Do you feel bad when people you don't know die?

Posted:
in General Discussion edited June 2015
When you hear about a politician or actor who died, do you genuinely feel bad? I'm not talking about how you think you're supposed to feel, or how you act. Obviously you're not going to make jokes about it to a family member, for example. But do you genuinely, deep down, honest-to-Zeus feel sad?



Am I the only cold-hearted bastard who doesn't feel sad? Or are the rest of you just pretending?

<img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 33
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    [quote]Originally posted by BRussell:

    <strong>When you hear about a politician or actor who died, do you genuinely feel bad? I'm not talking about how you think you're supposed to feel, or how you act. Obviously you're not going to make jokes about it to a family member, for example. But do you genuinely, deep down, honest-to-Zeus feel sad?



    Am I the only cold-hearted bastard who doesn't feel sad? Or are the rest of you just pretending?

    <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



    its sad, but honestly i really don't feel much at all either...hearing that one or two people died really doesn't bother me much at all, and that type of stuff is in the news, think of all the people that die per hour around the world...and u are supposed to feel bad for one person? its not cool that people die but it happens, one day i will die, u will die....everyone will die eventually...take in the good while you have a chance to and enjoy your life



    ps...glad to see there are others
  • Reply 2 of 33
    defiantdefiant Posts: 4,876member
    I don't feel bad. I don't even know them.
  • Reply 3 of 33
    stunnedstunned Posts: 1,096member
    Just a slight tinge of sadness.
  • Reply 4 of 33
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    You're not the only one BRussell. I'm sure most people are emotionally indifferent when someone they don't know (famous or not) dies unexpectedly. People are too wrapped up in their own lives....



    Just human nature, I think. Don't equate lack of sadness with lack of respect for the deceased, IOW.
  • Reply 5 of 33
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    It depends if it was an actor i appreciate, that i see in a lot of movie, if make feel bad. But this feeling don't last long : a few minutes.



    Sometimes when a celebrities is dying, you have the strange feeling that a part of you vanish. i have the odd feeling that i am getting older. But i am not very worried, like Brussel or Moogs.
  • Reply 6 of 33
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    [quote]Originally posted by Moogs:

    <strong>"Colored people absorb the light, whereas we white devils reflect it back to blind and oppress the colored people."



    -BRussell

    </strong><hr></blockquote> <img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />



    Thanks for the quote. I'm not sure it's something I'd like to be known for saying, but hey, being famous for something is better than not being famous at all.

  • Reply 7 of 33
    giaguaragiaguara Posts: 2,724member
    everyone will die one day.

    i feel sad for people who die murdered, in terrorist attacks etc, it doesn't matter if i knew them or not.

    i feel sad also for the elderly people who are not allowed to die, as some doctors understand their work as keeping the human life alive at all costs. even when the patients don't want to have their life anyomre.

    after 12 years, i have accepted the death as a natural part of life. it will not make the life go upside down anymore.

    do you feel happy then when people you don't know are born??
  • Reply 8 of 33
    No, I really don't care. And to tell you the truth, I'm not that upset when people I know die. Everyone dies. If someone I know dies young, especially in the case of a freak accident, that's a real shame. But if an elderly member of my family goes, that's just procedure. Everyone dies. If you had an impact on my life I'll remember it.
  • Reply 9 of 33
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    For the most part no. When "real people" die, eg DC sniper, it can get to me. You know, father to two getting his bus ready, some guy putting stuff in the car with his wife for their new house. Stuff I can relate to.



    When poor little rich boy over shoots his flying skills and offs his, wife sister in law and himself....Darwin Award time.
  • Reply 10 of 33
    Well, I usually don't get too emotional. But it isn't just whether I knew someone. I've attended two funerals of high school peers I went to high school with, and I felt like it was unfortunate, but really in a sort of tertiary way. I didn't cry, I didn't lose sleep over it.



    When some musicians die, in particular Cobain and Staley, it got to me a little more. I didn't know these people, but their music meant a lot to me, and just so happened to mean an awful lot more because of the period of time in my life. So when I know these people won't be able to continue to do that, I sort of feel like a piece of me has left.



    What usually gets me more is the people that didn't die. By this, I mean, people that came close, but are now permanently disabled. My mother had an aneurysm, and came close to dying, and thank god didn't. But still, you live seeing tha condition of that person every day. Often times that is worse than death itself.



    But naturally as human beings, we have a WANT to live. We strive for life. We run from death. It's kind of natural that we feel a little bad about death in general. But really, I don't feel too bad when someone dies. I'm usually not a terribly emotional person though *shrugs*
  • Reply 11 of 33
    eds66eds66 Posts: 119member
    I feel momentary grief for the person. And then never really think about it again. The degree of grief or sorrow I feel is a direct function of my familiarity with the deceased person. The better I know him/her, the more emotional discomfort I feel. Oh well, Adam Smith was right...
  • Reply 12 of 33
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Somehow it comes as no surprise to me that AI is filled with antisocial personalities.

  • Reply 13 of 33
    imudimud Posts: 140member
    If someone dies and they are 80 or 90 years old I don't feel to sad because they had a full life, but when children get killed it tears me up.
  • Reply 14 of 33
    Honestly I can't really feel much most of the time when someone I don't really know dies. Sure, I'm going to be sad if one of the people I idolize dies but it's not gonna effect me heart to heart. Heck, I pretty much kept it bottled inside when I found out my friend was shot and killed literally right by my house. I don't know......just really hard for me to grasp it.
  • Reply 15 of 33
    i dont feel bad when most celebs or polical people die (or when i hear about it). every so often one i recognize and it bothers me. like when chris farley died. i didn exactly cry or something, but i noticed. when phil hartman passed it got to me too. i was real surprised by his death (for those who dont remember, his wife shot him and herself). he was like seventeen hilarious characters on the simpsons. i didn't believe that j. garcia died for a few weeks (what some of u "people" might refer to as `shock`). and that whole towers thing spooked me. at first i didnt even thnk about it. then when it fell i was like, "shit, thats a lotta death." but it didn really get to me until my mom called and said that her friend's son was in there.



    for most of the news stories tho, i just think, "glad it wasn't me or anyone i kno."
  • Reply 16 of 33
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    [quote]Originally posted by BRussell:

    Somehow it comes as no surprise to me that AI is filled with antisocial personalities.<hr></blockquote>





    I have to wonder how many of those who claim / will claim to be completely unaffected or indifferent, have had someone close to them die unexpectedly....







    Like I said though, even that behavior is just human nature. People don't like thinking about death or letting a death get them down. Life is for the living, as they say.



    Though some catharsis usually comes from getting your emotions out when someone important to you dies (whether related or not), the flipside is that some people can get into a real funk thinking about the deceased, death, etc. Best to not let it ruffle your feathers at all, then show your emotions and be depressed for a week.



    [ 10-28-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</p>
  • Reply 17 of 33
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    The last time a celebrity dying made me kind of sad was Teddy Ballgame.



    Cobain's suicide really affected me when I was 13, that was tragic.



    I'm still young enough that it's not time for my real heroes to die yet.



    I'll hole myself up in my room the day Kurt Vonnegut Jr dies. It's gotta happen sometime, he's getting old and I can't think of anyone that I've never met that had so much influence on me.
  • Reply 18 of 33
    tmptmp Posts: 601member
    [quote]Originally posted by Moogs:

    <strong>





    I have to wonder how many of those who claim / will claim to be completely unaffected or indifferent, have had someone close to them die unexpectedly....





    [ 10-28-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    My father died of a heart attack when I was 16. My mother was felled by a stroke three years later. I grieved for them. I felt a momentary twinge for Senator Wellstone and his family. I felt a "gosh, that's too bad" for the victims in Moscow. I felt a hearty "poor guy" for the bus driver in Virginia.



    If that makes me anti-social, oh well. <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
  • Reply 19 of 33
    groveratgroverat Posts: 10,872member
    I've had people close to me die, but if I felt depressed every time someone I didn't know died I would live life moping and crying.



    I don't see how not being affected by someone you don't know dying makes you anti-social, it doesn't make sense.
  • Reply 20 of 33
    timotimo Posts: 353member
    Yes, I do feel sad when (some) people I don't "know" die. This is usually when i have an emotional connection to someone: either someone famous represents ideas or a trajectory I admire, or someone anonymous well symbolizes who we all are.



    In the past year, I've felt particular sadness for the death of US Senator Paul Wellstone last Friday and the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in January. But every now and then I'll hear on the radio about someone like you or me killed and it will feel stunning, if only for that moment.
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