Natasha Richardson: Is It Bad That I Don’t Care

This is not about Natasha Richardson or her recent death from a skiing accident. It is how I feel in general.

Every single day someone famous or well known dies. There are hundreds of traditional news stories and thousands of internet articles.  I hear people say “oh that is so sad” or “I feel terrible” or “I am really upset”.  To me these are incredibly “fake” comments in response to public media situations. If anyone actually felt bad single every time someone died they would be miserable 24 hours a day forever. Not just today or tomorrow, but every day for the rest of their lives.  That is just silly.

I feel bad if people I know intimately die. I feel bad if someone in my family dies. I know these people. I have a relationship with them. I have actual feelings for them. I don’t know Natasha Richardson. Some say she was a good actress. That is wonderful, but it does not make me feel more for her now then I did a month ago.

For example I am sure a great doctor somewhere on the planet just died as I was typing this post. I don’t feel sad for them, and realistically neither does anyone else with the exception of those immediately related or attached to them. Those people who make the “oh that is so sad” or “I feel terrible” comments are not going to be upset over this death. They just are not. And going back to what I said earlier, if they did have a profound emotional response to every single death in the world, they would be in the loony bin for deep depression.

What is more realistic is the emotional shock reaction people have to these very public death situations. Sure the deaths of Princess Di and John Kennedy were sensational and people watched and mourned. The public’s grief became part of the story. People being upset when a “star” dies is normal and consistent with the “masses of sheep” who worship Oprah, TMZ and Perez Hilton.

But we are talking about 2 different things. Actual grief over a family member or loved one versus a reaction due to a news story that has been sensationalized into an almost entertainment situation to get an emotional response from the viewer (you, me, and everyone else watching). It is “the drama” unfolding in front of our eyes that stimulates the reaction and not the actual connection, because in most cases there just is not one.

I have heard some people say - “I admired her family”. Obviously that is not true. You did not go see her daily, watch her throughout her life, or learn about family before it became a news story. No one did. If Richardson had just been some mom from Montana it would have never been a news story. (AGAIN, this IS NOT about Richardson in particular. I am sure her husband and family are feeling REAL hurt and loss right now. They have every right to feel this way. To them there was a real connection.)

Paul Newman died a while back. People all over the world were sad because a man who performed in movies they loved and made salad dressing they ate was gone. He made movies that millions of people saw. He had been around for over 80 years and a lot of people knew who he was. That is it. Was I sad, not really. I appreciated his body of work and what he had accomplished. I was sad that there would not be any more entertaining movies from him. But was I sad because he was dead - no.

I just think people go way to far with this stuff and it is only because these people or situations are “news worthy”. Every single second of every single day thousands of people are dying. Right now thousands are dying everywhere around us. Why are we not upset about them? Because it is not a news story or in the papers.

We are a society of “fake” people who pretend to care and only react when there is public tragedy or well reported news-worthy situations. You can call me an insensitive prick, but I am just being honest plain and simple. I do not personally feel sad because of any recent news stories. I just don’t. And you should not be angry with me for feeling this way.