Grappling with the a generational Influence of "Queen and Country"

There is an aspect of my childhood that I have not revisited as an adult in a meaningful way until now. A recent examination of personal barriers, has triggered a new way of looking at my Father that I have not considered before. Enculturation, the process by which one encorporates the aspects and expectations of ones cultural environment into ones own psyche. As a white, anglo saxon male, the archetype of american success, I have lived in denial surrounding what this author is newly discovering to be enculturation.

My father's mother came from a solid Scottish family tracing it's linage back into the highlands past record time. That said, Grandmother was a devout follower of the Queen of England and viewed herself to be from the upper servant class. She was, for most of her life, a Governess by profession.

While she lived and worked in the Boston area most of her adult life, she identified as a Scottish Brit, not an Scottish-American. Her loyalty was always to the Queen and she taught this to her son, who, in turn, confused me with it.

While I do not celebrate a loyalty to the Queen of England, I understand the importance of "knowing ones place" and Deferring to authority in ways that those who are not blessed with a linage of service to ones betters can never understand.

If one has a predisposition to deferring to "ones betters", it is difficult to objectively and critically think about aspects of issues that are "above ones station". The struggle of casting off this yolk is a challenge to the clear application of logic and critical thinking.