In The Young Pope, Pius XIII, played by Jude Law, soon understands that maintaining his power depends more on his ability to remain unseen than on exposure. The mystery, life locked in an inaccessible space, paradoxically increases its influence on the faithful. It’s Queen Elizabeth II’s way of accumulating symbolic power, and a sign that her death further accelerates the sense of living at the end of an era, another step in our process of disenchantment with the world. Post-war philosophers spoke of the drying up of fantasy, myth and arcana, of their replacement by streamlined and transparent bureaucratic structures, but Elizabeth II instinctively kept them stuck in the past. She did it, too, from her intrepid aristocracy: she herself embodied the mystery.
Perhaps it’s more unique today when European monarchies debate the need to open up to survive and speak of “closeness,” while something as secular as the French Republic strives to imitate the cult of myth…even to to survive. The new leaders, as embodied by Sanna Marin, also build on their ability to identify. We like them because they show us their intimacy and we see someone who is similar to us. There are also old egocratic leaderships, more like Cristina Kirchner, who also instinctively proclaim that the attack suffered is an attack on Peronism itself, which symbolically absorbs popular representation. Which model is more effective for attracting and retaining power?
Elizabeth II’s charismatic legitimacy was fueled by mystery in a world where we must constantly expose ourselves as something. Unlike our monarchy, this compelled her not to abdicate, as her popularity, based on the arcane, far outstripped that of her son. His funeral with a liturgy calculated to the millimeter contains the swindle of the old empire, today in the post-Brexit hangover and with another resounding loss of prestige. With Elizabeth II, the British understood the importance of rites to hold community together because, as Byung-Chul Han tells us, rites create community without communication, when communication only creates tribes. Rituals, such as politeness, “enable not only a pleasant interaction between people, but also a proper and respectful handling of things.” Forms are the prerequisite for trust and respect to exist, and Elizabeth II took the maxim to the extreme by understanding her role: being herself, pure ritual. And while it may not take that much, now that democratic discussion is fraught with disunity and anger, perhaps we can learn something from what he has achieved with his administration: that the gestures of courtesy, deference and recognition, the forms and rites, they are anachronisms. They are also the breadwinners of every communicative ideal of democracy.
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