Okay here goes…
I haver never met anyone who mourned the death of Diana, beyond what you might expect following the death of any public figure.
I don’t know anyone who signed a condolence book. I don’t know anyone who travelled to her funeral. I don’t know anyone who admits to having shed tears.
I am sick of being told by the media that the whole country ground to a halt. I am tired of being told that my fellow countrymen were “united in their grief”.
To make it absolutely clear: I didn’t grieve. Nobody I knew did. Nobody I have ever met did.
Two boys lost their mother. Undoubtedly sad. Like any other death I wish it had not happened.
It is symptomatic of the media mind control that I actually feel anxious about writing this. Like I am coming out of some kind of closet. But I am tired of being told by the BBC how EVERYONE reacted over this. It wasn’t everyone. I doubt it was even a majority and it certainly wasn’t me.
Now we have Ten Years On…
Please, cover the anniversary. Celebrate her life. Honour her memory. But stop lying about the scale of the mourning.
To put it in context I remember a dark cloud over me the day Tony Wilson died. His life touched mine because I had the best nights of my life in his club, dancing like a loon to the music he found, recorded and promoted.
But I am sorry, that is as sad as I get over someone I have never met.
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August 31, 2007 at 1:38 am
ILuvNUFC
Could’nt agree with you more. Like you said it was sad that someone died but the whole media thing just pees me off.
Funnily enough I just woke up on the first morning of our honeymoon when the news broke on TV and they even cancelled the Newcastle game that was live on Sky that we planned to see that day. Waaay over the top. :)
August 31, 2007 at 9:18 am
ourmanwhere
Well that’s another one that annoys me…why football is somehow a mechanism for sharing grief?
A local kid murdered - football club has a minute’s silence
9/11 - football has a minute’s silence
Bloody Princess Margaret dies who has never been to a game in her life - football has a minute’s silence.
Serial killer in Ipswich - Football team makes a statement
What do any of these have to do with football? I get wound up when people say that football fans do not observe minute’s silences well. But then sometimes it seems like every other week and yes, Princess Margaret was a low point.
On the fateful morning of Diana’s death I remember going around a mate’s house and I managed to say: “have you heard about…” before he cut me off and said: “sod, that, have you seen…they’ve canceled the football.”
Which might seem harsh but to me canceling the football was already an over reaction - let’s face it, not one fan would have missed the match due to grief. And Diana was hardly a football fan.
Everything that happened after as regards the reaction to her death just carried on taking it more and more waaaaaay over the top.
August 31, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Mike
Though I don’t live in the UK, I can speak to the lunacy of the celebrity-obsessed boobs here in the States. There were entire magazine specials dedicated to Diana and my guess is that they were some of the best-selling issues their publishers had ever seen.
Can anyone honestly admit that they’re stricken with debilitating grief at the loss of someone who they’ve never met and who had zero impact on their lives? My thought: for the people who have no drama/excitement in their own lives, it’s something dramatic and fleeting to latch onto; something to be a part of.
Tsk. It’s crap, I say.
September 4, 2007 at 4:56 pm
minxlj
I agree, and it just shows how crazy it all is that you actually feel anxious saying it out loud! I thought she seemed like a lovely person, she did some good with her AIDS and landmine charities, and of course it’s horribly sad when two boys lose their mother.
But, I didn’t know her, I never met her, and I think it would be pointless and false to ‘mourn’. A lot of people just got caught up in the media frenzy and went over the top, in my opinion. Wanting to be part of ’something’ and not actually asking themselves if Diana meant anything personal to them.
However, I remember vividly when Ayrton Senna was killed, and I was just a young kid. I was devastated, and shocked at the same time because I couldn’t figure out why it bothered me so much. I think it was my first real, clear understanding of death as up to that time none of my family had died and I didn’t know anyone who had. That’s all I can figure.
September 6, 2007 at 10:25 am
ourmanwhere
Mike and Minxlj,
It is celebrity obsession, I also think we are growing used to toeing the line as regards the media mind control - or to take that one more step - the media now instinctively follows the path of least resistance.
I just read that a planned environment day has now been halted by the BBC for being “too political”
When will people learn that the environment is not political. To add to that - the people who are making it political and who are hiding behind impartiality are the ones that will carry on trying to lobby governments to let them continue to pollute.
There is a serious side to this. We’re becoming increasingly afraid to speak out about what we think and feel.
I’ve read a number of blogs on the subject of Diana’s death and all seem to have the attitude of “well I was okay but other people…”
Well if it’s not me, and it’s not the people who answered here, and it’s not all the other bloggers. Who are these people? When are we going to face the fact that it was a tiny tiny minority.
Don’t believe the hype, as someone once said.