NELSON MANDELA'S DEATH

While I do not doubt the goodness of the late Nelson Mandela, I am not comfortable with adding to the plethora of posthumous plaudits currently saturating the media. Not least because I feel anything I say may appear pathetically ineloquent; merely paraphrasing the existing repetitive clichés.

Public reaction to the demise of the uniquely influential statesman, Mandela, reflect a trend first visible after the death of Diana—where the loss of a culturally prominent figure receives almost hysterical attention.

This is not to say that the grief verbalised is insincere, however orchestrated it seems. But, at the same time, while listening to the extravagant retrospective praise—virtually deifying the deceased— it may be worth considering how little thought or attention was given to the same people when they were alive.

No one wants to speak ill of the dead. Or be insensitive to the genuine feelings of those grieving. Nevertheless, I cannot help recognising the colossal exaggerations of qualities being ascribed to those for whom we, publicly, mourn. Equally, who really wants to believe—what current rituals appear to imply—that the loss of one person has such a destabilising impact on the whole planet? Or that individuals deprived of their role models will also lose their ability to function morally (through operating choice) because they lack the guidance of personified examples.