Kings and Queens, if they reign long enough, can be both loved and hated at different junctures in their careers, depending on decisions that were and were not taken, verbal gaffes that were or were not spoken, the expertise or shortcomings of the royal spin doctors, etc. At the present time nobody in the whole of England is more popular than Queen Elizabeth II. This is because the royal PR department has been working almost every day in presenting the Queen in a good light ever since the Funeral Service of Princess Diana in September 1997 when the Queen was almost isolated by anti-royal sentiment -- and this within Westminster Abbey!
Most people's memory of the 1997 event is either forgotten or has been changed into something more benign in order to become consistent with the Queen's present popjularity. Feelings aganist the Queen were very high up to, and including, the day of Diana's Funeral. Previously, the Queen has disparaged Diana by not cutting her holiday short, by not flying the flag at Buckingham Palace at half mast and several other things. It was not, of course, the Queen who took these decisions but her advisors.
When Earl Spencer, Diana's brother, gave his Tribute in the Service he made a slightly critical remark about the royal negligence. The congregation of ordinary people that was gathered outside the Abbey listening to loudspeakers started applauding. It was so loud, in fact, that the invited congregation within the Abbey could not only hear the applause through the closed doors but started taking part in it! It swept most of the way to the front where the queen was sitting before it finally petered out.
The congregation within the Abbey were part of the social elite of England. They were very much part of what I call the 20-class and were not antipathetic towards royalty as those outside the Abbey (typically 80-class) were. Yet they applauded! The reason is what is called "peer pressure". The congregation within the Abbey was applauding a strong anti-royal sentiment because a sufficient number of others (even though outside the doors) were aplauding.
Peer pressure is so strong that only a very few exceptional individuals can resist it. It's an instinctive predisposition. It's safe enugh when confined to small groups and organizations. It's dangerous when it occurs in sizeable crowds becausee sentiment can then completly overwhelm reason or judgement. In the 1920s many German iintgellectuals made sure they didn't attend Hitler's Nuremburg Rallies because they'd seen friends of theirs attend one as sceptics and retujrn from one as a convinced Nazi.
Keith
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