Elizabeth II was a matte screen that allowed people from all over the world to project their own preferences and fears onto her. Like Peter Sellers’ character in “Being There,” she had an ambiguous presence: she was there, albeit passively there. All kinds of people could see themselves in her, since there was so little of her own personality that could shine through the barriers protocol erected around her.
In Brazil, a popular expression was to compare people who failed to exercise power (even while holding positions of authority), to the Queen of England. “So-and-so is like the Queen of England: he doesn’t really have any power!” Yet in other parts of the world there were people who even celebrated her death: to them the Queen was a symbol of British power: oppression, snobbism and prepotency. People saw in her what they wanted to see.
Many criticized her for not abdicating in favor of her son Charles. For some reason, it seems that she thought Charles was not fit to be King… and she delayed his accession until it was inevitable, due to her own passing.
As she is laid to rest, the critics are silent, for now. Yet I believe she deserves to be honored for everything she was, both good and bad. She was, after all, still human, despite being that symbol of a fading empire and the target of so many diverse projections.
