“All kings is mostly rapscallions, as fur as I can make out.” –The Adventures of Huckleberry, Mark Twain
I don’t get all the attention so many of us give to the royal family in Great Britain. There, I said it. I confess my anti-royal bias. I await banishment to the dungeon by my Anglophile friends.
Why all the fuss we seem to make whenever there is a kerfuffle or change in the House of Windsor? It’s sad, yes, that England’s Prince Philip died at the age of 99 earlier this month, but does that event really merit so much media attention, front page coverage everywhere, from the Boston Globe to the New York Times to practically every other major newspaper? Or the dust up over Prince Harry and his American wife Megan Markle, and their decision to renounce their royalty and move to Los Angeles. And I should care because…? But Oprah interviews them and the ratings are through the roof as 17.3 million American TV sets are tuned in. Glued to the news, about the scandals and backbiting and palace racism, that shouldn’t be too surprising as the royals embody WASP privilege on steroids.
I really don’t give a whit about royalty except to say how anachronistic it is, at least to me, how irrelevant and kind of weird it feels to ascribe powers and pomp to someone, and all because of their genes, the luck of their birth, the lineage they claim. How odd is that? To think that someone is better than me, could actually rule over me, and all because they and their ilk have been swimming in the same small gene pool for a thousand years, or something like that.
Yet the world still loves its monarchs. As of 2019, 44 nations claim a monarch as head of state. These rulers come in all shapes and sizes and histories. There’s Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who also rules the Commonwealth (Canada, Australia, etc.). Or the King of Saudi Arabia, who rules his land, a theocracy, with fear and violence, as he also bathes in obscene wealth. Then there’s the Pope, who is considered the “king” of the Vatican State. He rules over 825 people, to be exact, in a country that’s 109 acres from stem to stern. Kind of weird, huh?
Of course, we in the states threw off the shackles of royal rule in 1776. Our nation was born in a revolt against the idea that a sovereign is somehow selected by God to have absolute power to rule over his or her subjects. Even though such autocratic rulers are now the exception and not the rule, and even though most kings and queens are now more figureheads than actual governing authorities, kind of like paid living statues, it is still strange that royalty lives on so strongly in 2021, this fascination with royals.
Royal worship in our country is most concentrated in Maine, according to Google search trends for queries about Prince Philip in the past month. Massachusetts is right up there at number four in the United States, which I wouldn’t expect from a place that was once the heart of anti-royalty fervor in our country. Why such kingly care, queenly curiosity, royal reverence?
Got me.
I’ve always been a bit creeped out by worship or adulation for any one human being: kings, queens, politicians, athletes, or Kardashians. In election season, when crowds of political acolytes fawn over candidates, swoon as they take selfies, and preen to get on camera, I’m perplexed as to why anyone would raise up to demigod status another person. Especially someone who uses their power, not to serve the people wisely, kindly or with wisdom, but instead rules with contempt, imperiousness, and arrogance. Kings and Queens and royal wannabees are mere mortals, subject to the temptation for human power just like anyone else.
Royalty once claimed, “the divine right of kings.” This is the political doctrine that declared sovereigns could not be held accountable to any earthly power for any of their actions and thus only answered to God. Look at the wreckage of European history, the royal intermarriages, the jockeying for earthly power, and the wars begun by royals for petulant or selfish reasons and it’s clear the price the world has paid for this form of government.
In the faith I practice, there is no divine right for any man or woman. Humankind is instead created as equal across the board, as loved and precious and good, no matter where you come from or what your background is or who you love or how you look…you get the idea. Royalty is the antithesis of God created egalitarianism. If God has favorites, I think it would be the powerless, not the powerful; the poor and not the royal rich; the throneless, the ones our world seems unable or unwilling to pay attention to, even as monarchs still make us gaga.
Here’s the extent of my royal worship: watching “The Crown” on Netflix. It’s good soap opera-ish, dramatic and funny and smart TV. As to the rest of royal drama?
Not my cup of tea.
No comments:
Post a Comment