At one time, being weak might have been thought a reason for not getting the Hollywood treatment. Now it is a telling sign of our unheroic age that we should be encouraged to admire and emulate a princess who called herself 'as thick as a plank' and a celebrity who once described herself as 'Jill Blando'. The media must take their share of responsibility for encouraging much of the copycat mawkishness. The response of some journalists and broadcasters has gone way beyond the understandable sense of shock and loss at the murder of one their own. Yet the media are not ultimately to blame.
Many people seem only too willing to be injected with another dose of mourning sickness.
Respect the grief of the bereaved, but don't indulge the rest of the circus. People may exhibit strong feelings during mourning sickness, but for most they are ersatz emotions, directed at people they did not know for reasons of which they are unsure. As Dr Oliver James said of the tears for Diana, 'whilst the sincerity of the feelings are undoubted, their authenticity is not'. Meanwhile, in Belgrade, they drag the body of an ordinary, innocent make-up lady from the rubble of the Serbian equivalent of BBC Television Centre. No tears or TV specials for her.