Being less shitty and feeling less shitty are different things. Expressing forced condolences under the pressure of the social contract is the glue that holds the society together while, in fact, most people don't care so much as to provide a proper matter of attention to the situation and/or to affect it or its aftermath somehow. People sitting at home and expressing feeling sorry for what happened helps whom and how? I can imagine that feeling the public support might help the surviving victims of whatever happened (I'm out of the loop on this one) or their surviving close ones. The "sorreeĢs" will feel better about themselves, having taken part in a good-will movement. What thereafter? I'm not talking about ensuing donations. Great! It will probably help the victims (if there is, indeed, such a need for being helped - medical bills and othersuch), and it will have a real effect on the situation: someone will benefit from that. Could it exist without the wave of "I commiserate"? I don't know. I hope it could: as shitty as human beings are, I sure hope we're not that shitty, - but I don't know. I'm not talking about any sort of volunteering, either: if it indeed changes the situation for the better, I support it. Is it cynical? Yes, it probably is. I am quite in that mood for people who do something and assume that they do good simply by the virtue of saying a few contractually-obliged words. It rubs me the wrong way when someone claims to be doing good without actually doing it. It's not meant to be an offence towards you, rd95, for I don't believe you claim anything of such matter. I don't mean to shit on attempts of people to do actual good: I mean to put to light the fact that not everything that feels good is good.Anything we can do, to be slightly less shitty, shouldn't be shat upon.