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Wearing coloured charity ribbons, holding silences for the Soham
murder victims and joining anti-war marches are all symptoms of
the country's emotional crisis, it added.
The no-holds-barred analysis of 21st-century Britain said such
"hollow expressions of public caring" had been triggered
by the decline of institutions which once gave meaning to people's
lives, such as the family, Church and neighbourhood.
Public displays of grief, epitomised by the national mourning at
the death of Diana in 1997, were phoney exercises in piling up "damp
teddies and rotting flowers", it said.
The report said that such actions amounted to "grief lite",
which was "undertaken as an enjoyable event, much like going
to a football match or the last night of the Proms".
Author Patrick West said, "We live in a post-emotional age,
one characterised by crocodile tears and manufactured emotion. Ostentatious
caring allows a lonely nation to forge new social bonds. Additionally,
it serves as a form of catharsis. We saw this at its most ghoulish
after the demise of Diana. In truth, mourners were not crying for
her, but for themselves. To judge by the 'outpourings of grief'
... one would have thought her memory would have remained firmly
imprinted on the public's consciousness. Yet, on the fifth anniversary
of her death in August 2002, there were no crowds, tears or teddies.
Diana had served her purpose. The public had moved on. These recreational
grievers were now emoting about Jill Dando, Linda McCartney or the
Soham girls."
Civitas' 80-page pamphlet, titled "Conspicuous Compassion:
Why Sometimes it Really is Cruel to be Kind", went on that
while the Soham murders were "unquestionably tragic",
it was "almost as distressing to see sections of the public
jumping on the grief bandwagon".
For most of the 20th century, a minute's silence was observed on
sporting occasions to mark the death of a national figure, while
two minutes' silence was reserved to honour those who had died fighting
for their country.
Today such marks of respect have become commonplace: "They
are getting longer and we are having more of them, because we want
to be seen to care."
For example, three minutes' silence was held to mark the 11 September
attacks, and in 1999 mourners marked a rail crash with five minutes'
silence. Another five minutes' silence followed for murdered schoolgirl
Milly Dowler in 2002.
"There is seemingly a case of compassion inflation, with individuals
and organisations seeking to prove how much more they care by elongating
the silences."
The wearing of charity ribbons serves to "celebrate the culture
of victimhood" and an egotistical gesture to announce "I
Care", said the report.
Again, 'going on demonstrations today is too often an exercise
in attention-seeking', it said, as are forwarding e-mail petitions
to friends.
West also criticised the trend for politicians and others to apologise
for historical wrongs, such as Tony Blair's 1999 apology for the
1840s Irish potato famine, Australia's apology to Aborigines for
colonialism, the Pope's contrition for a predecessor's treatment
of Galileo and numerous Western apologies for slavery.
"Historical apologies are arrogant and anachronistic-minded,"
he wrote. "It is dangerous to judge the past on the values
of today.
"The historical apologist is out for a cheap emotional fix."
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