Is the UK suffering from mass hysteria?

[User135644]

The Queen's passing is sad and seismic and the funeral will be a special occasion.

However, people genuinely seem to have gone mad.

I think we're so buttoned-up and passive aggressive as a nation, we use occasions like this (and Diana) as a release valve.

@PemberleyMoon

I'm starting to think it really is a class issue. I'm seeing this too. The less, um... fortunate are the ones attention seeking and drawing 'RIP LIZ' in the window, whereas people with... fuller lives have better things to do.

What a sneery little post.

I'm not a royalist and the level of shutting everything etc has been surprising (and morally disappointing when it comes to things like food banks) to me - there there have been many, many things I've disagreed with or thought have been handled poorly.

But I don't speak about people who feel differently with such a sneery, superior tone that reveals a really nasty streak in you.

Same here.

It's the anti-queen people that seem to be going on about it the most in my experience.

I think it's interesting how quickly things snapped back to normal in Edinburgh after all the upheaval of the past week. It seems the moment Her Majesty's plane took off it was business as usual - even the radio resumed their normal content quite abruptly. Flags at half mast otherwise you'd never know anything sugnificant just happened.

I find the almost delusional positive spin interesting. A hereditary monarch is political and on that basis the bad as well as the good should be voiced.
I was particularly offended by the newspaper headlines claiming she was the nation's grandmother. Four kids, three with spectacular bad marriages including the whole creepy virgin thing with Charles and Andrew. (Charles was 32, Diana 20 when married, 16 when they met).
That's dreadful guidance. Her whole reign has constantly been behind the times. All of this has been ignored. It's crazy to subject one family to this slavery to celebrity handshaking. It's not in the public interest to know where any kids go to school, imagine being a six year old, knowing your life is mapped out till you are potentially 96. I feel sorry for us and for them.

Tbh, everyone I know is just carrying on as normal. No mass hysteria here...barely much acknowledgement of the Queen's death really, other than the odd comment here and there. I think most people would agree that she showed an incredible commitment to public service during her lifetime, that it was a bit sad that she had died and that it was obviously a significantloss for her loved ones, but life just carries on as normal for the rest of us. Except that we get an extra bank holiday.

I don't know anyone who has actually gone to stand in the queue or who is planning to go to the funeral etc. I expect many will watch it on TV as it's a historic occasion and few of us will have witnessed a full state funeral before.

The media coverage has been a bit OTT, but that was to be expected after 70 years on the throne, I suppose. And yes, there are some ardent royalists in the crowds who have been terribly affected by the Queen's passing, but I don't actually think they are representative of the population as a whole?

I don't know about the UK, but it was still the tradition when my grandfather was buried in Ireland (the open casket was in a room off the church rather than at home though). All of the locals filed past and said their condolences to the family, even if they were on their way to work.

Yeah I think Ireland is very different to England in lots of social practices and norms.

Yes, it's lunacy.

how many people have gone to see the coffin or the hearse drive past, I wonder? There may be “crowds”, which look like the whole nation has turned out, but in reality it will be a tiny percentage of the country. I don’t know of a single person in my acquaintance who has been or has any desire to go, even amongst my wider FB friends and friends of friends, plenty of whom like the royal family. Not one like or comment have I seen. It’s odd.

I think a lot of people have gone completely nuts OP. A 96-year-old woman who almost none of us knew has died. Yes, she was a good Queen and yes, it's the end of an era, but all this public wailing and emoting? Bleugh! Can't stand it and can't wait until the fucking funeral is over and we can all go back to normal life.

Yes, queuing all night to look at a coffin is mad.
Being distraught about the death of a 96 year old woman you didn't personally know is crazy
Leaving marmalade sandwiches and Paddington Bears outside the palace when some children don't get enough to eat is mad.
Cancelling operations and medical appointments when they waiting list is already too long is mad.
Closing foodbanks for the day when some people are desperate is wrong
Supermarkets reducing the sound on their checkouts as a symbol of respect is bonkers
Center Parcs stance is just unbelievable

I feel the Queen was all about duty and doing the right thing. I wonder if she would approve of all the above.
Quiet contemplation and respect for a life well led is understandable but what we have witnessed in the last week seems to be senseless

Exactly. I think people are seeing the extreme end of public reaction on TV and assuming that it reflects what's happening across the whole nation. It really isn't!!

Me too
The nation does get swept up into a mood by the media. Viz the recent heatwave and the English men's team's progress in the Euros (booooo!) All I see is people getting on with their daily lives.

Quiet contemplation and respect for a life well led is understandable but what we have witnessed in the last week seems to be senseless

Well it happens all over the world and throughout history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lying_in_state

My impression is that the Queue is jovial : people feel privileged and happy to pay their respects. And feature people from all walks of life. Closing supermarkets & cancelling a million things I can't support, but the Queue is a net good thing. They should extend its life really (Chairman Mao like?)

Please give examples. I've seen no mass hysteria.

People are leaving marmalade sandwiches as if from an imaginary, talking bear.

People are standing in a queue for approximately twenty hours to shuffle past a coffin.

People have pretended there’s no cost of living crisis going on or a planet earth on its knees and are leaving plastic wrapped, flown-in cut flowers to rot in parks.

Absolutely! it’s amazing how many people have latched on to the queen’s death like she was someone they knew or a personal friend. The royal wedding cost was about £5m just for security so just imagine this funeral and coronation - at a time when people can’t even afford to eat... The whole thing makes me sick !

No

I don’t mind the RF too much but I’m starting to think a whole nation has been brainwashed. The world has gone mad. Here where the Queen is Lord of Mann not our Queen the local food bank has been closed as a mark of respect to one of the richest people in the world.
Smack of irony to me.

In human societies, people have symbolic relationships that are not literal.

Sometimes we say things that aren't true; these are called stories and myths. Sometimes stories and myths and symbols are ways of communicating and bonding with each other to build a collective myth called a society. A society is sort of like a shared set of lies we agree to pretend are true. Money, for example, is a shared lie we agree to believe in. So is a monarchy.

When people do things like leave marmalade sandwiches on a gate, it's not because they believe there are talking bears. It's because they are enacting a collective story that connects them with other people. They are taking part in their own lives, and also taking part in the life of the nation, a shared myth that lives between and beyond us all. It is a symbolic expression. It's not hysteria. It's a normal part of human society and you will find it all over the world.

You are not required to agree with it, believe in it, or take part. (I am not taking part.) But let's not pretend there's anything mad about it. It's madder to pretend you don't understand what stories are.

personally I find the whole public grieving thing ridiculous. OK she was the queen. you didn't know her, she's not your mom or grandmother or even related to your best friend's second cousin. In my opinion her passing doesn't rate much more than "that's a shame, sorrow for her family". Not the hours and hours of queuing, or the non stop "I feel for you, tell me your grief" that's all over the radio.

piles of flowers wasted and for what? If people want to do something do something as a tribute then donate to the food bank, plant a tree in a local beauty spot, do something nice for your neighbour. But don't go wailing about the loss of someone you don't actually know.

and no, you don't know her. no more than you know anybody you see on the telly.

Its not a story though - the story was that skit she did with a green screen.

This is leaving literal food and notes for a person who can’t see it. During a time where actual alive people are going hungry due to a shambolic government.

We have an NHS on its knees, top earners bonuses no longer 'capped', an energy and financial crisis and an inactive government - yet we are funding this national pantomime to the tune of Billions - that's what is insane! Charles was on record as wanting to slim down the expense of monarchy .........that went well didn't it!
So for those thinking it's a great idea to spend so much public money on this, don't complain when you cannot get an ambulance, cannot get on the surgical list, cannot get full staffing of your kids school etc etc
How much better a legacy would it have been to say 'no expense to be put into carrying a corpse around the country..........put the money into healthcare and helping the homeless etc'