Society

Meghan is 39, I thought she was younger. Harry is 36. She is mixed race and he a member of the Royal Family. This makes her a target in the the way the Wallace Simpson was a target. When you buy into the Royal Family or are born into it, you follow the rules. Princess Margaret could not marry the man she loved, and she spent a lifetime fighting the consequences.

Harry’s Mother

Harry’s mother, Diana Princess of Wales, who was previously married to Charles the heir to the throne, died in a car crash when Harry was thirteen years old. There was a huge blaze of publicity around the event. Thousands upon thousands of people stood vigil outside Buckingham Palace. They loved the human face of the Royal Family that said that the world could be a more caring place. It took advice from Tony Blair the Prime Minister before the Queen acceded to lowering the flag at the Palace. She was seen as unnecessarily vindictive or cold or uncaring for not lowering the flag earlier. At the very least she seen as lacking understanding, which is a grievous fault in a reigning monarch.

Apart from this blip, the Queen has carried out her duties conscientiously throughout her reign. I am not looking at that here, but at Harry’s thinking.

The Royal Family and Business

Harry’s father, Prince Charles, has a thriving business based around organic agriculture. One of his uncles, Prince Andrew, has been involved as a middleman in any number of businesses. Another uncle, Prince Edward, owns a television production company.

All of these roles sit easily with the notion of the Royal Family’s life of service. In return for that service they are granted money out of the public purse.

Harry and Meghan and Business

Harry and Meghan could have gone into business that would sit easily with Harry’s Royal heritage. Instead, he and Meghan have marketed themselves. And that is a river that once crossed there is no coming back from. They are the product and their customers will want to examine the goods in detail.

It occurs to me that Harry may want to bring down the Royal Family because of what happened to his mother. What stars in the heavens brought Harry and Meghan together?

Should The Monarchy Go?

That question is being asked, and when I was young I would have said yes, the monarchy should go. It was after all a remnant of the discredited divine right of kings.

Then I read a line in a book, that before getting rid of something, make sure you have something with which to replace it. And that’s the big question. Yes, the end of the monarchy could go some way to ending social stratification in Britain.

But who would bring down the monarchy? It wouldn’t be the Conservative party. They would support the monarchy to the end. So if the monarchy fell it would be against a much bigger picture – revolution. We have had it before in the Interregnum under Cromwell and a civil war. What might come out of it this time? A one-party monolithic state? It’s possible – anything can happen in the heat of social disintegration.

While good men argue, bad men walk in and take over. So before getting rid of something, make sure you have something valuable with which to replace it.

In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan said that social scientists should study the medium itself, not the content in it. He said that the characteristics of the medium dictates the message. He coined the phrase, ‘The medium is the message.’

In the 1960s entry to almost every kind of medium was controlled by the gatekeepers, so there wasn’t a whole lot of experimental stuff to see. There were a few counter-culture papers, but that was about it.

What would it be like, we wondered, if the gatekeepers who allowed access to publication were removed and everyone could say their piece?

Fast forward to today where people on all sides can speak to an audience.

And with what result? People have burned the bridges that connect them to people of opposite opinions. Politicians of all stripes have shown they are not statesmen: They too are caught in the fashion of hurling insults.

The medium encourages it, with isolated, insulated insults hurled by people whose intent is to cause hurt and pain. What pain are they in that they must give vent the way they do? What confusion swirls about them that they feel driven to do it? Will they grow tired of it?

Is this a blip on the road to a global village when we unite in recognition that we are all in this together? Whether kicking and screaming or dancing, it is going to happen.