Jan Moir is comparing the way people reacted to the death of Michael Jackson and the hysteria, the luvvies and all the glitz of his memorial to the quiet dignity of people stopping in the street whilst two recent British casualties of the the war in Afghanistan as they passed through Wootton Bassett.
These very different types of remembrance tell us much about society and celebrity.
But most of all, they tell us about the quiet, steadfast decency of ordinary British people who, left to their own devices, will almost always do the right thing.
I’m not a sociologist or a psychologist or any other ‘-ologist’, but is talking complete bollox.
I’m sure the Americans don’t have MJ style concerts for their war dead. They probably have quiet diginfied affairs as well.
As for ‘left to our own devices, will almost always do the right thing’, I have one word:
Diana.
So true it hurts.