In the last thousand years there have been numerous conflicts where there was more than one candidate for the post, so this is not always a smooth procedure.
Not to defend the poster, but this is the Pit, and this thread is discussing why there’s such a brouhaha about the death of EIIR. It would have been a gross thread shit in the MPSIMS thread about her death but here…?
I agree with the OP. She was 96, her death was expected. Nothing to grieve.
Princess Diana dying at 36, however, was a tragedy.
So what you’re saying is, the Pit provides a wide scope for assholes to reveal their true selves. I agree. That’s always been the case. A great many jerks, assholes, and other assorted cretins were first discovered here.
I think this sums it up very neatly for a lot of people. I don’t think very many people in Britain feel particularly ‘ruled over’ by the monarchy - by the government, by their local council, sure, but by the Royals, not so much. People either see them as expensive and pointless and loathsome, or as something that is there to provide a sense of stability and constancy, which I think Queen Elizabeth II did in a way that no other monarch in British history has done so gracefully.
Yeah, monarchy is a bit of an outdated concept, but I think people calling for its demise are probably unaware of how disruptive that transition might be (and I really feel like we could do with less disruption right now). The monarch can in theory overrule the standing government. Not something we seem to need in anything more than theory, but the same could be said of the smoke alarms in my house. I only need them in theory. I feel that if there was put in place a process to disband the British monarchy, the current brood of politicians in power would use that process as an opportunity to establish a dictatorship.
And yes, the irony of a monarch being a theoretical dictator, reigning over a theoretically democratic government is not wasted on me of course. Main point being change in this domain could lead to some very bad outcomes.
I am not a Royals watcher or follower. Don’t really care one way or another about most of it. I’ve never really even watched any of the Queen-based tv shows, movies, documentaries.
But I shed a tear for Elizabeth, because she was an amazing lady. Not faultless, no one is, but she faced so, so much with grace and dignity. There’s no point in rehashing it here, but she was a force of nature. We need more of her kind.
FWIW, she was also an excellent horsewoman and had a profound impact on several areas of the horse world. I know that doesn’t mean much to most people, but it earned this horsewoman’s respect.
I am glad her death was apparently quick and peaceful. She has earned her rest.
I suspect there is a lot to this.
This I just don’t get. (Likely b/c I am not cool!) As far as I can remember, I just thought of her as some rich, conservative old lady, smiling blandly and uttering pleasantries, dressed in dowdy clothes. Hell, I dressed as her for Halloween back in 80. Just never got the idea of the British royalty, pageantry and such. The ado about weddings and funerals and such… And don’t get me started on their judges’ wigs! 
But, I guess we have our Kardashians…
I don’t feel grief. But i feel a twinge of loss. She’s been the Queen all my life. It’s the end of an era. And I’ve respected her.
But to answer the op, yeah, i think there’s a lot of truth to:
We grow too care about people we know a lot about. Whether or not we’ve met them in person. And we all know a lot about her.
We form parasocial relationships with these people. We know what they want us to know about them, and also what the paparazzi wants us to know about them, but we don’t really know them. Not the way family or friends would.
An example from recent times. One of my favorite youtube channels is “Camping with Steve” by Steve Wallis. It’s good and wholesome, and it’s just a guy camping in various odd places, as well as traditional places, I don’t know, it’s complicated, you’d have to watch it to understand, (and I recommend you do) but he did recently break the one million subscriber mark, so there are others who enjoy it too.
Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I opened up youtube and saw a thumbnail that said “RIP Beautiful Wife.” He spent a few minutes talking about her loss and that he would probably take a hiatus. Now, I’ll admit that the room become awfully dusty for a minute there, as I joined with him in his grief.
OTOH, the real reason why I was saddened was how this would affect me. I enjoyed coming home on Thursday nights to see what adventure he would be up to this week, it wasn’t the high point of my week, but it was certainly one of them. And now, not only will he probably not be producing content for a while, it also probably will never be the same. As selfish as it sounds, that’s what I grieve for, the loss of something that I enjoyed.
So, roundabout way of saying that if the Queen produced original or enjoyable content, then I can understand being upset about no longer being able to enjoy that, but anything more than, as you say, a “twinge of loss” and maybe a few minutes of misty eyes seems excessive, IMHO.
So the royalty is like England’s hobby? You can watch these people like they’re in a terrarium or something? The least they can do is be somewhat interesting.
This was kind of my impression of her. I’d see blurbs in celebrity news that oh no, the Queen disapproves of Lady Di showing her ankles or Fergie being rowdy or Princess Kate wearing the wrong color to a public dinner!!! Or whatever.
That’s how I thought of her as an American, just hearing about her through celebrity news and never having delved into her history. Now I get the impression that she did try to provide a feeling of stability and “we will get through these difficult times” for her country, so I guess that was nice.
It is a little weird to me that she’s gone. I’m not mourning since I didn’t know her personally, but she was just always there. And now I have to get used to thinking of Charles as “King” instead of “Prince.”
It is sad. I feel more for her family. It is difficult to lose a rock solid presence in your life, and they’ve lost 2 in a short bit of time.
So, pretty much what @HeyHomie said. Being respected an having influence is not the same as power. Lots of people are respected an have influence, like Dr. Fauci, but he has no political power. The Royals may appear to have some power on paper and in theory, but if never excercised, it’s not power. The Queen and the Royal family aren’t involved with hard work lawmaking, budgeting, foriegn relations, defense, or other governing functions, other than nodding in support, or frowning in disapproval. All those thing would occur without them, so they have no power, IMHO.
It’s somewhat rare. I think the last candidate the US had was Irene Dunne, who died some time in the early 1990s, aged 92.
I was confused, mainly because I was expecting a flurry of Op-Eds and PSA about not getting into a car with an obviously impaired driver, or not fastening your seatbelt right away, because, clearly, no one is immune from bad outcomes following such behavior. But in all the weeping and rending of clothes, these things were barely acknowledged.
I would say that on balance, I was sad to hear that she died, but it doesn’t really affect me, and I know that.
I hope never to read one more post, or hear from one more person who starts out with “As am empath, this has hit me very hard…” or similar words.
Welcome to earth, I hope you have a great time here! Humans don’t usually live close to one hundred years of age. Some do, but it’s a bit rare. If you are protected with lots of money then the chances go up. But still it was not unexpected that she would die soon. Humans wouldn’t think that their older family members in their 90’s are “rock solid” presences. They would have known that she would be passing soon and should have acted appropriately.
“It’s a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart.”
– Joel Coen
“It is a fool that cleaves to the human heart where logic always shines supreme”
- Me
It’s probably more of a British thing, but as alluded to previously, Queen Elizabeth was a symbol of stability in a very uncertain time. Emotional responses on that basis were probably more intense when another long-serving Queen (Victoria) died in 1901 (her reign lasted over 63 years, and her role in politics was significantly more influential than Elizabeth’s).
There are lots of people who don’t get all wound up over the death of royalty, but who enjoy the pomp of a big-time funeral and a lavish coronation ceremony, even if they don’t get to share in the high-class food and drink.
I am sorry to see her go. I was hoping she was good for at least another ten years, to prevent the ascension of Charles the dingbat.
There was her pranking of an American hiker who didn’t recognise her; her participation in the opening of the 2012 Olympics; her sketch with Paddington Bear for her Platinum Jubilee; her attitude during the taking of an official photo… She was cool because she looked like a conservative, smiling, pleasant, dowdy old lady; but then she does all of these things that are a bit out of character for a Queen or even any woman who is perceived as you stated.
Me too, pretty much. As far as I can remember, I’ve never actually watched or listened to any of the things she’s done or said, and I wasn’t aware of the things @Johnny_L.A mentioned in the post above this one.
But that means that you and I didn’t know her as well as many people did, so it shouldn’t be surprising that other people are more emotional about her passing than we are.