As I get older I realize more and more just how difficult it is to understand human nature. Allow me to give you one example of my lack of understanding.

Some 250 years ago British colonists in North America became so disenchanted with the tyrannical rule of the British monarchy that they rose up in what became a bloody rebellion, out of which a new nation emerged, wherein everything British became hated. The names of everyday objects became Americanized; for example, chips became French fries (although this nomenclature became a little shaken in the early Bush years when the US became enraged that France refused to join its adventurism in Iraq, and Freedom fries were born). Toilets became restrooms, flats became apartments, spanners became wrenches, the letter “z” replaced the letter “s” in many words and colour, rumour, and humour lost their “u’s”, but glamour did not.  Such was the hatred of all things British that the citizens of the new nation even devised a different way of using a knife and fork to transport food from plate to mouth!

With this in mind, I was amazed (although not really) this morning at the gym that all four giant TV sets that are tuned to the four major networks (CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox) had simultaneously decided that they must devote a significant fraction of their morning shows to informing this erstwhile rebellious nation that the Duchess of Cambridge had gone into labor and had been taken to hospital. As far as I could observe, the anchors and invited experts in such things were fairly gushing about the upcoming emergence of what they are referring to as a “royal baby”. One reporter, with the gates of Buckingham palace as a backdrop, appeared to be dancing on the spot in her excitement (maybe a visit to the restroom was overdue?). So great is the furor of royal admiration here that the impression persists that nobody connects these modern-day royals with King George III, of whom the US Declaration of Independence pronounces, among other things:

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

It would be hard to believe that the US media of those days would be as gushing about the impending birth of a future monarch as we see today.

A couple of weeks ago I happened to return to the US from my Spring Sojourn in Italy. My arrival was on July 4, a day on which America, in its entirety, celebrates its independence from the oppression of the British monarch with a national holiday, cookouts and firework displays. All very proper, of course, and your correspondent has himself attended such festivities and joined in the fun. On none of these occasions could I discern that the words of Thomas Jefferson indicting George III were actually remembered; more to the point was that America became independent by whatever means necessary, and let’s celebrate that enjoyable result. Oh, and by the way, let’s all cuddle up to that once-most-hated British monarchy.

As a final note, written in the preamble of the self-same Declaration of Independence is the famous phrase “all men are created equal” (which at the time referred to white males only) will certainly not apply to the duchess’s forthcoming offspring. Even though she, and her eggs, are of common stock, application of the royal jelly confers a lofty rank to which all the rest of us must deferentially tug our forelock. Would that I had one!