Icons, Celebrities, & the Death Of A Princess

The Death Of A Princess has almost become an Icon of the Age, an age in which the medium has become more important than the message, & in which traditional religion has been surplanted by the Cult Of Celebrity.

In her death we are told that The Princess represented the complete antithesis of that age; rejecting 'duty', 'ceremony', & 'protocol' in favour of deeds & actions - what does it matter how the job gets done so long as the job actually does get done ?

The nation was outraged over the refusal of Buckingham Palace to break with protocol & fly the Royal Standard at half mast (& thus place the medium - protocol - above the message - a death in the family), yet was not this outrage in itself just such an equal example of placing the medium above the message ? What does it matter how the message is conveyed, whether it is public speeches or private grief ? What difference does a flag make ? But no matter, at the announcement that the Palace would fly the Union Flag at half mast during the Funeral the braying mob were satisfied.

& the Funeral itself. Oh, wasn't it such a lovely funeral, so very Postmodern, so very message & not medium ? Wasn't it ever so nice to see a pop star singing a pop song in a church service (even if the piano could have been a little better tuned beforehand...), & so very apt that the performance & the speeches warranted a round of applause ?

But how many people who lined the 77 mile route (itself a curiosity - has there ever been a 77 mile queue of people before ?) will actually remember the message - that the Cult Of Celebrity has gone too far - over the medium of the funeral in which it was conveyed ?

The Brother used the platform to call on the world to reject the Cult Of Celebrity, to state that the intrusion into their private lives had gone too far & that we must end it here. The braying mob were pleased, "yes, it's gone too far, we must stop buying the sleazy tabloids", they murmured in agreement, immediately to rush off to take their final photographs of the departing coffin to place in the family album, after having made the pilgrimage to Westminster so that they could tell their grandchildren that 'we were there', clutching their Diana 1961 - 1997 Special Souvenir Issues with their free hands.

The Cult Of Celebrity is a three edged sword. The Celebrities seek the adoration of The People, else they wouldn't be Celebrities. They need the Media to give them the exposure they need in order to gain that adoration - Princess Diana was 'our princess', loved by the Nation, & a Nation mourns her death. Without the media exposure she received during the second half of her life, would she have been so well known by The People, & thus so loved ?

Is the Death Of A Princess the event that will signal the death of the Cult Of Celebrity - & if so, what shall replace it ? What will become the new religion for a new age ? Or have we as a society actually learned nothing from all this ?