Burying the 20th century

I’m replying on Facebook to Antonio R. Montesinos about the condolences that social media devotes to the deaths of famous figures.

Antonio thinks that all this mourning of deaths is a superficial attitude, a way of publicly displaying culture, interests or knowledge. To him, limiting oneself to sharing only the lament is superficial and even hypocritical, when what is really missing is sharing and discussing the legacy of all these figures.

I agree with you. What has been happening in recent years is that humanity is burying the twentieth century and everything it entails. My sense is that a collective trauma is taking place, brought on perhaps by our falling into the abyss of a future with no future.

Incidentally, apropos the passing of famous figures, on 15 August 2014 I wrote about the suicide of Robin Williams:

With the show over and the mask removed, for the first time facing the man, the scavenging begins. Without mercy, they dismember him, they quarter him, they devour his still-warm body. They search for the reason, incredulous, blinded by their own laughter, aghast at reality —that same reality they have avoided until now.
It is a cruel and merciless autopsy, the cruel revenge of a handful of children abandoned by their captain.