Americans seem to be as absorbed in mourning Queen Elizabeth II as Britons are. But Why?
Part of the answer must be, I suppose, must the style and elegance of the British mourners we encounter in the media. Good show! Or, to put it more bluntly, good fashion show.
Surely there’s more to it than that. Three things, in fact, all tied to the symbolic power of monarchy.
First is the assurance of stability which monarchy brings. Things will not change with every swing of the electoral pendulum, Monarchs endure – perhap not s long as the late Queen did, but a seeming eternity by American standards.
Second, the British monarch is not, or at least pretends not to be, the creature of one political party, thereby assuring the citizenry that government aims to serve all its citizens. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic and at both ends of the political spectrum profess this, but the American political system requires the head of state also to be head of government, and leader of a political party - an almost impossible conflict of interests.. No wonder, then, if Americans sometimes look to the British monarchy for an assurance they cannot find at home.
Third, and perhaps most important, a constitutional monarchy sends a reassuring message about hierarchy. We can imagine a truly egalitarian society, but we have not found a way to organize a society without hierarchies of many sorts. Again, we seek reassurance that the distribution of power along a vertical axis need not be a “construct” designed to suppress those of lower status, as some theoreticians warn us.
These are all symbolic messages, not necessarily backed up by facts, economic or social, or by the harsh realities of politicking. Like most symbols, they speak to our unconscious minds as well as to our practical instincts. Yet they are messages we crave to hear – all humans do, I suspect, semper et ubique. Without their presence in some form or other, citizenship is an anvious state of being, and political life looks acrss the icean for reassurance,.
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PS: If this is right, we need to think more rigorously about politics, ancient and modern, as symbolic messaging..
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Part of the answer must be, I suppose, must the style and elegance of the British mourners we encounter in the media. Good show! Or, to put it more bluntly, good fashion show.
Surely there’s more to it than that. Three things, in fact, all tied to the symbolic power of monarchy.
First is the assurance of stability which monarchy brings. Things will not change with every swing of the electoral pendulum, Monarchs endure – perhap not s long as the late Queen did, but a seeming eternity by American standards.
Second, the British monarch is not, or at least pretends not to be, the creature of one political party, thereby assuring the citizenry that government aims to serve all its citizens. Politicians on both sides of the Atlantic and at both ends of the political spectrum profess this, but the American political system requires the head of state also to be head of government, and leader of a political party - an almost impossible conflict of interests.. No wonder, then, if Americans sometimes look to the British monarchy for an assurance they cannot find at home.
Third, and perhaps most important, a constitutional monarchy sends a reassuring message about hierarchy. We can imagine a truly egalitarian society, but we have not found a way to organize a society without hierarchies of many sorts. Again, we seek reassurance that the distribution of power along a vertical axis need not be a “construct” designed to suppress those of lower status, as some theoreticians warn us.
These are all symbolic messages, not necessarily backed up by facts, economic or social, or by the harsh realities of politicking. Like most symbols, they speak to our unconscious minds as well as to our practical instincts. Yet they are messages we crave to hear – all humans do, I suspect, semper et ubique. Without their presence in some form or other, citizenship is an anvious state of being, and political life looks acrss the icean for reassurance,.
--
PS: If this is right, we need to think more rigorously about politics, ancient and modern, as symbolic messaging..
.