I must confess that I have always struggled to understand why people, especially Americans, care so much about the always evolving soap opera surrounding the royal family. From my perspective, the most interesting thing about them is the fact that everyone finds them so interesting. Maybe this is how we all get sucked in. It’s a bit like walking down the sidewalk and noticing a group of people sitting on someone’s front lawn, intently watching the grass grow. You stop and stare at the people who are staring at the grass, fascinated by the fact that they’re fascinated by this mundane thing. Another group stops and stares at you, and on an on, until a million people are gazing aimlessly, none exactly sure what they’re looking at or why. I admit that this analogy is probably a bit unfair to grass. Grass may be decorative, like the royal family, but it’s also functional, unlike the royal family.
If you have been a sentient human in western civilization for the past year, you probably heard that two of the least functional and most boring of this group, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, split off from the family and came to America in pursuit of privacy and, as Meghan put it, an “authentic” and “back to basics” life. They might have had all of those things, too, if they really wanted them. If that was the aim, they could have dropped out of the public eye, retreated to a cabin in the wilderness, and lived in quiet solitude and reflection. But that’s not the path they chose. Instead, Harry and Meghan stepped away from the pomp and circumstance of celebrity life overseas only to embrace the pomp and circumstance of celebrity life in the United States.
The couple purchased a humble little 15 million dollar mansion in Southern California, signed a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix, and then another deal with Spotify, and set to work reclaiming their “privacy” by deliberately calling attention to themselves in all of the most lucrative possible ways. As part of this effort to live a basic life in their 18,000 square foot home, the Netflix stars did a major primetime interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired this weekend. During the interview, Harry and Meghan, reclining on a patio that costs more than your house, explained in great detail why they are victims. After a year that saw thousands of Americans die of COVID and millions more fall into destitution because of government lockdowns, it was important for the viewing public to be reminded that our deepest sympathies should be reserved for a fabulously wealthy Hollywood actress who left her husband, married a prince, and then signed a deal with Netflix.
But she has a good reason to demand our sympathy. As she explained to Oprah, the British press was mean to her. People on social media were also mean to her. And she was subjected to all kinds of public pressure and scrutiny. She even discovered that the royal family is a bit dysfunctional behind the scenes, if you can believe it. Come to think of it, you definitely can believe it. Indeed, you might argue, she certainly knew that there would be lots of public pressure and scrutiny and dysfunction when she chose to marry into that life. I would have known that, and I follow the royal family about as little as a person in modern western culture can follow them. I don’t even know all their names (is Charles the old one or the really old one?). But Meghan was somehow blindsided by the totally foreseeable results of the actions she deliberately took.
She also claims, notably, that racist comments were made about her unborn son. She won’t reveal who made the racist comments, which means either that she made them up or that she’s willing to let the press endlessly speculate as to the culprit — inevitably casting aspersions on innocent parties in the process — rather than simply naming the person responsible. Whatever the case, it is hard to see anyone within proximity of this drama as any sort of victim. Meghan and Harry want to have their victim cake and eat it too, and their mansion and cry in it too, and their Netflix deal and privacy too, and they mostly get away with the charade because they understand how victimhood works nowadays.
Victimhood is the social currency of our culture, and Meghan and Harry seek to become wealthier in that currency than they are in regular dollars and cents. Lucky for them, the rules of intersectionality cut in their favor. Though these are two spoiled brats in a dispute with other spoiled brats, Meghan is the least white of the bunch. Her comparative lack of whiteness gives her sole possession of the victimhood crown. If her beef was with someone less white than her — or less straight, for that matter — she would be the villain in the story. But in this case, she is publicly dumping on people who are further down the intersectionality ladder than herself. That makes her right even if she’s wrong. She wins by default. And that explains why the mainstream American media has mostly rushed to her defense, not bothering to hear the other side.
As for me, I don’t know or much care who is the most wrong or the most right between the Harry-Meghan camp on the one side and the royal family camp on the other. What I can say is that they are all horrid in their own special ways and none of them are victims of anything or anyone. If there is a victim here, it is us, the public, because we are the ones who have to listen to these godawful people whine.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.