Can you understand the impulse to be saddened by the death of a famous person you never knew personally but whose work you admired?
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Of course. But the main issue is deaths of people we never knew personally.
Not for me it's not. I don't find it surprising we react to the deaths of people we don't know.. We react to death of characters in novels!
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Yes but that's because the novel is designed specifically to make us personally relate to its characters.
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On the other end of the spectrum are beneficial deaths like Hitler's or Stalin's. But more relevant, how did you react to Pol Pot's death?
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I remember feeling somewhat sad/angry that Pol Pot was able to die free, in old age, and of natural causes.
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That's a stronger reaction than the ephemeral joy at reading about a disliked person's death.
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Another example: disappointed that Milošević died before he could be convicted of war crimes. Also a stronger reaction.
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Compared to those reactions (which I believe are very normal), the fleeting verbal "grave dancing" seems rather trivial.
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And you can say that those reactions, even if normal, are morally problematic, but what if the edifice of morality stands on such feelings?
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I.e., what if such emotions - both positive and negative - are necessary for formation of moral standards?
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