The Peasant had Pietas

BLOOD, TOIL, TEARS AND SWEAT, no class of humanity had pietas like the peasant. In the face of their brutal reality and the constant challenge of their basic survival, unrelenting sacrifice and devotion were their lifeblood. Hard work, religious piety, devotion to others and reverence for the natural order, they knew what it meant to be anchored to the earth. They had gravitas.

That's our yearning, I think. We don't crave the monarchy per se, we crave gravitas. Tradition, rootedness and substance in defiance of a superficial world. We fly, we float, we fancy about with no understanding of what is important. We lack depth, weightiness, whatever you want to call it, our present tense culture lacks any kind of seriousness, because not taking anything too seriously is considered the highest form of sophistication. Mellow dudes, everywhere you look.

And that's why the British Monarchy is in real trouble. Forget the republicans; at least they're grounded in certain - perhaps slightly misguided - principles; but of those "citizens" who are actually aware the monarchy exists, at least half openly scoff at it for ignorant or frivolous reasons. As David Warren reminded us last week, you simply "cannot write satire any more, for the world of our contemporaries is self-satirizing on an heroic scale".

Getting back to Roman virtue - pietas, gravitas, dignitas - where do you find it nowadays? There are no more peasants, just slaves to the latest fads and gadgets; business is about meeting the demands of skin deep consumerism; popular culture worships the famous for being famous; politicians swim with the tide; countries are just another form of branding to be marketed to the world; and the church, my church at least, seems intent on fretting away every last aspect of Christian orthodoxy. That would be Anglican, of course, the sad, very sad Church of England. Roman virtue may indeed require some kind of spiritual and religious homecoming.

The two greatest monarchies over the past thousand years have been the Roman Catholic Monarchy and the British Imperial Monarchy, and for a good period of time, the British one was the greater civiliser. For those of us who grew up in the shadow of Empire, we remember the Queen as a more magnificent, more popular, more prestigious figure than even the pope, but that all changed during the reign of John Paul II. It was soon after the Royal Wedding and the beginning of the Diana factor, that the Pope started to pull away. And then the void got bigger and bigger and just kept on getting bigger. There is a reason for that, and the reason is pietas, otherwise known as patriotism. There is a need for unity in this world, but people can only unite around something they believe in, and they can only believe in something if there is something there. Her Majesty has this quality in spades, but her subjects grow more shallow with each passing year. When will it be time to pull the ripchord, I wonder? When must we return to the fold?