Our strange obsession with royalty
It’s been roughly 250 years since we Americans decided that we’d had enough of the British monarchy and wanted to try out this crazy democracy thing. Our country’s founders even went to war to shake off the shackles of King George III and his “taxation without representation.” We still love the fact that George Washington, our first president, voluntarily left public office after his second term, confirming that we would not backslide into autocracy.
But, for some reason, more than two centuries later, we still can’t get enough of Britain’s royal family. Oprah Winfrey’s much-talked-about interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle drew an estimated 17 million viewers in the United States — a stunning number in an era when it’s really difficult to get a lot of people to watch the same thing at once.
I hate to admit it, but I was almost one of those 17 million viewers. When I told my wife that I might tune in, she was a bit shocked. Normally, she has to fill me in on “who’s who” in the British royal family. It’s point of pride for me that I don’t know all of the dukes, dutchesses, lords, ladies and whatever else they call themselves. The fact that the United Kingdom still has a monarchy — even a mostly ceremonial one — is laughable to me. If I were British, and even one dime of my taxes went to supporting their extravagant lifestyles, I’d renounce my citizenship purely on principle.
But there is something interesting about the story of Harry and Meghan. The fact that she’s American-born and mixed-race makes her seem a living link between our two countries. For many people, it may have first seemed that she was living out a fantasy — an American “commoner” falls in love with a British prince and so on. From what I can tell, though, marrying into the royal family seems like volunteering for a nightmare.
Of course,mostof whatI“know”about the Britain’s House of Windsor comes from the Netflix show “The Crown.” Before that came along, I was even more in the dark about the whole royal lineage. Now, I’m familiar with at least the TV versions of people like Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.
The latest season featuring the travails of Princess Diana really cemented my anti-monarchy opinions. The loveless marriages, constant backstabbing and stubborn obsession with “keeping up appearances” makes we wonder why anyone would want to keep that institution going. In America, we have Hollywood and reality TV for that kind of thing.
To me, the royal family drama is a nice break from American politics and continuing COVID coverage. I’d like to think George Washington would get a kick out of how the once-dominant monarchy is now just an entertaining sideshow.
OUT FOR A WALK
KEVIN O’BRIEN
EDITOR
