I have never understood the fascination that people have with the British royal family, a truly useless and parasitic group if there ever was one. And it is not only Americans who seem to be so obsessed. I was in Sri Lanka when Charles and Diana got married and the English-speaking community there seemed to talk about nothing else.
We are now seeing this replayed with the upcoming wedding of their son. What amuses me is that people are so concerned about the minutiae of ‘royal etiquette’ as if causing offense to the royal family by breaking some rule that does not apply to anyone else was one of the worst things one could do. In a previous post titled God save us from the Queen I said that it is absurd for the queen to expect any more respect than we would give any elderly woman.
Stephen Colbert deservedly pokes fun at all this.
Dear Mano,
That entire family make my stomach churn. I was visiting London when Charles and Di did their thing, we had to get out of town, it was so ridiculous. Funnily enough we went to Wales where many a person said that THEY had never asked to have a prince by the name of Charles or any other name at all. Then I taught in London on an exchange program and we were given a day off work to have an audience with Margarette or Anne or some other prat. So we were given all the protocol, supposed to wear white gloves, how to stand in line to shake the royal hand, etc. etc. So I chose to go to work that day instead. Another exchange teacher at my school did go so my colleagues knew I was shunning the event. They actually were a bit peeved at me, I was never quite sure why. I did not denounce anybody, just said I chose to teach my pupils instead. Another thing that sickens me is when rock stars accept the knighthood s--t. Well, I don’t want to go on and on.
Take care,
Mary Jo
Dear Mano,
Not all of us have the intelligence and ability to be entertained only by what the cultural elite approves. Some of us find the royal wedding entertaining; it allows us to fantasize about people who seem not to have the troubles of ordinary people, it gives us an escape from the daily drudgery of life, it gives us pleasure to partake vicariously in the excitement of wedding dresses and beautiful brides. A myriad reasons, perhaps some unknown even to us.
I have never understood the interest in sports.Were you watching world cup cricket because it was going to make you a better person and give you some ideas to save the world?
Just wondering, Siya.
Hello
not that Mano needs me to defend his positions but in response to Siya i would say this. With sports people are actuall doiing something that requires actual effort and ability. in sports the BS ends cause either you can do it ( ugggg no pun intended) or you can’t. Now sadly in the United States its possible to doop a general manager into a mega million dollar contract in sports like Basket Ball and Baseball but that is a systemic problem.
The royal family does NOTHING AT ALL. they leach of centuries of theft, plunderung, and looting. When you know this you have to reject anything to do with them, they have not earned anyting, promoted anything, improved anything, cured a disease, they are no better then a common criminal gang living of ill gotten gains. The one thing to be done ” stop royal breeding.”