People losing their minds!!

[vroom321]

I've put the news on today for the first time since Friday. Had constant twitter / news notifications so heard what's happening.

This morning I've heard people say they saw the queen as a second grandmother. They are as upset as they would be if they lost their mum.

People queuing during their night with their primary age kids.

Just seems a bit mad no?

It is crazy and performative grief.
After Diana died was worse though. So many flowers in front of the gates, people were queuing for hours to sign condolence books in local Town halls.

These people obviously don’t have much else to worry about.

I mean, Diana’s death was shocking and tragic so I can sort of see why people’s grief was more consuming and visible.
As an irish person, though, I don’t really understand the massive grief the country is feeling anyway, but it certainly is interesting to hear peoples perspectives and I can acknowledge it is an historic moment.

I tuned into the lying in state for a few minutes last night our of curiosity. People were saying how moving they thought it was but I was totally baffled by it. I found it farcical and creepy. Grown adult humans sobbing and prostrate in their adulation and grief.

And non-stop coverage on the news channels. I mean really. Non stop? I know it's a big event but how much can you draw out the death of a 96 year old woman. Last I recall there was something about an energy and cost of living crisis and a war in Europe? Can't quite recall.

Most shamefully, they are cancelling NHS surgeries and appointments! When it's already on its knees trying to work through the pandemic backlog.

I'm as fond of the queen as the next person but we need a bit of a reality check here!

I agree. I can’t understand what I am seeing on the news at all.

I'm not a royalist and would never queue to see the lying in state, but I don't get the need some people have to look down their noses at the people who do care about the Queen and do want to queue.

"you could just maintain a dignified silence, in the aftermath of OUR QUEEN"

No. I'm neither a republican nor a royalist but people are entitled to express whatever opinion they want on the subject, even if YOU don't like it.

Here too. I get why it’s moving to people and if they want to do it, up to them.

I can see it would be something to be in the hall, and the queue itself probably brings more to it along lines of community etc

I’m not really sad, but I am appreciating the aesthetics and tradition

Anyway I get others don’t feel the same and don’t care at all, which is their choice

The amount of media exposure it’s being given - and also the nature of it - clearly meets any definition of propaganda/conditioning.
The Queen dying is a notable event, it’s big news, but for it to be given the same sort of coverage as, say, the attack on the Twin Towers is absurd.
Who gains from it? Well the Royals for one obviously. Beyond that anyone and everyone who benefits from status quo of mass public deference to unearned /unjust authority and an unfair/unjust social system - be it in the acceptance of hereditary Lords or acceptance of zero hour contracts and food banks in supposedly one of the 10 richest countries on the planet.

Never a time when Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle is needed more.

The jumble of confusion between religion, marketing, events as consolation for an empty life has rarely been in better focus.

No. I'm neither a republican nor a royalist but people are entitled to express whatever opinion they want on the subject, even if YOU don't like it.

And equally people are entitled to behave however they want to regarding the Queen's death, even if YOU don't like it.

Yes, exactly. I have never said any different. Why so defensive?

Diana it was much more tragic than the Queen she died in her 30s in an accident. The Queen died in her bed at the ripe old age of 96. It's sad but the natural way of things .

I guess you're entitled to an opinion.

So do the MN royalists feel like the media is representing your grief at the loss of the Queen fairly when they pick out those from the crowd who are bereft at her loss, feeling as though they have lost a member of their own family?

Or do you feel unfairly represented, as though your stoic and quiet grief has been ignored in favour of a more newsworthy grief?

Totally agree OP. It is a very notable event, and a sad one at that, but it is a bit over the top. I was shocked (to a degree, she was 96 after all) when I heard the news on the radio last week and understand the radio stations' decision to play music reflective of how everyone was feeling, but, after 2 days of depressing ballads on the radio, it was a bit tiresome.
I feel a bit sad for the royal family who are actually grieving the loss of their beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother. It should be a private intimate moment, but it's been turned into a glorified publicity fest - people setting up picnics and tents to see her coffin drive by on its way to London, people queuing to see her coffin as it sits in 'rest'. I wonder if she's seeing all of this and getting a bit overwhelmed - what a hassle when she's supposed to be 'at rest'! Again, same for her family who are grieving as well...such a tough time for them and they're also having to deal with the public grieving right in their faces!

No one is telling anyone what they can and can't do, they're just simply voicing their opinion on the matter. However, telling someone to "stay silent" on their opinion because they personally find it "disrespectful" is thought policing.

All the parading the coffin from pillar to post seems so undignified

I have been thinking that for a few days about the coffin being lugged around from pillar to post. And there are people calling for the cortege to Windsor to be longer, the queen should have come from Scotland by train...I know it was what the queen planned but it's not dignified.

It’s not just the queen (the lady) dying though is it? She was an incredible queen and it’s sad she had gone. But it’s far more significant than that.
Kids learn in schools about past monarchs. This country is steeped in royalty, castles, landed gentry property. You can go 100 paces without bumping into something historically fascinating- usually relating back to a past monarch. They are all in the history books with more and more written and understood not only about the monarch as a person, but society generally as a whole under their rein as the century’s have passed.
This is huge from a historical point of view. Absolutely huge. Even if you don’t agree in the slightest with the idea of monarchy, even if you disliked the queen, I’m afraid living in this country it’s all around you in the very fabric of how we live today. Much of the physicalities of this country and cultural norms have been brought about because of past monarchy’s - rightly or wrongly.

It’s not about being dignified!
Gosh. Some people really just don’t get it at all.

I can't say I've given it any thought. Certainly less than you appear to have done. I assume, however, that 'representing your grief' and 'stoic and quiet grief' is sarcasm.

It is crazy and performative grief.

The people filing past the coffin don't look very 'performative'.

More like quiet, dignified and respectful and after 8 hours of queuing totally demonstrating 'stiff upper lip".

I do get it, thanks. This is what HM planned and it's following her wishes. I still feel it's undignified.

I'm finding it so over the top. The almost constant coverage since Thursday lunch time, somber music on the radio etc is just so unnecessary. Cancelling of so many things as a "mark of respect"

Yes it's an historic event and signifies a time of change in the monarchy, but that's as interested as I am in it.

Companies are effectively are performance grieving themselves as they cannot wait to post that they are closing as a mark of respect. The cost to the economy will be huge. Not like the economy is already struggling.....

I'm looking forward to things being back to normal later next week

It's not sarcasm at all. Obviously some people will identify with the wailers.