Zuckerberg/Obama vs. Windsor/Cameron/Branson??? – 2 very different royalty’s
I follow whats happening with Mark Zuckerberg – because im heavily into tech and am also an avid user of facebook.
Its impossible, with the impending Royal wedding, not to be aware of the Royal family in the UK at the moment.
As such, ive been thinking a little bit lately about the 2 different ‘royalties’ in the UK.
One, in the US, is a meritocracy, a middle-class guy, well (and i mean partially Harvard) educated who created through his own talents a multi-billion company with huge popularity and based on his skills to identify a market and build a website to fill a niche.
Another, is a pure hereditary, system of an aristocratic family, with inherited wealth and title and privelege – i.e the windsors.
Let me be clear, i wish no ill will on either, but it seems to me that the opportunity and the feeling that ‘anyone can make it’ and there is no class baggage and let me also add simlarly less racial baggage (Mark Zuckerbergs girlfriend is Harvard educated and Chinese-American, Kate is English, White, Middle-Class) – for all that people are saying its a ‘normal’ ‘middle-class’ girl becoming a royal, theres not much that has really changed in the traditional way of things in the UK, in this particular institutional regard.
I really do wish the soon to be wedded couple, much happiness on a personal level, but on an institutional level – it seems to me that the US is rapidly moving ahead and charting new territory, creating wealth and prosperity and, with the first african-american president and technological innovation, while the UK and Europe are in some aspects stuck in tradition and conservatism.
Let me say, as a current student at the oldest English speaking university in the world, Oxford, i really do appreciate the tradition, and having come from a middle-class, ethnic minority background in the UK am thankful for opportunities provided me, so i’m not saying this statement about all of British or American society – but really more to do with social aspiration and the possibilties of achievement represented by these 2 individuals. (Yes, i know Britain had a female prime-minister first 
I am also studying as a software engineer and so appreciate the technical advantages that the UK has.
I’m proud of my Britishness(within the context of being a world citizen), but am happy (and with my recent acquisition of a greencard and impending move to the US) very much looking forward to the potential of the ‘New World’ and taking full advantage of the meritocracy that the Zuckerberg/Obama royalty represent.
April 24, 2011 at 10:00 pm
I’m glad you qualified this and said that you’re talking about individuals and not countries otherwise you might have upset some people.
I think your conclusion depends on which individuals you pick. If instead of these two, you chose George W Bush (who I might suggest owes much of the lofty position he reached to the Bush family name and riches, hereditary rather than any kind of merit) with any other famous Brit (say Richard Branson or Simon Cowell who attained their standing through merit) the opposite is true.
Also, the Winklevii might argue your point on how much Zuckerberg gained through his own merit and how much he ‘inherited’ from elsewhere.
On your racial point, I don’t have much first hand experience of this, but I get the impression the UK is far more open to those born outside its shores than the US is.
April 24, 2011 at 11:54 pm
Hi Dunc
I may have been a bit in a bad mood this morning….anyways.
But, that said – your right, im not applying these thoughts to a country as a whole. Without having any other experience to really compare it to – most of my friends and my childhood and most of my life have been in the UK.
That said, maybe what im trying to kind of say, and not doing a good job, is that to a large extent some of the individuals and the experience of those individuals who have positions of responsibility in the UK to some extent, at the moment, dont represent the experience of most of my friends and family. Maybe because its on BBC & CNN so much, i just picked the upcoming royal wedding, and people were talking about how the royal family symbolizes the UK. I dont get that, and i dont get that connection much at all. I do like the tradition and history etc., but basically dont get how the royal family ‘symbolizes’ anything to do with modern Britain. Im sure Kate & William are lovely, and the fact that they are kind of normal, is a better connection for me, i suppose. But, also i guess the reason, that i picked up on this, was that i just listened to Obama speak and an interview with Zuckerberg, and where something about the Royals says ‘we’re better than you’ to me, Obama/Zuckerberg kind of says ‘you can do this too’ – which i like.
Sorry this is such a long reply.
ps – the funny thing is that when i was in China, i was the opposite, and much more nationalistic about UK. funny that.
April 25, 2011 at 12:34 am
also….
i dont think that this type of egalitarianism/optimism is unique to the US, as i think that Tony Blair & Princess Di kind of gave off that sense also.
April 25, 2011 at 1:00 am
finally….
i will probably be watching the wedding next week