Word: bagehot
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...course, it is hard enough to be a decent and intelligent private person. In the late 20th century, when the media magnify every private witlessness of public figures, then even the appearances of traditional majesty are at risk. Walter Bagehot wrote of the monarchy in the 19th century: "You must not let daylight in upon magic." You must not let daylight in upon Dracula either. Relentless public exposure is the death of grandeur, especially when there are tapes from the phone conversations. The tabloid is to the House of Windsor as a summer dawn to the Transylvanian count...
...their trials and tribulations on BBC-1. In many ways the royals do satisfy our need for instant gratification--so why not acknowledge it and give them their own television series? "Melrose Place" and "90210" will finally have some stiff competition. After all, as the Economist points out, even Bagehot conceded that to expect the sovereign always to be "virtuous [is] not rational...
...stops or elbow their way through soccer crowds? Would the British really relish a workaday monarchy like Denmark's? The problem with all solutions to the current problems of the royals is that their historically entrenched tradition is profoundly irrational. Early in Victoria's reign, Walter Bagehot wrote of the crown, "Its mystery is its life. We must not let in daylight upon magic." Sometime, probably not very far in the future, the British people will have to decide whether they want the magic or the daylight, since having both at one time is simply not working...