There was a point in the year 2011 where people were wondering why all this attention was being given to the wedding of Price William and Kate Middleton. I'll admit, I was one of those people. It wasn't untill later on that I grew an appreciation for just such a story.
In the months before the wedding the Libyan Civil War was going on, the Syrian Civil War had just started, the earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster started happening in Japan, the Egyptian Revolution was coming to a head, and there was a suicide bombing at a prominent airport in Moscow. Given all the news that had happened, the world needed a break. The world needed a news story that was purely good, and the Royal Wedding provided that good news story. Yes the wedding itself was extravagant and, to some, overly garish, but that's part of what made this story good. The Royal Wedding gave people a reason to sit and look at something beautiful for a couple of hours, as opposed to all the ugliness that was in the world.
An argument can be made that we need such a news story now. With the Crimean Conflict, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, and the recently revealed human rights abuses in North Korea, we need a break. We need a story that speaks to the good of humanity. We need a story of a person overcoming a great personal tragedy. We need a beautiful story we can look for a couple of hours, as opposed to all the ugliness in the world.
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