The Firm vs. Harry and Meghan… and Cornel West
OK, I admit it — I watched the Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Hey, I’m still in lockdown, I’ve finished a new book (including the tedious production/photo credits/fact-checking/legal phase)… and I have a little time on my hands. So here are my un-expert reactions to the latest Royal Tempest: Meghan is impressively smart and articulate, Oprah is a hell of a celebrity interviewer, and Prince Charles — poor old, cold, remote Charley — is in deep shit. Again. Can’t he even answer his son’s phone calls? I mean, if Harry IS his son. He looks a lot like the royal guardsman who was keeping Princess Diana company when the Windsors were freezing her out. But now, I’m getting too deep into the royal woods… and — as with The Crown or Bridgerton — after a while, I begin to fall asleep. I’m a good Yankee, and ultimately all things monarchical bore me.
But then there’s… THE FIRM! This is the latest I’ve heard about the royal deep state — the faceless bureaucrats who wield the real power at Buckingham Palace and apparently have alienated Harry and Meghan. I can’t find out anything truly revealing about the Firm — and I wish that I cared enough to keep digging.
Meanwhile, back at one of America’s royal palaces — Harvard University — esteemed scholar Cornel West has left its ivy-covered walls for the more plebeian (and radical) halls of the Union Theological Seminary, where he began his academic career. West was denied tenure by Harvard — a weird, boneheaded decision during these post-George Floyd times, like the Royal Family’s decision to snub half-Black Meghan and her babies. Harvard’s denial of tenure to the distinguished, 67-year-old West is especially odd because the university already granted him tenure during an earlier stint there, as did Princeton and Yale. West’s only explanation for Harvard’s insulting decision was that he has aged out in the academic marketplace — or, even more disturbing, he violated a strict university taboo with his outspoken defense of Palestinian rights.
The Royal Family and Harvard University. Both are sclerotic, elitist anachronisms in supposedly modern, diverse democracies. Both institutions are run by “firms” with hidden ties to special interests. Why do we the people still revere them? Where are the guys with Viking helmets and antler horns when you really need them?
