I’m not ashamed to say
that I woke up at 5:15 am on Friday to watch the royal wedding. For
anyone interested in plumbing the socio-political imagination of the
British this was a must see event.
I was not disappointed. And I came away with a surprising insight. It
came to me about the time when the entire Commonwealth burst into “God
Save the Queen” during the ceremony. People wept. Flags were waved. The
country was one because of a little old woman in a sweet hat.
The British love the queen. They may not love their government. They
may loathe David Cameron. But what holds together an impressive
diversity of religious, cultural, political and economic persuasions is a
hearty, unabashed sentimentalism for the royal family. If you’d like
evidence of this see the BBC special on the Queen. It is mind-boggling
to see who comes together under the banner of HRH.
Which led me ponder: If America had a royal family maybe we wouldn’t
need Tocquevillian nonsense. We wouldn’t have to be a “city on a hill.”
Instead, we’d have a queen. In Britain the queen bears the brunt of
exceptionalism. There’s something different about the royals.
They know what they have to live up to and they spend their lives being
groomed to promote an image that unites. They hold no political opinions
and they make no decisions. But the royal family plays a powerful role
in deflecting the pressure from the real decision-makers of the country.
Let me give you an example. When the British discovered that John
Prescott, the Deputy Foreign Minister and Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary
were both having extra-marital affairs it was a media fuss but, to my
memory, there were no calls for the resignation of either. In fact, then
Prime Minister Tony Blair explains in his memoir that the real problem
was the way the government manipulated the media unnecessarily; the
public was tolerant of sexual misdemeanors. Compare this with Bill
Clinton who was actually impeached for his affair with Monica
Lewinksy because Americans somehow reasoned that being morally
upstanding has something to do with being an effective political leader.
I wonder if part of the reason for these very different reactions is
that every country needs a royal. And if you don’t have one you roll
your royalist expectations into the national leader, the form of
government or the nation-state itself. Maybe we would be just a little
better off if we had a few figureheads upon whom we could cast our
unrealistic expectations, fears and loyalties.
For my part, God save the Queen.
Originally posted at Sign on the Window.
