Rule, Britannia?

The happy couple - Courtesy of the Windsors

by blogSpotter
What is it about the Royals that gives Americans a total case of Brit Envy? Prince William and commoner Kate Middleton will tie the knot tomorrow, April 29th. There has been a news blitz unlike anything since … well the 1981 marriage of Diana and Charles. While Charles and Di's hitch-up seemed a little bogus and prearranged, Will and Kate seem to have the “real deal” – true love, whatever that actually entails. Kate, like Diana, has Cover Girl looks that any model from the Ford Agency would envy. She could probably buy her clothes at Ross Dress for Less and still look like a million dollars.

That brings me to the next (semi-related) topic – the odd fissures that have occurred between Anglo and American culture over the many years. The fictional Professor Henry Higgins noted our nations' common language, English, while adding … “Americans haven't spoken it for years”. Our original 13 colonies were brought along under England's sometimes protective (sometimes oppressive) wing and yet as American revolutionary upstarts we rejected many of England's other cultural offerings. Where to begin?

Americans do not have a king. It was actually proposed, but by the late 18th century no one was certain how you establish a royal bloodline in anyway that is credible or certifiable. Even in medieval times a regal pedigree was probably questionable but it became very established, protected by the passage of time and tradition. We also do not have a Church of America like the Church of England. It was expressly rejected by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the others – we didn't want “blood-soaked soil” as Europe (in the hands of 18th century religious zealots) was described.

We must have hated England with the ferocity that a 14 year old boy hates his old man... We ditched pounds and shillings and created our own monetary system of dollars and cents. We took a page from their Parliament but created a bicameral Congress with no references to Lords or Commoners – see above passage about permanent designations of Royalty or Lordliness. We were so distanced from England that we drove our carriages on the right side of the road and we abandoned High Tea. Also out the window were Shepherd's Pie and other English culinary items.

In point of fact, we have recreated an alternate England with an American twist. Mainstream protestantism is more or less our “Church of America” – it's a social norm that politicians best observe. We don't have royalty from “on high” but you should know that we have an entrenched, wealthy 1% that pulls most of the strings in our society. The Rockefellers and DuPonts could probably buy Windsor Castle and could say “off with your head” in a figurative sense to be sure.

It's a two way street and we've given back to Great Britain as much as we've taken...We've exported Starbucks to England so that their High Tea may face a cultural volley of lattes and cappuccinos. We also gave them Muddy Waters, Elvis and Fifty Cent which has intermingled variously with their own musical forms. Did I mention that we probably helped keep them from oblivion in World War II? We Americans do nurse an affection for a motherland culture which beguiles us with Beef Eaters, double-decker buses, red phone booths and vintage looking taxi cabs. What the hey – we probably also have a cultural debt owing to Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and the Beatles no less.

How do we love England? We love it mightily, so much so that we probably would advise the Founding Fathers if we could – the Red Coats really weren't so bad. We wouldn't want to bring Shillings or shepherd's pie back to America but we have never really cast away the shared history and cultural bonds. Despite the two nations' disparate powers and capacities in the early 21st century, England and America have a tremendous shared reverence. And America, without any princes to speak of, turns back to Britannia for its needed dose of regal fantasies. Congratulations to Will and Kate.

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