Why is it that whenever a "disaster" happens we have to stop for 2 to 3 minutes to pay "respect"? Today got me thinking about this with the 7/7/2005 train bombings. I work in a "super" market and was pushing a noisy cage not realising the rest of the shop had gone quiet, when I walked past a manager who promptly starred at me with his finger to his lips. That got me thinking, why am I standing here? Why should people blown up on a train be any different from the thousands of other people blown up that day? If it's right to be silent for every war and bombing anniversery no-one would ever talk.

Maybe because those people did not choose to die? But who chooses to die except those who don't care to live anyway or risk takers who accept the consequences of thier actions?

My question is this, do we stay silent because we want to, or because we are told to? If the former then I would like a reason for our social silence. If the latter then surely this raises more serious questions about external authority and our willingness to comply with it.