Pat’s Polemics

We do not realize how deep world view can be. A world view I do not share is the belief in a heritable aristocracy. The idea is that if you trace your family back to some nobleman, you will inherit certain very positive characteristics that set you apart from ordinary mortals. This was brought home to me watching a program on Anastasia, the lost member of the czarist family murdered by the Bolsheviks. Several claimants to her identity have come forward over the years and a good deal of sleuthing went into the project of identifying or dismissing the claimant.
One man in particular was obsessed with this and had found what he believed was doubtless her [she]. As the team profiled in the program pursued her story, it became clear that rather than a Russian princess, she was a Polish factory girl. When this evidence was presented to the obsessed man, he refused to acknowledge it.
His refusal was based not on data but on the character of his favored choice and on the character he presumed for a Polish factory girl. All along, he had stated in interviews his stance that there was nothing special about Anastasia, no aristocratic heritage beyond that obtained by being raised in the royal household. But he became so angry when his claimant was dismissed that he erupted in a spewing of stereotypes regarding bearing, appearance, language, gait, values, and so on, all the old traits the aristocracy has always arrogated to itself: nobleness of being and of carriage, impeccable manners and generosity of spirit, high intellect and higher morals, qualities of leadership and noblesse oblige, and so on. It was quite revealing and disgusting. A Polish factory girl!!! he exploded. Impossible!!!
What was just as interesting was that a Polish factory girl had so mastered the details and behavior associated with any putative Anastasia that she fooled experts for a long time. A Polish factory girl, indeed! Yes, indeed.