'Who's snuffed it now?'

[4D]

If that's the way you feel it should be then how can anyone answer your questions?

[Flashheart]

Eh? That doesn't make sense?

[Arriba]

 
Yeah we fucking get it. On all counts by now.

[sonicyouth]

[herthab]

I would imagine a lot of people thought Jimmy Savile was an OK sort of guy who selflessly used his fame to raise charitable monies.

Really? Was anybody really surprised when the revelations came out? The bloke was a walking caricature of a paedo!

[PetsWinPrizes]

Really? Was anybody really surprised when the revelations came out? The bloke was a walking caricature of a paedo!

Charlie Brooker had a theory that when he became famous in the 60s/70s, TV picture quality was so poor, people couldn't tell what an oddity he was.

[4D]

Eh? That doesn't make sense?

Just trying to break the circle 

We all have different opinions, we are entitled to them. I think some people draw the lines in different places, hence the reaction. Nothing more for anyone to say on this.

[Simon Pieman]

The tragic moment

[Samdy Gray]

Fuck it. We're going around in circles now.

[sonicyouth]

The tragic moment

Harrowing.

[Honkytonk]

Harrowing.

Serves him right, fat cunt.

[jayohaitchenn]

My opinion of Peaches is actually quite positive. She went from being a fucked up young girl with a fairly tragic past/upbringing into a lovely young woman with strong opinions and an air of grace and thougtfulness. She completely destroyed that horrible cunt Katie Hopkins in an interview on This Morning and came across as intelligent, caring and actually quite nice.

Her death, however, hasn't moved me in the slightest. She may as well have been a cartoon character for all the fucks I give.

[dalumpimunki]

Over 6,000 people I don't know die every hour. Nearly 1000 of them will be children, most in the developing world.

Whilst intellectually we might all agree that the death of all those young people is tragic, we don't, actually can't, go through any sort of emotional engagement or grief for those people. Human beings, quite sensibly, are programmed to care most about those closest to us, children, partners, immediate family, wider family and social network, tribe, local community etc.

We couldn't function if we felt the same way about the death of someone we never met as the death of a friend or family member, because it's happening all the time.

The variance in how people respond to the death of a celebrity, is not about how emotionally cold or engaged they are, it's about the extent to which they have accepted the concept, consciously or subconsciously, that because they've heard of this person, know all about them, are regularly given updates on what they are doing, that this means they have some sort of relationship.

When I hear about a death like this my thoughts tend to be not much more than "what a shame" but I don't FEEL anything much. I found it very difficult to take seriously the outpouring of grief around Diana Spencer's death for precisely these reasons. I couldn't understand people being so emotionally engaged with someone they'd only experienced through the media. It feels either:

- Childish - the equivalent of those young girls that are bawling in the street and needing counselling when some boy band splits up; or
- False - like people were misappropriating the grief of the woman's family and friends for effect

But I sort of had to accept that for a lot of them the feelings were genuine. There are people, and seemingly a hell of a lot of them, that are capable of forming an attachment to people they'd never met, never spoken to, who had never heard of them, and probably would never want to.

However, I'm pretty sure that no-one on here REALLY feels much of an emotional response to the death of the Geldof girl. What you're really arguing about is propriety. Some of you feel it's bad form to say anything negative about someone that's just died, or even to state that you don't care about that death.

Although many of those involved on that side of the debate don't seem to have much of a problem saying what the hell they like about people when they're alive. Odd?

Anyway, I don't think the two sides of this debate are actually that different. Your problem isn't feelings it's language and tone, which is difficult to get right in writing of this kind.

Those of you that are accusing others of being unfeeling need to honestly ask themselves this question:
"Do you really FEEL sad about this death? Or do you just THINK that this death is sad?"

I'm willing to bet for the most of you it's the later. You think the circumstance is sad, you think you should feel sad about it. But you don't actually feel any more than I do.

Maybe some of you don't know the difference, but one day you'll sit holding the hand of someone you love as they die and it'll become pretty clear.

[Samdy Gray]

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Over 6,000 people I don't know die every hour. Nearly 1000 of them will be children, most in the developing world.

Whilst intellectually we might all agree that the death of all those young people is tragic, we don't, actually can't, go through any sort of emotional engagement or grief for those people. Human beings, quite sensibly, are programmed to care most about those closest to us, children, partners, immediate family, wider family and social network, tribe, local community etc.

We couldn't function if we felt the same way about the death of someone we never met as the death of a friend or family member, because it's happening all the time.

I have to say, that is a damned fine post dalailama (didn't think there was any point quoting the whole thing). It's what I've kind of had floating around in my brain for a couple of days now but was too lazy to post - although if I'm honest, I couldn't have put it across anywhere near as succinctly as you have. I totally agree about the whole bizarre Diana thing, that was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. Any way, I don't think there's any more to be said on the subject. Good work.