Nicole Vafiadis, Period 6, 12/15/23

Nicole Vafiadis, Period 7, 12/15/23

Modern Mythology 2024


When Spotify Wrapped released last week, I saw everyone talking about it. People shared their results, compared statistics, and joked about it. One joke that I remember in particular was a tweet that said that “if you died today, your friends would have to choose whether to post about their Wrapped or you first.” It was a pretty funny joke, but nothing too crazy. What truly made it memorable was the fact that that was how I learned that former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had died.

It is ingrained in our culture that it is important to respect the dead. Making fun of or joking about one’s death is considered to be incredibly disrespectful. This belief also extends to public figures; beloved celebrities are celebrated and mourned after their passing despite not having any personal connection to their fans. That being said, when certain people die, their deaths are instead celebrated and joked about. This phenomenon was confusing at first; what exactly was the influencing factor? However, as this trend continued with more and more people, it started to make more sense. The one thing that separated these people from the rest was the harm they caused to others.

It’s no surprise that Henry Kissinger is a controversial figure, to say the least. His actions led to thousands of deaths in southeast Asia. This displays the trend amongst figures that are ridiculed after death: whether intentional or not, their actions caused harm to innocent people. Take, for example, the Reagan administration’s response (or rather lack thereof) to the AIDS crisis. Whether you agree with his policy or not, it’s still impossible to deny that the lack of response caused the deaths of thousands. Now, decades later, people still make jokes about his death. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve seen that photo of the Doomslayer searching for him in Hell.

Whether you agree with this belief or not is entirely up to you. I personally have mixed opinions on this due to the subjectivity of certain people’s actions. Everyone’s values differ, someone’s actions may not be considered reprehensible to one person while it does to another. However, this phenomenon will continue to persist whether we like it or not, and at the end of the day, it’s up to us whether we want to fuel the fire.