A rchive Date
[ 24-09-2022 ]
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[ Obituary ]
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[Http://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-queen-elizabeth-ii-was-an-anchor-in-an-angry-and-unsettled-era/
Queen Elizabeth II was an anchor in an angry and unsettled era
A true personification of the idea of duty and through the entire 70 years of her reign
Rex Murphy Sep 09, 2022
As long as she was here, as long as she persisted in full dutifulness to the role she was born to, we could say that there was at least one person in all the high offices of the West who manifested and maintained the ideal of dignity.
The word as well as the practice is a lost commodity these days, and has in so many ways been usurped by its polar opposite, vulgarity. Vulgarity is often the premise of fame, indeed how it’s purchased for many, and it has become a tidal force in all areas of public life. Should I begin to tabulate examples there would be no end. From television to fashion to business to universities to politics crude and vulgar rules, and that decayed ideal of dignity, dignity of person and conduct, save for the high example of Elizabeth II - is a ghost presence.
Somehow this singular lady, without ostentation, with immense discipline, resisted the opposing tide of the era, and over the immense span of 70 years as Monarch gave a model of that ancient virtue that exerts the full meaning of the word inspirational.
How distant she was - infinitely removed - from the very notion of self-display, of the apparent compulsion of so many “public figures” to flood the tabloids, the internet, the press with their every wince and wandering, how far from the gluttonous appetites of our “celebrities” to parade themselves, their petty dramas and triumphs, to find the “I” in every happening, and the “me” in every moment.
It all came from a second dying virtue, another word and practice that lives more in the dictionary than in our current lifestyles - duty. To see a duty, to know a duty, and to live a duty - to make one’s whole life a servant to the idea of duty, that is exceptional to the point of being unique.
Queen Elizabeth II was a true personification of the idea of duty and through the entire 70 years of her reign there is not a moment when she fell short or deviated from its rigorous imperatives. Not one.
Duty and Dignity, as the world response to her passing already clearly shows, though both are so unobliged in the tumult of today’s media, entertainment and politics, are the elements of real charisma.
This unobtrusive, personally reticent, demure and decent person is being hailed and saluted from every corner of the globe; the world over people, moved by her passing, are taking note of those qualities that were the essence of her character, noting that self-denial, steadfastness of purpose, resolute response to the demands of a most singular role, combine to form an inspirational whole.
What a sweep of British history it is over which she unfailingly presided. And there will be a myriad of accounts over the next days, months and years of her tenure.
But surely it is in these very late years of her reign, and in particular in its very last and recent days, when having lost her consort and bulwark, Prince Philip she continued in her duties, solid, even cheerful, and always present that she most captured such affection and respect.
Only two passings in our time have had an equal resonance, that of Winston Churchill and John Paul II. But Elizabeth was neither pope nor prime minister. She was to use the mingy term, just a “figurehead.” Meaning she had no real executive power. All the more remarkable then is it that from what is regarded as a figurative role she came to exercise such sway, excite such affection, and command, most of all, such respect. Hers was a power that came from example, and the example was founded on those twin virtues of dignity and duty.
There are, as we would expect in this tormented and shallow time, a few howls of anger and extremely ill-judged expressions of malice or hatred from the performative rage artists of twitter or the university, at her passing. They are, happily, but wavelets from the tides of vulgarity, and where not sublimely mocked and rebuked, are but the detritus of ignorant minds seeking a little egotistic anti-fame.
From Buckingham Palace to the outskirts of what was once the British Empire her passing has summoned grief, respect and gratitude. She was an anchor in an angry and unsettled era, an icon of stability and perseverance and dedication always to the task at hand.
Monarch of Great Britain for 70 years, and all a Queen could be.
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