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Originally Posted by Nodrog
The British 'stiff upper lip' attitude is largely a cultural myth - it has very little bearing on the actual responses to these kind of events.
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Perhaps, although the vast majority of people I've encountered (and I'm not just talking about young "liberal" people) are fairly unmoved by all of this. Especially with regards the recent events (i.e. the Oval/Warrent Street "bombings"), most people found it quite funny.
Sure, the newspapers are going to be calling for fascism - that's what they're there for. I also wouldn't call them particularly in touch (or at least, not in touch with people who live in London - they might represent the home counties quite well, I'm not sure).
In Britain after Diana died you had media nonsense for at least a week where no sane words could be heard. But only 1/2 days later in comedy clubs there were jokes about it (and at her expense). These jokes were not heard on TV/radio and any foriegn witnesses would genuinely think that "the country was in mourning". I'm sure the same could be said of America. I'm sure plenty of people (even in NY) shrugged off 9/11 to an extent, but they're not the voices we get to hear about.