about the development of an all-encompassing government.
The dowager countess, played by Maggie Smith, says:
For years, I’ve watched governments take control of our lives, and their argument is always the same: ‘Fewer costs, greater efficiency.’ But the result is the same, too. Less control by the people, more control by the State, until the individual’s anguishes count for nothing. That is what I consider my duty to resist.
The episode, entitled “The Engine Purrs,” debuted in the U.S. Jan. 24.
“Downton Abbey” is an internationally popular period drama that follows the lives of the English aristocratic Crawley family as they adapt to rapid social change, including the first World War. The sixth and final season is currently being broadcast in the United States on PBS.
Citing the creation of the famous Magna Carta, the countess argues that the aristocracy plays an important role in checking government power.
“You see, the point of a so-called great family is to protect our freedoms. That is why the barons made King John sign the Magna Carta,” she says.
The British Library describes the Magna Carta, issued by King John in 1215, as an “ancient defence against arbitrary and tyrannical rulers, and as a guarantor of individual liberties.”
When the countess’ daughter responds that the Crawleys are “not living in 1215, and the strengths of great families like ours is going,” the family matriarch appeals to the judgment of future generations.
“Your great-grandchildren won’t thank you when the state is all-powerful because we didn’t fight,” she says.
The structure of the English health care system has changed since the time of the fictitious Crawley matriarch. The country has had taxpayer-funded health care for every citizen since 1948, according to the National Health Service.
