An outpouring of grief

Some people need to get a grip.

I remember stressing this last week when people around the country were holding hands and standing still for a couple of minutes to mark their respects for the victims of the London bomb blasts. Fair enough in London, fair enough in a memorial service, fair enough if you feel strongly about it.

The hoo-har about the attacks had only just subsided here at Base 2. Yes, they were attacks on our society, perpetrated by our own people, but I found it hard to believe that people with no connection could be so affected by something like that. A cynic would say that people enjoy playing the victim and jumping on the grief bandwagon, they enjoy the attention and the sympathy.

The hoo-har about the attacks had only just subsided when those incidents occurred in London yesterday. It’s not the fact that people think such things are newsworthy to pass on to their colleagues, it’s the way they impart the news as if telling folk that their entire family has been wiped out in a terrible road accident: “I’m afraid I’ve got some shocking and terrible news…” You wait for, “The police have just been in touch and I’m afraid that your entire family has been found dead after an acute attack of stephacockaliticus; a particularly virulent strain apparently”. But instead you’re told about something that you already know because EVERYBODY has the BBC News website open at work– totally disproportionate.

I am quite uncaring and unfeeling about things on a population-sized scale. I find it hard to get extremely upset about this sort of thing and tend to feel shock and inquisitiveness at the early stages after an incident. You feel sympathy for those injured and for the bereaved, of course you do. But grief? Grief is a special emotion that surely can only be truly felt for those who you love and know in person.

Anyway, back to the hoo-har…

You’ll be sat, merrily thinking of things to rant about in a blog when you’ll hear people in the adjacent office being told : “I’m afraid I’ve got some shocking and terrible news: there have been explosions in London”. You quickly switch windows to some document or e-mail you’re pretending to compose, and they appear around your doorway: “I don’t know if you’ve just heard that, but there have been explosions in London”.

“Oh right… and?”

It happened again yesterday and now again this morning, with the full rundown of some bloke being shot by armed police for leaving a bag somewhere and running away. He probably just had an attack of exploding diarrhoea.

Perhaps I’ve got this wrong. Perhaps my lack of distress at this sort of thing is something to be concerned about, but surely it’s much worse to pretend to care just to gain approval from people?