Friday, April 29, 2011

Did NOT Watch the Royal Wedding :D

One of my professors (also AU's Methodist chaplain) shared this blog post a few days ago. The author gives plenty of reasons for Americans not to watch the wedding, namely because our attachment to anything royal flies in the face of our founding and tradition. I'm not saying anyone who watches this wedding is a dirty loyalist scumbag traitor. The truth is, Americans love watching the weddings of high profile people, due to the voyeuristic nature of our culture. However, it did give me some food for thought.

Why would I even bother watching the wedding of someone I don't know personally and who's life honestly has no bearing on mine? Why would I worry myself over Kate Middleton's dress, her title, the fact that she will no longer be able to vote (a tragedy if there ever was one) when the world itself is exploding? Why would I bother over the British royal family when I need to finish my study of our economic systems and a paper about the influence of religion on American and Irish rock stars (the latter nationality especially holding little fondness for the English)? Why would I bother with the romance of strangers when I've got my own to take care of?

It is sad that, while people are dying (literally, dying) for their freedom in the Middle East (something you'd think America would follow intensely, due to our own glorification of democratic/republican governments), we're concerned with how royals choose to wed. It scares me that, at a time when our own leaders have very little accountability and our own voting holds more of a symbolic power, that we'd choose to admire those whose power is also largely symbolic. To me, it's just another expression of how vain, vapid and meaningless our culture has become. Sadly, we've forgotten who we are.

So, in honor of the big occasion, I am going to sing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," read the Declaration of Independence, and revel in the fact that the only title anyone will ever use on me is Ms. Forget about the monarchy, we're a republican/democracy, damn it, and we need to reclaim power for our own people. Let's focus on more important issues. We have the potential to create something truly great.

2 comments:

  1. I would like to add that I am a Florentine (from a republic), a Scot (not a fan of the English) and an English girl whose family left England possibly because of the monarchy. So there :D

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  2. hahaha ur hilarious. Yeah so I dont watch it nor do I care. I think its sad that people spend time talking about it looking at it but perhaps I probably have some shallow habits others could call me out on too. It has nothing to do with me and nothing to do with bettering the lives of people on this earth. Why not elope and donate the money to the families being oppressed or killed by natural disasters but no thats not realistic.

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