h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Many years later and post-9/11, what do people think looking back about the whole Diana thing? I mean, for one person whose contribution is pretty debatable she caused a massive emotional outburst and for several years she could do no wrong. Plus there's the whole Al-Fayed conspiracy theory. Anyway, what do people think in 2004, now we have more important things to worry about?

for me, my family and most people I know the whole thing seemed a massive over-reaction, one I failed to understand and still do

honestly.. it may sound rude. being young and dumb in the bad ol' USA, found it as a big joke. we really didn't care much about it, and then it was over. I hate to sound harsh, but we would go out and hear bands just make fun of it and laugh. but still, if it happened to george dub ya', we would probably still find it funny. or this "you must vote" cruisade might reach a new high. anyway we're all going to hell.

It was an over reaction and the reason why is that she was well liked by the public.
Here was the first member of the whole royal family that was approachable and took an interest in the public at large.
We must also not forget the causes she stood up for e.g. AIDS and the abolishment of anti-personnel mines.
I remember seeing the broadcasts of the tragic day of her death and thinking that this must be some sort of joke then the realization of it wasn't.
In the end like the royals or not this was a tragic event that shocked the nation, and the royal family (it made them realise that they must modernise to survive).
And as to the reaction of the population think what reaction would be from the football group if Beckham died in such a tragic event tommorrow. And as for pop stars look at the reactions of John Lennon's and Elvis's fans.
As for the theories I don't think we will ever know what really happened and it is going to Britains own JFK.

Now that you've brought the link in about JFK....Most Americs (if they were born) remember exactly what they were doing and where they were when they heard the news about him.

It's exactly the same with me. I remember exactly. I remember the whole morning.

In fact, if I had stayed up for another hour (we had been to a party), I would have heard the news before I went to bed, instead of being woken up by my partner saying that she had died.

The funeral was so moving. Her children trying to be strong. It amazed me actually how strong Prince Philip was and how he helped take control of his two grandsons to make sure they got through it all.

So sad. Always will be.

I liked Diana,

and I still do.

I'm not sure there really were all that many people crying for Diana herself -- I think many people were using it as a vehicle to grieve out their own tragedies.

And, lets face it, most of the crowds were sightseers, nothing more.

there seemed to me to be 2 common reactions
1 was the over-sentimental group grieving over a women they knew only by her carefully presented public image
the other was the overly cynical who in response to the excessive media coverage were cracking jokes about it by the day after her death

"Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh". - George Bernard Shaw

A hell of a lot of people that I don't know die every day. I'm not going to care about Diana any more than them just because she got in a PR war with some Prince.

I realise this looks like an old conversation but I want to contribute.
I was just a kid when the whole Diana thing happened and the only thing I can remember is that one day all the papers were bad mouthing her and telling everything bad she had ever done and the next moment they could say nothing but good things. I didn't even know about all the charity work she had done until after she died because of the way the papers portrayed her.
The thing is that it was a massive over-reaction and alot of it seemed incredibly insincere.
She was not just a ordinary person who was chewed up and spit out by the royal family, she was not just an ordinary person, she was a princess from an aristocratic family.

It may be that attitudes to royalty are different in Scotland, but I remember being out shopping in Glasgow on the day of the funeral. All the shops were closed for the duration due to media pressure, and crowds of people were milling around doorways muttering 'Hurry up and open!'

In general, there was a major gulf ouf understanding between those (a minority?) who were hysterical at the loss of a saint and those who simply couldn't understand what the fuss was about.

Why must people make up stories? Can't we just accept she died in a car crash like so many other people do?

My partner's mum had been killed in a car accident shortly before Diana died. I'm afraid that meant a lot more to me than the death of a woman I had never met. It was, of course, terribly sad for Diana's sons and the rest of the family, but so is any sudden death. At the time, I found the hysterical over-reaction of public grief to be false and rather distasteful. Jill Dando's murder was much more shocking to me personally.

Princess Diana didn't mean a thing to me personally, and while I wouldn't have wished her any personal harm, the whole grief thing that came about immediately after her death was merely people crying for themselves, more than anything else. Some great charity work, I'm sure, but what else was she going to do after splitting with Charles? It isn't as if she could just get a quiet office job somewhere and fade away.

Somewhat cynical, perhaps, but I think this is quite near the mark: http://www.publicgriefjunkie.com/griefjunkie.htm

I am very cynical about her charitable work since her 'secret' midnight visits to Aids sufferers were all publicised to the newspapers before they occurred, not to imply she was neccassarily a hypocrite but she wasn't the innocent victim her supporters sometimes make her out to be

Is that true? I never knew that. I have to say I'm not in the least surprised.

I was organising bus tours on the "baldy buses" around the city centre. At the behest of our masters, the tours started later as a mark of respect; we workers, of course, were then left waiting for the appropriate amount of time to pass before we could continue in our mercenary ways. The sound of the tour guides' descriptions of the city's attractions were often drowned out by the tearful wails of our (largely American) customers.
Was there a conspiracy? I don't know. I probably should care, as it would point to our society (and our lives) being more controlled and manipulated than we ever believed possible. All that I know is that I was expected, required even, to show an undue amount of hand -wringing respect to a lassie whose death was horrific, but whose life had little to no connection to my own.