Jeremy Stangroom

Unless a death is the proximate cause of the cessation of great harm, I cannot understand the impulse to celebrate: http://freethoughtblogs.com/iris/2017/05/18/well-this-certainly-cheered-me-up-roger-ailes-has-died/ …

Can you understand the impulse to be saddened by the death of a famous person you never knew personally but whose work you admired?

If that person was no longer actively creating new works, their death is no proximate cause for cessation of benefits derived from them.

I don't see how the two situations differ. They seem to be exact mirror images of each other.

The two situations differ because being saddened by a death is *not* the same as celebrating a death. Morally, emotionally, different.

Mirror images, as I said. Mutatis mutandis. Sadness and joy are symmetrical feelings, aren't they?

Rationally, it doesn't make sense that many people felt sad when Harper Lee died. But it's a pretty normal human reaction.