Modern Monarchs
As the UK transitions between one old fixture and another, we can ask: why do so many ordinary people yearn for someone to stand over them?
Few people in the world who have any access to the Internet will have failed to notice that Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and Head of the Commonwealth, died a few days ago. When Diana, quondam Princess of Wales, died in a car crash while heading home with her lover Dodi Fayed, the UK threw itself eagerly into paroxysms of well-publicized grief while the Royal Family remained silent. Only after intervention by the then-Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was concerned about the damage silence was doing to the Royal image, did the Queen issue a brief statement expressing “sympathy.”
Silence and reticence were at the core of Elizabeth II’s reign. One could say that her job, such as it was, centered around doing nothing and saying nothing of importance. Plenty of wrist-rotating waving and smiling, to be sure; but when it came to matters of substance the Queen — and the rest of the Royal Family — were studiously null. In theory she was Head of State; in reality she was a mannequin, a prop used by politicians and other unsavory types to legitimize their far less reticent actions.
