My Week with Prince William, the quiet disruptor

4 comments

1. I don’t know how much people are going to buy the characterization of him as a “disruptor” when he represents an ancient institution and the most apparent change he’s making is doing less public work.

   I am skeptical of the idea of a monarchy. It’s the ultimate nepo job, and the job is propped up with taxpayer money and special legislation that exempts the nepo hire from taxes. There are no necessary qualifications aside from an accident at birth and there are only a few official job requirements. The vast majority of work is PR– keeping the public supportive of the idea of the monarchy. And, as skeptical as I am about the institution, I think the old strategy of being visible (I think there was something about needing to be seen to be believed or something) is the only viable strategy for keeping the public supportive of the institution.

   The monarchist argument on the value of monarchs is essentially symbolic leadership (I.e. the monarch represents history, tradition, etc.) and that requires a symbol (I.e. a **visible** monarch). If William is saying the value of the monarch’s work is what monarch can do behind the scenes, then that is not providing symbolic leadership. That requires providing tangible results, and it makes more sense for that role be filled on merit, not lineage.

2. When I first saw the headline, I thought it meant that she was given access to “shadow him” , which happened before with other royals, but she wasn’t, she just attended his public engagements like the rest of the press.

3. The quiet disruptor…? Of a thousand year old monarchy lol

   

4. This was a whole lot of nothing, royal reporters must be getting more and more hard up for content.

   We already know that Will and Kate are not interested in the “bread and butter” engagement model.  We already know that they’re trying to establish signature work.  What we don’t know (and what this reporter doesn’t have access to either) is how successful it will be, and whether it will be truly impactful.  Only time will tell there.

   It is interesting to me, and indicative of how truly static the institution of royalty is, that what William is doing would be considered disruptive.  He’s not really deviating from most of the traditions, he’s not becoming more politically active, he’s just doing less day to day appearances.  That’s like saying you’re making a huge change by going from charcoal gray to slate gray.

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