Henri Paul (who I think was still at Wigan before joining Bradford, must have been moonlighting as a chauffeur).
Dodi Fayed (heir to a debt mountain).

Didn't the 'if you love Saddam so much [...] move to Iran and live with the Taliban' give it away?

Oooh, I think you get a prize now.

You need something like the death of Diana every now and again to remind you that not everyone thinks the same way you do.

Back in Victorian days I understand that public displays of personal grief were the norm. For exapmle, widows would wear black for a full year and would correrspond using black-edged paper. So, I guess that the stiff upper lip attitude may have come about via the carnage of WW1 - wouldn't want morale slipping due to millions pouring out their grief. That would have continued on to WW2 and beyond. For all but the oldest in our society WW2 has become a thing of history rather than personal experience. Nowadays, personal grief is supposed to be overcome with maybe a week off work or less (whereas the actual grief lasts much longer). So, maybe the outpourings of public grief for the well-known are an expression of suppressed private grief?

All those people wailing over dead celebs/footballers/royalty they've never met are just trying to draw attention to themselves. "Look at me, I'm in pain".

I never met any of the folk on the Titanic.
I can however 100 years later after its unfortunate demise feel very sad about their circumstances with regard to lack of lifeboat room and pulling of rank.
If I had been alive in New York at the time I would have felt a compulsion to go and see the arrival of the survivors.
Compassion I suppose.
Not goulish ogling.

And similarly with Diana I just felt it was a shame she wasn't wearing her seat belt and died probably unecessarily.

I usually feel sadness for people who haven't had a good innings in their life like the people in Norway.
If someone has had a good innings the feeling is mitigated.

And if I didn't have these feelings I would question myself.

Well I think there is something that links some of the original examples posted by Minty in this thread.

Football - this is almost a religion to some and as country I think far too many people are obsessed by it.

Royalty - as in Diana's death. There are many people who clearly still love or are obsessed with the Royal Family.

So to my mind these two things, football and Royalty both have huge public followings and as a result get a heck of a lot of coverage. So there is some sort of collective body of "fans" for want of a better word that will all react to events that occur to anyone in these spheres en-mass.

I also think there is some self serving bandwagon motive about such things. Soccer "coming together" over the Muamba thing was an opportunity for the fans to paint the game in a good light. A cynical view? Maybe but I bet there is some truth in it.

I myself having no interest whatsoever in soccer and only took a very passing interest in the Muamba situation because it made the headlines and was an unusual situation.

I was more affected by Ian Millward's loss when his son died but even that was probably because I have a son of the same age rather than because of the RL involvement but I suppose I may never even of heard of this had I not been an RL fan as RL people just don't get the same coverage in the national press.

There seems to be some sort of herd mentality when we see such big reactions to certain events. Whether this mentality is now more prominent than it used to be is the question. I think it is. In the past (say 60's and 70's) soccer wasn't the obsession it is today. It was just another game for many whereas now its a religion for many more.

I am trying to think which such "religion" I belong to but I can't really think of one.

Nobody's obsessed with, say, RL? Don't forget that, when Terry Newton died, it became verboten to discuss anything bad he'd done in his career – and that's actually an entirely relevant point within he context of this thread.



I doubt it very much. It was mostly a social media response and then was reported on by the mainstream media. I didn't see it being used to suddenly pretend that all football fans were some sort of angels.



Understandable.



I'd agree with this.



And support for monarchism as a whole is probably less, which rather ruins your point, I'm afraid.

I didn't cry when Diana died. In fact, the reaction of the mourners there made me (perhaps inappropriately) laugh.

I did, however, cry when I watched the Twin Towers come down. I didn't know anyone in them and have never been to New York, but I cried.

A few times actually.