RIP/Biker Killed threads.

It's way more complicated a subject than anyone is giving it credit for.

The monkeysphere stuff is very good IMO, but even that is too simplistic.

Lets take some examples where threads have been posted on the org and how I personally felt about them....

Simoncelli - I hope any human being rests in peace, but that's where it ends. I never knew him, never met him, his passing has no effect on my life whatsoever. I just don't understand the outpouring of grief and people blubbing about it if they never knew him or met him either. I guess if you are really into your Motogp, he might have been to you what Jimmy Saville is to me, but I still can't understand the blubbing.

Princess Diana - I was shocked that morning that I learned she'd died. She was indeed the peoples princess, perhaps I even felt some sadness like I might feel sadness over any human being dying, but I didn't shed a tear over it, and like Simoncelli, don't really understand an outpouring of grief from people who never knew her.

Jimmy Saville - Like Diana and Simoncelli, I wouldn't shed a tear, but he was a very engaging character and was broadcast into our living room twice a week throughout my childhood, so you almost felt like you knew him, even though you never met him. A greater level of sadness than Simoncelli or Diana. I expect when Bruce Forsyth or Michael Parkinson die, it will be the same.

Hovis - A lot of real mourning going on from people who really knew him, like Drew and Lily and a handful or two of others, but I also felt that it became a bit of a bandwagon, and a "me too" on the forum. Like Diana with the public, some of the outpouring of grief from people on the org who hadn't even met him was a bit OTT in my opinion. I met him once at a peaks weekend rideout, and of course I was sad to learn he had died, but for me personally there was no grief as such and I shed no tears.

The lady outside Tescos - http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=172627. I didn't know her from Adam or Eve, but I did come face to face with her and understood her predicament. The fact I saw her being 'bullied' in that way made me REALLY angry. Riding home I just about had steam coming out of my ears and when I got home I wrote the complaint. I can count the number of written complaints I've made in my lifetime on one hand, but I was angry enough with one human beings treatment of another to do it. Given the response on the thread, almost nobody else gave a damn, but they weren't face to face with it.

Still born baby - http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=172535. Really felt a sadness more than any of the deaths above when I read that, no tears, but it did put a lump in the throat. Didn't know the parents from Adam or Eve.

So of the above, the lady in Tesco and the baby had the biggest effect on me, but neither would be in my 'Monkeysphere' of 150 people. In fact certain things happening to people anywhere in the world and whoever they may be can trigger an emotion in any of us. Which is why whilst I don't claim to understand it, I am sure it's more complicated than any 'explanation' anyone has posted so far.

I must confess to one tearful episode for people I never knew.

9/11 and the WTC collapse. The day afterwards I was driving from Gloucestershire home to Worksop and there was a 2 minutes silence on the radio. I saw trucks and cars pull over into the hard shoulder and people just sit there doing nothing while it timed out - I joined them. At the end of 2 minutes Jo Whiley played The Cars - Drive, one of the pieces used during Live Aid with a supporting video of starving kids on Africa. With that video going through my head, which is totally unconnected to the fact that 3,000 people had just 24 hours before been killed in one go, I broke down.

I still get a lump in my throat and cloud up a bit when I hear that tune, it just means suffering and death to me.

Everyone has the innate ability to not exhibit any feelings towards the pain and suffering that strangers to them may encounter.

If we didn't, we'd be going nuts at how 7million children are dying in Africa each year cos of hunger or disease. If we cared so much, and could even process such suffering into an emotion, we'd become functionless and not even be able to sleep at night.

What possible emotion would an individuals death in an rta really generate when we can block unimaginable suffering that is 24/7.

[Red Herring]

I'm afraid I just have a morbid curiosity into how it happened. What's done is done and I just think that the more I know about it the less likely it is to happen to me. Fortunately I've never lost anyone really close, but then I guess one of the reasons we'd be mates is because we share interests and adopt similar principals.

Originally Posted by Red Herring

What's done is done and I just think that the more I know about it the less likely it is to happen to me.

I asked about the details of Hovis' passing when it happened for exactly this reason - to get an understanding of it which would mean that I'd continue to go out and ride. I'd never met Hovis, but I appreciate that some people did really care for him (and I appreciated very much that I was told).

As for Di, my dad met her a few times and said that she changed the whole atmosphere of a (big, busy) room when she walked in and spoke to people. Dad is pretty unsentimental but he said he was not surprised with the outpouring of grief when she died.

Theres one thing worse than those kind of threads. And that, is a thread moaning about threads. This is the internet waddya expect?