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.

That really was crazy but it was also a tragic death and the whole thing was over within a week (death to funeral was Sunday to Saturday). The country did change that week though, the famed stiff upper lip/keep calm and carry on of the Brit was gone forever.

No mass hysteria over the Queen in North Wales, so the "UK" definitely isn't suffering from it, maybe London is, but London is not the UK.

No I don't think so. It was different when Diana died, seemed much more frantic. This is legitimate sadness and long, patient queuing which is sort of the opposite of hysteria.

No.People are being respectful..Not sure what you mean TBH !The media is a bit OTT though.

No, people are not weeping and wailing in the streets, now that WOULD be mad!

I feel like that too.

in terms of mass psychosis, given the government actively encouraged it for one recent thing, it would not be a surprise to see it happen for another thing... but I don't think that's happening anyway.

A twenty minute wait or…..?

People are strange. The media plays a big part. Some of the hysteria over the last week does have some resemblance to the form of panic that swept the nation in the run up to the first lockdown. The toilet rolls and all the rest of it. And god forbid if you were a dissenting voice.

Don't be so ridiculous
People are just showing their respect , something we do rather well
She was very much loved & looked up to by many
Never judge someone's grief it reflects badly on you

Can you elaborate on the recent government-endorsed mass psychosis, please?

I haven’t gone mad.

I’m at work eating a Shepard’s pie.

Quite interested in the history of the monarchy though so I’ll probably watch the funeral.

Seems like some people have lost their minds. Who in their right mind would queue for 24 hours to walk past a coffin of someone they didn't know.

Utter madness.

Yes, they keep starting thread after thread.

This, I was going to ask how old the OP is.

I was 18 when Diana died and it did feel as though a significant chunk of the country had gone mental.

This all seems pretty much as expected (that may be in comparison).

I’m not seeing it amongst friends but there have been some nutjobs on bbc tv news, grown men and women snivelling into tissues. And the platitudes - “I met her when she opened the Anytown hospital in 1973 and she just sparkled, she was amazing, the nation’s nan, I can’t believe she’s gone ….yeah….can’t believe it…sad innit” and then the same nonsense from the next gammon in the queue.
Posters on here will tell me that I can switch over and they’d be correct. But I actually would like to know about Ukraine, the strength of the pound, the Olivia investigation and so on. So I do watch the news.

No not atall.

Just shortly after her death someone on LBC likened the queen to Martin Luther King. People are queuing for 10+ hours in all weathers to shuffle past a coffin. On Monday everything is going to be shut a la lockdown. People are being arrested for holding blank pieces of paper. Every e-screen in London has an image of the queen. I used to watch the Thick of It and once saw Armando Iannuci (sp?) say that he couldn't write for it anymore as the line between his comedy and reality had worn too thin. This is Black Mirror in real life.

It's not normal.

Can you give us any examples of this hysteria/psychosis that you're talking about? I've not seen any.

I saw 2 women on breakfast news earlier in the week saying (and showing) that they'd brought their husbands ashes to see the Queen lying in state. I mean come on to fuck.

Without doubt OP. There's going to be some psychology academics who get a PhD out of this in coming years!

I do like looking at the solders mad hats though.

Apart from whats reported on TV, all i ve seen is people having fun, we've had bands playing in our hall, a mass Indian take away, a few birthday celebrations and a big piss up planned for the BH, with all mention of funeral banned.

No one has been in the least bit "respectful"

I think less than 10% of the population care about her death, thats almost 7m people, so it seems like everyone is mad.

It would be similar if Kim Kardashian died. Boring people with no interesting lives of their own who have interest in the Royal Celebs.

I think something complicated is going on. I’m not sure how much of it is actually about the Queen; at least some of it, I think, is an outpouring of all the pent up emotions of the past few years, whether they stem from unresolved trauma from the pandemic, Brexit or whatever. Some kind of recognition that the country has changed dramatically in quite a short space of time, and the desire to seek out something that unifies rather than divides us.

Then there’s another group who just want to feel part of history; to be able to say ‘I was there’ or (often more pertinently) show others that they were there. The narcissism of mobile phones and social media is probably feeding into this to sone extent.

Psychologically it’s all quite interesting - not sure I’d describe it as mass hysteria exactly, but our collective psyche as a nation seems to be extremely fragile at the moment and the pilgrimage of ‘The Queue’ is clearly providing some kind of catharsis for a lot of people.