I didn’t want to shit on the thread on MPSIMS, but I have been surprised at the amount of emotion I’ve encountered about this event. When I came home from work, my wife said she was new tears. WTF?
I’ve never understood the affection and interest so many Americans seem to have for British royalty, and I’m not entirely sure what this Queen did that is so exceptional. As far as I can see, her greatest claim to fame is that she wasn’t as worthless as so many of her family members were. And then she lived for a really long time. I heard a bit of her coronation in the car, and the idea that G/god singled her out for this position of ridiculous wealth is extremely offensive to me. And I’ve never really understood why British folk thought that institution had any use in a modern world.
Sorry if this doesn’t live up to the standards of a proper pitting, but I just wanted to know if anyone else was at a loss to explain this outpouring of sadness.
I don’t completely get it myself, but she has always been there for most of us. He reign was 70 years.
As far as the use of a Queen/King, every financial analysis I’ve seen shows the Royals actually generate money for the UK. So might as well hang on to this strange affectation from the Dark Ages.
I’m not offended by the existence of the British Monarchy. It’s jolly good fun and all that. But I’m also not thrown off by the Queen’s death. She seemed nice, but nice people die all the time. I also didn’t really care when Prince died, or Betty White, or Rosa Parks. People die. Someone murdered like John Lenon, or MLK,Jr., that’s different.
But “confused by the emotion?” No. I just don’t share it. But I do recognize that many people are different than me, and do care about the passing of the Queen.
I don’t have anything much to say about Elizabeth, herself, but the American obsession with celebrities pisses me right the fuck off. You don’t have to be good. You don’t have to be useful. You just have to get your name in the news often enough, and Americans will fall over themselves to worship you.
Now, if Elizabeth had battled the minotaur to the death in single combat for the throne, that would be one thing. As it is, all she did was be born and not die. Well, she was born to the most specialist family in all of the UK.
The very thing that our forebears fought a war (two, really) to get away from.
All that said, I can’t imagine myself living like a royal. Sure, they have fame and treasure, but they don’t get their own life, they don’t really get their own opinions, and their main purpose seems to be “saving the monarchy.” I pity them because I can’t think of a more pointless existence.
Perhaps “confused by the emotion” was a poor choice of words. But I myself was confused, after reading the MPSIMS thread, in which so many folk were calling her “a great lady” and such. I mean, she was born into a world of unimaginable wealth and advantage, and seems to have acquitted herself well, in that she was not personally responsible for any huge scandals (not that I’ve been paying attention whether there were.) Seems odd that longevity + not fucking up = “great”.
Yeah, I get that there is some feeling of “loss” when something one has long been familiar with is gone. Folk in New Hampshire were upset when a chunk of rock fell off a cliff. But so much of what I’ve heard goes well beyond that. I have a hard time understanding that she was much other than a figurehead.
POTUS station on xm radio yesterday played a collection of her speeches from over the years. They were better than “not fucking up.” Sure, she probably didn’t write them, but she was in charge of their content and delivered them. I’m not disagreeing with your basic point, but only adding she did her job well (even if her job is a bit of an anachronism)
I was confused about the hysteria of grief when Diana died. But the Queen is different. She’s lived so long that she became a universal grandmother symbol for many. She didn’t ask to be born to a King and Queen; she didn’t ask to be thrust out a teenage prop in a World War; she didn’t ask that her father die at only 57, making her a Queen with two toddlers presiding over a country still officially rationing its food with its Empire dissolving before their eyes.
She could have made a million wrong choices doing an impossible job, with all its contradictions and no-right-answers. By all accounts she spent 70 years mostly getting it right. That’s an impressive achievement.
Does the UK need a Monarch? I don’t think so, but I have no standing to say and no understanding of what that means in the first place. Will anything change under Charles? Well, yeah, this is 2022, not 1953. The Firm is going to be turned inside out no matter what Charles does or what William does or what John Paul George Ringo does if it goes on that long. So this is truly the End of an Era. Those don’t come around every other day.
As much as I think the monarchy should have been abolished decades ago, she at least had some dignity and appeared to respect the fact that the idea that she is a “ruler” is an anachronistic fantasy. If we must have a symbolic figurehead, she was perfect in that role. I am saddened by her death principally because of the loss of her dignified presence in what follows. Charles is a meddling overprivileged corrupt wanker who seems to imagine he has a duty to try to shape the country to his ignorant vision.
Thanks for starting this thread. I, too, did not want to crap all over other threads where she is being eulogized. I think the whole Royal family thing is a big sham, and essentially “The Kardashians”, British-style. But, if the Brits like them and want to keep the show going, I’m not going to judge.
However, I do not understand the outpouring of grief here in the US over this. She was a celebrity and nothing more. While she seemed like a very nice lady, she had exactly zero to do with anything over here. Even over on the other side of the pond it seems everything she did was purely ceremonial and the Queen and the rest of the family don’t really have anything to do with governing Great Britain. Sure, I recognize people in GB may be upset about her death, but I agree it seems odd for so many Americans to get emotional about it.
She was born into a future job, and had that job thrust upon her at a young age. It’s not a bad job, for sure, there’s lots of money and influence, but it also makes her a VERY public figure. She did a really good job being the ceremonial head of state, did not make many missteps, and embodied a very positive image for her country, over 70 years.
I’m not in tears, but it’s sad to see the end of an era.
I’m a bit sorry to see the old girl go, but she lived a very long and eventful life and is now resting in peace. I have to say I admired her stamina. It takes someone very special, a particular temperament or extensive training to live life as a royal. I should think it exhausting, all that traveling, all those ceremonies, all that hand-shaking and constant attention and gossip.
Part of it might be that many of us have been watching The Crown on Netflix since 2016 (and especially in 2020, where it set a Nielson streaming record at that time), so we’ve almost literally seen “Elizabeth” grow up, in a matter that well suits our short American attention span. She’s an interesting figure and through the lens of The Crown is fairly admirable (I don’t think they go into colonialism too much in that show).
I’ve been watching The Crown and I’m not all emotional about her passing but, you know, people are different. People are very sad about the end of Better Call Saul.
She was a great queen because she understood the role of the monarchy in the modern world: To act as a source of stability and national unity during rapidly changing times, and to otherwise stay out of the way.
Think of all the ways her reign could have gone worse - she could have injected herself into political decisions all the time, dividing the people. She could have used her royal powers to attempt to override the government when she didn’t like what they were doing, causing a constitutional crisis. She could have had embarassing affairs or displayed her wealth ostentatiously by joining the jet set, sailing her yacht to St. Barts to hang with the brautiful people, showing up in a jet to opine at Davos, etc.
She did none of those things. She took her advise and consent role seriously, but never took it so far as to threaten the government or override the will of the people through their elected leaders. She remained on good terms with every Prime Minister regardless of party. She wasn’t churlish or overtly partisan. She weathered many family and national crises with grace.
Everyone dies, and she was just a woman. But the monarchy continues, and she set a very high standard for how to preside over it. I’m afraid Charles just won’t live up to it. But I hope I’m wrong. Britain needs a stable, non-controversial, liked by all monarch more now than it ever did.