Is the royal soap opera about certainty rather than drama?

In response to my article about speculation concerning the Royal Family and the Princess of Wales, one question that came back was whether I was sure that the motivation was to create drama and soap opera.   Isn’t it the case that people need certainty in life and without God, they desperately need something to fill that void? To some extent, for some, it was the calming presence of Queen Elizabeth II that offered this and without her there, people feel all at sea and dissatisfied with life since

Well, first of all, I agree that people do need and long for certainty, they need an anchor or sure foundation for their lives.  Indeed, there will be some who will have found that in the long reign of a monarch, even if not their own. My argument that people also need drama in their lives is not intended to and doesn’t contradict that. It is possible for people to desire both.  Sometimes, the two coalesce so that it is the ongoing routine of the soap opera, just like getting your nightly fix of Coronation Street or East Enders that provides a comforting certainty.

However, I would suggest two things.  First that those who will have looked to the late Queen for certainty will be in a dwindling minority.  Secondly, that even if there are those whose concern re Royal Family stories is the need for certainty and even if some of them will have been unnerved by the withdrawal of two royals from public life due to health reasons, this does not seem to be what is at work with social media storms.  Indeed, if we look at what is happening, we see that there are those intent to cook up a storm of uncertainty where there was no need for such.

As I explained in my previous post, there had been a clear explanation about the Princess’s medical needs and statement that it would be Easter at the earliest when she would return to public duty.  The principle of Occam’s razor, that the simplest explanation is probably the best explanation applies here and that is where most people would instinctively go.

So, what we have seen in this specific example is people choosing to ignore the simple straight forward explanation and create uncertainty.  And that’s why I argued that it was about the need for drama.  One reason why we love these micro dramas, these soap operas is because they often give us a vehicle to place ourselves at the centre of the story and that’s what you see with a lot of the output on Kate. People like to feel that they are in the know, that they have access to privileged information, that they got the news before everyone else.  They also like to take the specific rumour and link into their own bigger narrative about life and seek to fit it in with their theories and ideas. 

As I indicated in my first post, I’m reflecting on what I’m observing in this case based on wider experience of how people tend to function.  Once again, I would repeat that the best antidote for this need is to help people be captivated by God’s big story in the Gospel.