Michael Jackson’s passing has changed our world forever. He took all of the insanity of the world - the phony, the commercial - and distilled it. He strove to embody our nation’s, nay our world’s, sense of beauty. He personified all the trash that we swallow daily and gave us a target to mock. Now that he has gone, we are alone, profoundly alone.
The world no longer has hope. Around the world, the one thing all humans shared was a love for Michael. He was popular in Korea, Nigeria and India. Now that he is gone, nothing positive can unite us. The world is forever splintered. If the people of Iran wanted us to understand them, they’d suspend the protests for a day in honor of Michael. As it is there is no hope of world unity now. In despair, I keep expecting him to reappear in the sky as our redeemer. This is existentialism.
Farrah Fawcett died of anal cancer. Flesh destroyed her. Michael transcended flesh. He incarnated and morphed into a surreal sense of beauty. Farrah, God bless her, was an icon that became human. Her tragic downfall brought her down to earth. Michael was an icon that became more of an icon. He was not humanized. Lisa Presley once said, “Michael is an artist. He changes his face for us everyday.” Michael was a great artist. He embodied our dreams. He died for our sins.
Some people will say that his wonderland ranch represented predation. To me, his ranch represented our collective sense of innocence in a violent, sexualized world. It was the silhouette of our existence. We asked for a priest; we basked in his faithfulness to Bubbles. We asked him to not grow up. We looked the other way as he courted Emmanuel Lewis. He gave us our childhood back. He restored our innocence.
The world is in denial. The BBC, CNN, nor MTV will admit just how crappy his post – Jackson Five music was. That would reveal that all of us who drink the cool-aid of pop culture are insane. Michael Jackson was a prophet. He revealed our generation to us as John Lennon had reflected the prior generation. And, so he is gone. We have a big hole where he revenged himself by gouging at our collective hearts. We could laugh at his insanity. But we no longer have anywhere to absorb our tears.
RIP Michael Jackson. RIP Farrah Fawcett.
13 comments:
Culturist John,
What about the issue of his alleged pedophilia? Wasn't he accused of molesting a little boy? I know that under the law, people are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in America, but Micheal Jackson didn't actually act like a wrongfully accused man in a convincing manner.
Great post, John. Very complex and poetic, and TRUE.
There is one area in which Michael Jackson truly was a genius, though; DANCE.
Check out this video. It is a revelation in motion, as great as any ballet, if not greater:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ex30DYwQlHU
John, that was a sickening thing to read. Uggh. I must really disagree with that felatious bit of celebrity worship, because it is wrong on so many levels: But this is my take:
I just never 'got' Michael Jackson, and found him in life to be repulsive. The kind of repulsive you physically feel on a deep level. He was surrounded by people who never said "NO" to his most base demands, who shielded him from every consequence of his sordid behavior. He took. He left huge debts to people he took advantage of financially. He used people and threw them aside when he no longer needed them, and in return, the world got music that wasn't all that great. If there was ever one song that he sang that epitomized his strange and bizarre life, it was the paean to a rat. "Ben."
Jau Jau,
If you think that was pure celebrity worship, you should read it again.
Pastorius,
Thanks, I thought I might get a lot of flack for that post. Glad to have it apprecaited.
Damien,
MJ was a monster. I doubt that was his worst crime. We indulged him as he courted Emmanuel Lewis.
In fact, I knew a man who worked as MJ's projectionist for many years. He said he never saw anything improper in the theater. But he gave me stationary from the ranch. And the boy on the moon was definitely petting himself.
CJ,
That detail about the boy on the moon is disgusting.
I like art that has more to do with words and/or music. I don't particularly think of dance as a high art form. However, he was a great dancer, as dancers go. As a dancer, he was an artist par excellence.
Damien,
Remember, we have a sick sense of humor here, though Culturist John's post is more than humor. It is a slap in the face of a culture which has worshipped a vapid icon.
make that,
a vapid, and morally sick cultural icon.
We are in the waning days of culture. Soon, it might even be illegal to have anything like decent culture. It seems to be an afront to all the vapidistes to have substance of any sort.
The baby dangling thing and his traitorous "reversion" to the ideology of a murderous pedophile pretty much wiped the slate clean for me when it comes to lamenting this sick puppy's passing.
Not unlike the murder factories tended to overshadow Hitler's artistic merits as well as his not unsubstantial charitable contributions.
Wow, I wonder how Hitler would be remembered if he were actually a good painter. Or, what if he was also a great Opera singer.
LOL
There's some sick humor for Damien.
Anonymous,
In all seriousness, pedophilia is depraved. You can't have sex with children without raping them, since they are not yet mature enough to consent. That said, I think that comparing Micheal to Hitler goes too far, even if all the allegations of him being a pedophile are true.
In terms of the media - blitz circus, the more direct comparison would be to Goebbels. Still, it is a tad unfair.
Then again, I'm reading Johah Goldbergs' Liberal Fascism. In that book he shows that Wilson, FDR, the weather underground, JFK and LBJ (so far) were fascist in methodology. I have a feeling MJ might be forthcoming.
Well, MJ did prefer military uniforms, though they tended to be emblazoned with sequins.
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