Heath Ledger, RIP

I've just spent a few moments going through the comments on the BBC website, voicing the reactions of readers to the death of Heath Ledger. Some people manage to reach levels of insensitivity I hadn't thought possible - the loose quips about him pretty much getting what he deserved for daring to be in the spotlight, the endless mentions of, 'another soldier dies in Afghanistan and will barely get paid lip service'. Others saying how shocked they are, and the responses to those asking how can you be shocked and distressed by the death of someone you don't even know - save those 'false emotions' for relatives and friends.

In the first case, I think it is acceptable to be distressed to a certain degree by the death of someone who brought you nothing but pleasure. Additionally, I am guessing that the majority of people who have been affected by Ledger's death are so not because they had any particular connection to him but rather because of the wholly unexpected nature of the event. We have a gorgeous, talented young man who - apparently - chose to take his own life. This is the aspect that people are unable to understand, that someone in his situation can be anything but happy and positive. It is naive to assume that peace comes with riches and fame, even with ambitions achieved and a glittering array of awards to prove this. Furthermore, it is naive to assume that being a father would bring him boundless joy and reasons to live. Suicide can, in such cases as this, be viewed as inherently selfish; some say it is a brave act, others that it is the gesture of cowards. The death of a solider in Afghanistan is a tragedy, but death and war go inevitably hand in hand. The shock factor cannot be the same.

My thoughts are with the little girl who will never know her father, the mother who has lost her son. With Ledger, in his last months; the final hours I imagine would be more calm and peaceful, because by then he would have made a decision and it is often that which brings peace of mind. And they are with all the other people currently in the situation he surely was - trying to grasp a hold of reality but unable to understand the evermore confusing and manic state of the world today. It is a harsh irony of the 21st century that while many of the citizens of the world are clinging desperately onto life, struggling to survive, others are apparently willingly forfeiting their right to a future. It is relevant not to look at the individuals, but at the society in which they lived. I remember writing in my dissertation to get my BA that suicide was the way some people ultimately chose to feel alive, the final slash of their wrists an assertive motion against the insanity and chaos of the world which surrounded them. We live in an increasingly violent world, knife attacks and high school shootings become a staple part of the daily news report: when are we going to stop putting all the blame on the criminal and start accepting some responsibility as being members of the same destructive society?

What is important today - getting ahead of everyone else, at whatever cost to them and, more notably, to yourself - has essentially dehumanised us. If someone heads out on a shooting spree of random strangers, it is surely because life has come to mean so little and they are desperately seeking some sort of affirmation that life is out there, that they can find a meaning after all.

I would say that Heath Ledger's death has affected me to a greater extent than Princess Diana's. Hers was a tragic life, but one for which she practically set herself up: she played with fire, and got burnt. Nobody deserves to die under dubious circumstances in a car crash, but it was an ending almost appropriate to her increasingly fantastical life. Ledger, dying alone in a New York apartment in the depths of winter, is going to leave a more indelible impression on me. I hope, with a certain degree of futility, that the world learns something from his passing.