This was fascinating to read and resonates with a lot of my own thoughts about grief and complex emotions, this week. The last paragraph is worthy advice 👌🏼
I just found your Substack this morning and I am glad I did. Mostly, I'm writing here to support and encourage you to keep it up. I'm an American and the Queen's death doesn't have a big impact on me. That being said, I still felt a surprising sadness when she died. I was born in 1952, the year she became Queen. and she had always just "been there" in my life. Maybe that is why I felt the sadness at her death. A part of my life was dead. Maybe this is making me look at my own mortality differently. IDK! I read a lot and have read in several places that the reaction to the Queen's death is overblown but I don't see it that way. Didn't JFK's death trigger a huge mourning too? Different circumstances, for sure, but dead is dead and we can miss and mourn for people we never met. I think that public mourning over well-known people that most of us don't know helps us process our own griefs that we have suppressed.
I hope you will keep writing here. I have some stuff to share with you another time. Peace.
Thank you Susan for commenting. I think how long she was around has definitely contributed to how sad and unsettled people feel, she was a constant in so many people's lives. And thank you, feedback to keep it up really does help as sometimes I worry about shouting into an abyss! Keep in touch and speak soon xxx
I'd suggest mass mourning now has more of a theatrical feel to it. Applauding, bellowing cheers and throwing flowers as if it were some kind of an end to performance is telling. Modern Royal lives function at the purely performative level, as spectacle and circus, so perhaps it's apt. The Royal Household choose the exposure of celebrity over reserved dignity, so they get the response of the hoi polloi as befits the moment, the only difference is there is no encore in this presentation and no second curtain call.
'All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.'
:- Speech: “All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare (from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)
There really is a theatrical feel to it all. I'm never a fan of funerals that don't tell nice stories about the person, or give a sense of who they are so I hope the Queen's family, in private, get to share their stories of her and don't feel lost within all the theatrics xxx
A few thoughts on truth and presentation of truth in the age of TV.
"Simulacra and Simulation (French: Simulacres et Simulation) is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing an understanding of shared existence." :- Wikipedia
"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true." :- Baudrillard
When the the late Queens father died the long delay in her coronation was as a result of planning to accommodate its delivery to the people, not only by refurbishing/refurnishing Westminster Abbey to house an increased audience, but also and perhaps more importantly its delivery by the invention of the new media of television. Previously the citizens of our nations would have seen little of such an august ceremony.
Much of the pomp and circumstance of today's ceremony and service of mourning was not rooted in ancient tradition or protocol, but was newly invented to create a spectecal, this is stage management designed for the masses. It is what it is, but let's not lose sight of its origins, or purpose... It's propaganda and branding by the establishment, is it creating a mask that formulates a reality which becomes the truth.
I agree about the personal grief of a family in mourning the death of a beloved, but that's a separate issue.
I am a republican and while I hear of all the positive goodness and kindness of HM QEII towards folks and causes, which seemingly engenders heart felt grief at her passing and I respect that those experiencing such grace and giving is their genuine experience. However, I cannot ignore the the other side of the coin over which QEII precided and which as the new head of The Firm, Charles now oversees some $42 billion in assets and inherited $500 million from Queen Elizabeth, including her castles, jewels, art collection and a horse farm and think a good amount of wool being pulley over our eyes regards legitimate and genuine concern about inequalities of class and wealth in our four nations and beyond.
This was fascinating to read and resonates with a lot of my own thoughts about grief and complex emotions, this week. The last paragraph is worthy advice 👌🏼
I just found your Substack this morning and I am glad I did. Mostly, I'm writing here to support and encourage you to keep it up. I'm an American and the Queen's death doesn't have a big impact on me. That being said, I still felt a surprising sadness when she died. I was born in 1952, the year she became Queen. and she had always just "been there" in my life. Maybe that is why I felt the sadness at her death. A part of my life was dead. Maybe this is making me look at my own mortality differently. IDK! I read a lot and have read in several places that the reaction to the Queen's death is overblown but I don't see it that way. Didn't JFK's death trigger a huge mourning too? Different circumstances, for sure, but dead is dead and we can miss and mourn for people we never met. I think that public mourning over well-known people that most of us don't know helps us process our own griefs that we have suppressed.
I hope you will keep writing here. I have some stuff to share with you another time. Peace.
Thank you Susan for commenting. I think how long she was around has definitely contributed to how sad and unsettled people feel, she was a constant in so many people's lives. And thank you, feedback to keep it up really does help as sometimes I worry about shouting into an abyss! Keep in touch and speak soon xxx
I'd suggest mass mourning now has more of a theatrical feel to it. Applauding, bellowing cheers and throwing flowers as if it were some kind of an end to performance is telling. Modern Royal lives function at the purely performative level, as spectacle and circus, so perhaps it's apt. The Royal Household choose the exposure of celebrity over reserved dignity, so they get the response of the hoi polloi as befits the moment, the only difference is there is no encore in this presentation and no second curtain call.
'All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion;
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.'
:- Speech: “All the world’s a stage” by William Shakespeare (from As You Like It, spoken by Jaques)
There really is a theatrical feel to it all. I'm never a fan of funerals that don't tell nice stories about the person, or give a sense of who they are so I hope the Queen's family, in private, get to share their stories of her and don't feel lost within all the theatrics xxx
Intersting related article...
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/the-age-of-the-dislocated-spectacle/
A few thoughts on truth and presentation of truth in the age of TV.
"Simulacra and Simulation (French: Simulacres et Simulation) is a 1981 philosophical treatise by the philosopher and cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard, in which the author seeks to examine the relationships between reality, symbols, and society, in particular the significations and symbolism of culture and media involved in constructing an understanding of shared existence." :- Wikipedia
"The simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth—it is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true." :- Baudrillard
When the the late Queens father died the long delay in her coronation was as a result of planning to accommodate its delivery to the people, not only by refurbishing/refurnishing Westminster Abbey to house an increased audience, but also and perhaps more importantly its delivery by the invention of the new media of television. Previously the citizens of our nations would have seen little of such an august ceremony.
Much of the pomp and circumstance of today's ceremony and service of mourning was not rooted in ancient tradition or protocol, but was newly invented to create a spectecal, this is stage management designed for the masses. It is what it is, but let's not lose sight of its origins, or purpose... It's propaganda and branding by the establishment, is it creating a mask that formulates a reality which becomes the truth.
I agree about the personal grief of a family in mourning the death of a beloved, but that's a separate issue.
I am a republican and while I hear of all the positive goodness and kindness of HM QEII towards folks and causes, which seemingly engenders heart felt grief at her passing and I respect that those experiencing such grace and giving is their genuine experience. However, I cannot ignore the the other side of the coin over which QEII precided and which as the new head of The Firm, Charles now oversees some $42 billion in assets and inherited $500 million from Queen Elizabeth, including her castles, jewels, art collection and a horse farm and think a good amount of wool being pulley over our eyes regards legitimate and genuine concern about inequalities of class and wealth in our four nations and beyond.