The Misremembering of Shinzo Abe

I know we can't (and shouldn't) mourn heads of state in perpetuity, but there's a stunning ephemerality to the newsworthiness of Abe's assassination.

Is it because Abe's murderer is turning out to be a disgruntled nobody? Was Abe himself, as a politician and person, uninteresting to the world outside Japan? Is gun violence, regardless of perpetrator and victim, old hat at this point? Is there a collective calamity fatigue?

Admittedly my scope is limited to Western news sites, but I can't help to feel the world has more or less shrugged this off already. Strange days.

Looking at the most well-known assassinations in the Netherlands (Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, or Peter R. de Vries), there is always something of a "post-assassinations shock" period, where the victim is praised to the point it becomes a bit silly. I suppose it's something of an over-compensation in response to the gravity of the crime.

Over time, things calm down and a more level-headed assessment of their lives and legacy prevails.