Self-restraint rather than self-censor ship is perhaps the most appropriate response. In most of these incidents, most of us have nothing particularly interesting or revealing to add, and it is not the right time or place to drag up the hoary old ‘should they, shouldn’t they ‘ debate.
Therefore perhaps we should just say nothing.
It is an expected human response that we will mourn the deceased and sympathise with those who have experienced a loss, and in the light of that assumption I am puzzled why so many people with no real connection still have the urge to line up and publically state how dreadfully sorry they are, as though those who don’t express this sentiment do not care. Is this just ‘recreational grieving’ a la Princess Diana?
In the case of Ray Hanna, that was perhaps a bit different, as so many people did have knowledge of him, since he had been a public figure for 40 years. However, a mawkish tribute to someone you never even knew seems a bit hollow.
We still seemed locked into this fanatical game of hurling the ultimate insult ‘speculator’ at the first opportunity, as though any reflection on the events is inherently evil and must be censored/banned. The internet is such a free-wheeling amorphous resource you cannot really ban anything effectively- it just pops up somewhere else. It cannot be run on Totalitarian lines, moderared or not.
If an incident is fatal, we should individually show great restraint, but if there has not been significant personal injury, then sensible discussion is probably reasonable.
Most other boards and websites do not degenerate into a brawl on these occasions, and it would be admirable if FlyPast too could be relied on to manage a dignified collective response.
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