Diana

[wimp]

I just dont get it.People crying for someone they never met or just know through TV. OK,some people may have met her and I can understand that but unless it's a good friend or relative you actually know,why all the crying.Diana was a lovely person but I dont know her enough to cry over.What do you think about people crying over a celebrity/personality that they have never met or known?

[NoMercy]

I've never cried for the passing of a famous person but I have cried my heart out hearing about some appalling acts of animal cruelty. I cried buckets when all those dogs died in that dogs' home fire in Manchester.

[andy-hughes]

This was the first example in the modern era of a populace uniting in grief over the death of a celebrity - which is what Diana was in the wider scheme of things.

It's not entirely new - thousands turned out to weep and wail over the death of the silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

It was, and remains, a fascinating phenomenon, that people do appear to feel grief at the death of someone they knew vicariously.

In many ways, it speaks to the same voracious desire to be 'involved' that feeds celebrity culture in general, and specifically the endless appetite for more and more images of the famous, which ironically may have contributed to the crash - since the car was being pursued by the usual hoards of paparazzi.

Why do we need this constant update of images and 'information' about people we don't know? And why are so many people still consumed by the passing of the biggest celebrity of all?

I don't know - but I am sure there is one or more psychologists preparing talks for cruise ships based on that very subject.

[Sqad]

Wimp........the human mind is a complex conception and i must say that I agree with you. Some people are emotionally fragile, some stolid and others act in an unfathomable way. I find it difficult to grieve, I find it impossible to attribute R.I.P in an obituary (how else can you Rest?)
But there is no shortage of folks who are willing and eager to beat their breasts, throw themselves to the floor, kicking and screaming to give vent to this mysterious emotion.

[mikey4444]

just what is amazing about people showing grief for Diana ?

I recall reading a few years ago, that when Nelson died, the whole of Britain want into mourning. There was a similar response when Elvis died.

Just what is so bloody wrong about people showing some public grief ?

[andy-hughes]

mikey - //Just what is so bloody wrong about people showing some public grief ? //

wimp is not suggesting that there is anything 'wrong' with it - he merely wonders why it happens, and asked for opinions.

[Sqad]

mikey.....mikey.......nobody is saying that it is wrong to show grief, all they are saying is that they don't understand the mechanism of the emotion behind this phenomenon.

[Mamyalynne]

I was rather surprised at how much her death moved me, not to the point of wailing in the street or laying flowers but a sad emptiness that I shouldn't really have felt for someone I didn't know.

[sunny-dave]

Nothing is wrong, mikey - I don't understand it, but I don't criticise it either.

What *is* wrong is those of use who can't join in what I feel to be a ghoulish public mawkfest being pilloried as insensitive clods.

[douglas9401]

Dead!? When did all this happen then? Why no news coverage?

[sunny-dave]

The Duke of £dinburgh has censored it all, doogie

[Sqad]

LOl ^^^ mamy ! of all the people on AB, you would be the first that i would name as being ....can't think of the word.......emotiono-labile ( I have just made that word up)

[Sqad]

Try "psycho-labile"....I have made that up too......LOL

[Mamyalynne]

Really? As I say I felt moved by her death but not griefstricken or wanting to light a candle etc.

I recall feeling sorry for those who were on their knees in floods of tears at the Palace, must be awful to be so affected by grief of a person unknown to you.

We have enough to cope with in our own lives without going out to find new angst.

[albaqwerty]

I seem to remember some 'expert' mentioning mass hysteria.

One person starts and the others susceptible follow suit.

[NoMercy]

What I can't get my head around is where the last 20 years have gone. I remember turning on the telly and hearing the news like it was yesterday - only it's been 2 whole decades! Astonishing....

[Mamyalynne]

I used to fall asleep during Mass, maybe that's why it missed me.

[hereIam]

I wept when she died and I don't feel I have to justify it to anyone, I just did.

[Garaman]

Just another example of how humans are only capable of understanding like-minded humans.

[Mamyalynne]

You shouldn't need to justify it, exactly.

[wimp]

mikey4444 As was pointed out I didn't say it was wrong,i just don't get it!!