Icebaby Wrote:
Why do people make such a big freaking deal out of celebrity deaths? Can someone answer me that.
....why do people make such a big deal out of deaths?
Sure: Death is final + The whole world knew him.
He made an emotional, and quite often spiritual connection with a large population in the world. That's gonna take some time to come to terms with because he seemed more like a relative, than a mere celebrity.
To answer your question more thoroughly though:
Celebrities are big poster-sized representations of people we have relationships with everyday. They're often also, amazing respesentations of a life we desire, or have, but just not under the microscope and scrutiny of the pubilc eye.
Another aspect of it is that humans need to connect with each other, as we are beings of community by nature. Even if it's just one person or thing that we connect with...we need it to live productive, sane existences
(ex: Tom Hanks in "Cast Away" - it wasn't a person, it was the ball with a blood-made face painted on it for 4yrs).
Anyway, when a person like MJ//Elvis dies, seeing as how they've virtually been in your front room, bedroom, or like, your shower with you
(people sing in their showers sometimes), during some of the best and worst moments in our lives.....to even the most casual fan, that connection warrants some form of mourning when you loose the connection.
Of course, we don't loose the emotional connection to the music, but it grows into being more about the realization that the person who is capable of that connection, will no longer be able to "share" anything "with us". Especially when that person consistently connects with you over time on an array of very personal levels and issues.
We can't "connect" with the dead...We can't "feel" with the dead....which is a saddening realization. Atop that, it makes the connection to the music darker, and mournful because we only want to "remember" Life.
===
Death is a big deal in general because its the only finite way we loose the spiritual & emotional connection with another person or thing over time. The real life actuality of their presence wains until no one is left to remember them. In contrast though, celebs//people like Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and others have extensive exposure to an enormous population. The sheer scope of their impression on a large number of people was more profound than others during a good length of time, which means they'll probably be remembered alot longer.
Now just imagine
(for them) first, since so many people knew of them, it's gonna take a while for everyone who knew of them to get the news of their deaths.--> Then it's gonna take people some time to remember why they liked them
(watch their vids, listen to your fav song, remember a cherished event that is associated with them, ect), --> then it's gonna take some time to realize how "
final" that death is....--> and then of course, it's gonna take some time to complete the connection between the person they knew of, and the finality that death implies as the current and forth-going reality.
Once that cycle has completed for 10s of millions of people, spread throughout virtually every country in the world....
Well, then we accept that the connection has come to the end
("Michael Jackson is dead") and move on. As a community though, mind you.
Good on your question?
====
Last thing:
The same thing applies to people closer to you; friends, relatives, ect.. We//Humans don't normally "just get over it". We have to sever the spiritual and emotional connections to a person or thing first.
Which is what mourning is.....No matter how well you know someone, or how personally you know someone. Mourning can be simple, symbolic, or dramatic, and overwhelming.
The media will make it annoying, but give these 10-30million
(maybe more) people the time they need for this process. Because severing the connections is hard, remembering life is crucial to the death acceptance process, and realizing death is the final fact for that person is essential.
Question: nah...nm too provocative.
