The world of grief changed one night in a Paris tunnel. It was from that moment that anything deemed worthy, by those who measure the worthiness of these things – rightly or wrongly – of a public out-pouring gets the full works, a shrine, a cortège being covered in roses and highly paid footballers, standing round a centre circle looking bemused at what they are applauding.
There has been a dumbing down of the grief and remembrance process. This means that some of the most worthwhile get caught up in Grief Apathy or Remembrance Fatigue when it’s their turn.
With this dumbing down and blanket remembrance policy – no matter where you are or what you are doing – it means, like what happens when most things end up being pushed by the vehicles of bampots and idiots, that the whole thing has been downgraded to now just another show that for a minute or so we are decent human beings.
Problem is with it being devalued so much that it really means very little to those who don’t really care about the person(s) being remembered. Hence the change from silence to applause. Less chance of the remembrance being spoiled by those who think Hollyoaks is quality, hard hitting drama.
Celtic, remembered Jock Stein with a minutes applause. It made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as it reached a deafening crescendo. Though fitting, it sat uneasily. I felt Stein should be remembered and that the celebration of his life achievements happens every time Celtic take to the field.
If it wasn’t for Stein we wouldn’t be the club of today.
As the applause was happening I looked over to the Hearts support. Ok, rumours of some turning their back on the applause have been made on the net and though the majority looked like they were applauding it wasn’t enough to subside the anger I felt to them.
The applause was to ensure they looked good and didn’t have any serious questions to answer. The SFA also went down the applause route for probably the same reasons when Scotland played during the week.
On Saturday morning one of the top stories on the Glasgow Herald website was an archived report about the Jim Torbett trial. You didn’t have to check under stones to see what the pond life had been up to.
Celtic in the last few seasons have seen deliberate efforts from others to besmirch the name of our support and to entice some of the idiots, who follow our club, into a reaction that seems sane to their putty matter.
Celtic on Saturday backed down to the bigots that Jock Stein strived to and did beat.
If only those in charge had the same guts.
Full trailer for ‘Buried’ the new thriller which hits cinemas Sept 29
The best tribute to Jock on Saturday (or I suspect the one that would have pleased him most) was Paddy’s goal.
I was fortunate enough to have lived through the Stein years. I remember as an 11 year old doing summersaults on my bed listening on the wireless to us winning the cup in 65. I was heaven after missing out in 61 and 63.
I had no idea who was manager: for us it was all about the players.
But we soon learned: Big Jock was the man who took us from oblivion to 67 and beyond.
Peerless then as now.
I’m sorry to disagree with you but whereas I wish that we could go back to a time when all would honour a minutes silence those days are gone in Scotland and if we had insisted on the silence you know that the mini-huns wouldn’t stay silent and some of the eejits in our crowd would have answered them creating an “us the same as them” report
@Pat
We can’t let the idiots, on both sides, win. Celtic should have said it was a silence. This was a Celtic legend not some bit part player.
@sixtaeseven
Jock saved ,for the want of a better word,us from being Hibs.
we should have made them do a mins silence,even if it meant the wee huns shaming themselves . those d.o.b falkirk insisted on silence against us
@Stephen
Falkirk was different. That’s political. People protest against political decisions.
I agree about the silence. I observed a silence and joined in to the applause near the end. The silence followed by applause is the Italian model that we in this country have tried to follow. The applause is such a clumsy approach.
The Jock Stein chant took me back in time. 🙂
@Iain 440
Scots trying to be Italian never works. Though, why are there so many Italian chip shops in Scotland as I have been to Italy and never seen a chippy.
While agreeing with your general point about the false emotion syndrome in modern society, I do think that the applause was appropriate on Saturday.
We were remembering Jock Stein’s achievements on Saturday. He died too young, but it was quarter of a century ago. Remembrance and appreciation, rather than grief.
@pujol
The applause is a cop out. I take your point about it being 25 years ago and the celebration of achievement but like the Phil O’Donnell applause it just didn’t feel right.
It was nice to see the Tv companies celebrate his life
The bottom line of it is at least he was remembered, whether it was good enough? Well the jury is out and opinions are flowing.
Jock Stein, I can be honest, was before my time. The things I know about him, his history, his managerial style, his commitment to our club and the team he brought together, the knowledge of him has all been taken on board from books, dvds and clips found in the deepest corners of the net. Maybe some people have not dug into the subject enough to know about how important to our club he was.
Big Jock could have been remembered in many ways but at least on our next drink, pint or orange juice we can raise glasses and remember him in our own way.
LOTW – If Hollyoaks omnibus is on, on a sunday and the huns are playing I know what I would be watching everytime!! 😀 😀 😀 😀
@Sean
The Huns game needs less of a dumbing down of grey matter to watch. Though, E4 have surpassed themselves with the car crash that is the Inbetweeners.