Royal Pain in the Butt

If there's one thing I will never particularly understand, it's celebrities, or rather, the fascination with them. It almost seems as though people care more about the life of some actor or other famous figure than they do about their own. I personally feel that my life is far more interesting than any Hollywood personality's. No, I don't have a Ferrari, a house in Beverley Hills or whatever is is that celebrities have these days, but it's still my life, and I think that's a little more exciting than someone else's, since I do have a stake in it and all.

Still, at least celebrities in America are known for having done something. They're actors, or singers or make sex-tapes. Stuff like that. And while they might think they're better than you because they have more money, a bigger house and an expensive cocaine habit, at least they have some very small measure of logic driving that. However, what if some people were more famous than you, just because they were born that way?

I am surprised and a little disgusted by the enthusiasm America has shown for the Royal Wedding. Think about this: the American people care more about a wedding in Europe than do the Germans. That's right. German media hasn't been big on the whole affair. Probably because Germans have better things to worry about, like upholding the continental economy. But we, who fought an entire war against royalty, a war which in one seven-year stroke began the process of wiping royal influence from the entirety of the Western Hemisphere and created the best, most powerful republic the world has ever seen, are more fascinated by a charade without meaning which is hundreds of years out of date than countries in Europe.

The American Revolution is something a lot of Americans take for granted, and spend their lives not understanding the importance of. There are so many things about it that are unique. However, the one that applies to this situation is that it rejected the concept of monarchy, not only in government but in the social sphere as well.

As someone who studies American history, and in the name of honesty, I should disclose that a social structure based on class and the concept of "the gentleman" persisted for some time. However, the American Revolution was a major step towards the concept, as it was stated, "that all men are created equal."

One might say that all this is long in the past, and that it is, after all, just a wedding. But that's exactly the point. It's just a wedding. Those people, who are only famous because the British decided to keep them around for the sake of tradition, like animals in a zoo, are no better than you or I, and as an American, a real American, not the type who eats at McDonald's every day and can't read, but as a classical, liberal-minded American, who believes in the sovereignty of the individual and the concept that no man is born in a higher position than any other, who believes that no one deserves better treatment or respect because of a self-appointed title, that he must first earn his title and respect will follow, I am disgusted that so many of my so-called countrymen are fawning over this disgusting ceremony.

There are some who argue that it isn't about the royalty; it's just such a beautiful wedding. Is it? Weddings are supposed to be special, and shared with only those whom the people involved love and want to share it with. I realize that isn't always the case, but what kind of social prostitutes share their wedding with the entire world?

And think about this: what if the people involved don't want the entire world to see their marriage? What if they want privacy, but they can't have it, can't have what they want because - they're the royal couple! Is it so beautiful now? Or is it a little sad?

Americans were some of the first people in the modern age to realize that royalty in all its forms is bad. That's why we didn't just castrate its power like the British; we got rid of it completely. A man may make himself better, may improve himself by honest work and achievement. He may not, can not, be born that way. We were the first to realize this in the modern age, and by doing so, ushered in a new age - the age of modern republicanism, which, for all its flaws is still the best system in use today. Getting gushy over the royal wedding doesn't really have any political impact, but, as an American, I can't help but feel a little disgusted with the whole thing. It's an outdated symbol of a dark time, and no matter how we dress it up, it will always remain so. We don't put flowers on a swastika and call it a symbol of freedom, and we shouldn't glorify royal affairs and call them pretty, because in the end, no matter how harmless, royalty is still a concept which is repugnant to lovers of freedom and it will always bother those who understand what our nation was truly meant to be about.