- Americans And Royalty

We Americans are conditioned from birth to hold a degree of contempt for any royalty. We are each sovereign here after all, and are therefore all kings and queens - each and every one of us. There's an image for you to keep in mind at the Walmart checkout line.

The only exception to that pre-assumed contempt that I can think of off the top of my head is the Kennedy's, who seem to continue to get a pass as a family on virtually everything. But since the one generation of American who continues to worship at the altar of JFK is such an aberration in so many other ways, I don't think that really counts. As a rule we prefer to judge people individually in America not by family - which is what a genetic nobility is really about. And that makes intuitive sense to me.

I worked for a member of the British peerage for a short time while I was at JPMorgan. When his father died he was to be lord so and so, Duke of blah blah blah, I don't really remember. And I can say without hesitation that he was the most despicable human being I've ever had to deal with. He wasn't evil exactly, just obnoxious, entitled, self centered, treacherous, and rude. He was one of those big bank guys whose only real expertise was in backstabbing, and credit snatching. I hear he wasn't typical for the house of lords though because for all his severe character flaws he was actually very intelligent. And although you might not think so, that actually made him worse to deal with in many ways.

Among the royal family itself, prince Charles seems to be a remarkably obtuse man who is as universally wrongheaded as any of his generation. His first wife Diana, who still seems to be much admired in the Walmart line by the way, very nearly destroyed the monarchy itself. Part of that was the age which was ripe for the destruction of tradition, but that wasn't all of it. And I think a woman who was so dedicated to minimizing the stature of the crown wasn't the best marital choice for a man who if he weren't inheriting one of the world's oldest kingdoms would probably be suited only to a job like delivering the mail or driving a taxi or something. But to give the prince what credit he's due, his kids so far seemed to have turned out OK, and they obviously didn't get that from her.

Elizabeth though I like. If she is half the woman she appears to be in the dramatized depictions of her life that I've seen, then I think she's a woman to be much admired. Not quite so much for the role she was born into exactly, but for the grace that she's handled it with so far. She seems to understand her role in 'western civilization' is not irrelevant, and she doesn't treat it that way. And that's far more than you can say for most of these folks here at the Walmart.

The ground may be slipping away under her feet over there in London-istan, but I get the distinct impression that it's doing so over her every objection and efforts to the contrary. She may have been born into royalty, but she has clearly earned every drop of her nobility.

I'm sure she cares not at all, but for the few peasants I feel I can speak for, I wanted to wish her congratulations, and may she reign for much longer as pleases her.