I don't get it. Perhaps I'm just a heartless bastard, but I don't understand all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth when a celebrity dies. I understand the lurid, sensational interest of the tabloids and the 24-hour news programs that have to fill it with something. You can just see in their eyes that Christmas has come early with the recent celebrity deaths. And that, while repellant, is comprehendible.

What I can't empathize with is the people setting up memorials for the fallen celebrities - crying their eyes out on national television that this person has died. It doesn't matter which one I'm referring to - this has happened for as long as I can remember. A handy example from the past is Princess Diana. People who have never met the deceased are suddenly struck down as if a close friend had died. Are they all hypersensitive, histrionic nut jobs who easily surrender to the more maudlin sides of their personalities? Am I just a jerk for not feeling anything when they die? I, of course, love them as I am commanded to by the Lord, and feel some pity for their families and passing concern about their souls, but that's really it. Otherwise I don't really care and it doesn't affect my daily life in the least.

There is undeniably a streak of idolatry in this country when it comes to celebrities, and it would be easy to attribute this phenomenon to that. Perhaps people feel as if they really know this person that they've never met and identify with them (see also this rather on-point article from The Onion). It could be that, having vicariously latched onto someone that it's especially hard, emotionally, when they die.

I don't know, is it just me?

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