Man in the Mirror -- How Death Becomes Us
Michael Jackson is dead. Now we love him?
Farrah Fawcett's dead. Now we love her? And, finally, in death, Ryan O'Neal deems her worthy of a death-bed marriage?
Death just brings out the best in us all! Aren't we special?
And, if one is terminally ill and at death's door... that's really sweet. People look up from their Palm Pilots and stop Twittering, or tweeting, or whatever it is they are doing... if only for a moment. In the final hours, perhaps one even gets to communicate with their loved ones by spoken word! Holy trifecta! It's almost worth dying for!
Perhaps it is easy to get worked up about all this celebri-tainment. But, this fascination with other people's train wrecks has got to stop distracting us from connecting to each other. Think about it people. If we "social network" with actual conversations and exchange ideas, perhaps we can create a government afraid of the people instead of the other way around. As we spiral into a third world country... how exactly do we tweet our way out of that?
News producers...can you hear me?
I had the misfortune of traveling cross country over the weekend. That meant waiting for hours in airports with nothing to do but watch our corporate-owned mass media spin out of control over Jackson's death and, like a carnival freak show, work the public into an absolute manic frenzy.
CNN news, once an internationally-recognized source of information, has devolved into Entertainment Tonight periodically juxtaposed with feeble efforts to convince us otherwise. How does that work? So glad you asked. It works like this: Hours upon hours of talking about MJ's tragic life interspersed with promotional video showing a correspondent with a Hijab on her head. Note to reader: Hijab is not the same as jib-jab.
Here's the real news flash: CNN is no longer serious news. No matter how many reporters wear an Islamic head-dress.
Our brains are being hijacked and our memories are shorter than the lifespan of a Med fly. The mass media is Anna Nicole Smithing us into a coma. And here's another news flash for ya': The mass media loves death because it's cheap. Let me be more specific. It cost little or nothing to send reporters to Los Angeles and stand outside a dead celebrity's home.
But, putting boots on the ground -- reporters in places where U.S. bombs are killing civilians? To cover a drone-strike that leaves behind dead Afghani children? No one wants to see that. We like celebrity death. We ignore all those other deaths. Not to mention the "cost-ineffective" expense of sending unbiased correspondents (Dahr Jamail proves that's not always an oxymoron) to places like Afghanistan and Iraq.
No way Jose!
Instead, America's mass media shows the world what it thinks the American people care about most... Michael Jackson's "Dirty Laundry."
"We can do the innuendo
We can dance and sing
When it's said and done we haven't told you a thing.
We all know that crap is King
Give us dirty laundry!"
From the scathing words of Don Henley to the sweet innocent words of Michael Jackson's hit song, Man in the Mirror:
"If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make a change!"
In Jackson's honor, let's look into the mirror of our national psyche and make a change by turning off the television, putting down our micro-blogging devices and actually speak to one another out loud and face to face. Perhaps then a word could lead to a desire to listen, then listening could lead to open hearts, then open hearts could lead to... well, dare I say it ... perhaps a kind word or even a hug.
One good honest caress is more powerful than all the oxycontin in Michael Jackson's body... and that simple act certainly would have done him a world of good.
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Hey, wadda ya mean CNN isn't serious? They put their boots on and found Michael Jackson's chimp 'Bubbles' in Florida! Now that's investigative journalism at it's finest! When all else fails, follow the chimps. I also feel that because of this, Farrah Fawcett's death coverage was pretty much pushed aside. If it weren't for Michael, we would have probably known what color outfit poor Farrah was buried in. And what happened to Plus Eight, minus Jon and Kate?? Ed Mc Mahon...IRAN???? Keep up the good work Leslie...you got this one right on the monkey, er, money...
Michael Jackson."You are not alone." Not anymore. I believe you are now, the angel in heaven you sought so hard to be here on earth. You were so misunderstood, vilified, and beat upon. There was so much mockery and hatred of you, for only one reason. You"re goodness; your luminosity into the beautiful heart you believed could be in every man. You had such generosity, and tried so hard to teach others, to look into the soul. And to not judge based on color, creed or class.
But darkness, doesn"t like beauty to shine. It detracts so much from what it is trying to do. Create dark human less souls of us all. To replace the radiance that was born within all of us, by God. You spoke of nothing, but love and peace. Your light through your words, and music shone so bright. You"ve brought so much too so many, but only sought pure love for yourself. Your sensitivity brought ridicule. When all you wished most of all was to be embraced and understood.
I think what personally stood out to me most of all; was your tender nature. Envy in other people mistook that for weakness, when in reality it is strength. The force of who you were was so strong. Many people wish to have that, but could never achieve it.
We are all afforded different opportunities in life. Instead of being envious, they should have rejoiced with you, in your life.
It's human nature to want to see a lot of coverage of the passing of someone like Jackson. I freely admit to wanting to watch it, and I don't think I'm someone who doesn't want "real news." But the fact is, these are moments that do connect us all -- many of us grieve over the passing of Jackson. Add to that the pitiful figure he became in real life; it strikes many of us as tragic. That is something people are interested in. Further, he died young. I was in a Best Buy watching his music videos where I met 6-7 people and we all reflected back over Michael's life. Being the same age, it actually makes me reflect over those moments in my own life.
So yea, speak for yourself. I'm sick of the negativity around Michael's death. There's nothing wrong with our curiosity nor our wanting to reflect. That's why we turn on the TV for the "round the clock" coverage. This was a major news event whether you agree or not. Plenty of time to talk about other things... it will all end soon and we'll move on.
post thought: and by the way, in my rush to rant - I forgot to say I LOVED your article.
brilliant!!! very well written and my sentiments exactly. Thanks for having the courage to sum it up so eloquently-
Fantastic article, Leslie. This is by far the best response I've seen to the MJ death hysteria.
Hi. Les. So well said. Would love to see you face to face. Saw Pam Moore at the Friends of Faith Pink Elephant sale and she agreed we should get something on the calendar!
I wrote something (too much) about Michael Jackson on my CarePages "Hope for Cancer: what helps. what hurts. what heals." blog. It's in a similar vein to yours - or not similar but in the same universe, I think. You might find it interesting. I do think we often fail to really consider the lives and feelings of others until it is too late. http://www.carepages.com/blogs/helpshurtsheals/posts
Love,
Lori
Thinking seriously about the problems in the world requires an open mind, and the millions of imbeciles who get their "information" from Rush Limbaugh and Fox Noise don't have open minds.
As it so happens, my left-wing mom and her right-wing brother always agreed that Michael Jackson was the world's weirdest person, and his death won't change that one bit.
It is a fact that instead of timely news all we got was a constant barrage of Michael Jackson on CNN and MSNBC. It was truly disgraceful to have such high focus on a deceased entertainer. His life was pathetic and these kids he left behind will be as messed up as he was. It is all very sad and in the name of common decency we should give it a rest.
Our news stations have turned into morbid gossip platforms.
You said it sister.
PTA: "Michael Jackson is dead. Now we love him?
Death just brings out the best in us all! Aren't we special? "
Speak for yourself; Leslie Griffith.
Millions of Americans and billions of world citizens have loved Michael Jackson since he first came to our attention as a little boy. We have loved him and considered him a national treasure for many years.
We loved him when MTV refused to play his music because he was black. And we loved him when MTV relented to pressure and threats of boycotts and decided to play his music.
Michael Jackson was a child prodigy and a pioneer. He was a special human being with human frailties He was a trail maker, an international star, a humanitarian and philanthropist. And like the rest of us, he's made some mistakes.
The spontaneous eruptions of grief, the proliferation of memorials, the accolades and celebrations of his life are legitimate expressions of genuine shock and affection for a man whose been a part of the fabric of American culture for more than 2 generations.
She speaks for me as well; I concur with every word of this post. And, as I do not mean any offense to MJ or his fans, I surmise that it was not her intent, either, though I also do not intend to presume to speak on her behalf.
I honestly don't believe he would have approved of MSNBC's preempting normal programming *for the entire afternoon* especially considering the importance of what is even still developing in Iran, just to report on the passing of one entertainer, whose situation is no different now than it was the first time Keith Olbermann stated he had died. I was by no means his "biggest fan" but it was my strong impression that he was always more concerned with and interested in the living present than the static finality of death and the past.
I agree that MJ was all of the things that you say and that people were genuinely grieved (though I find that odd, but that's perhaps another post). You miss the point of the article, however, and that is the culture of so-called grieving - and culture at large. You may mourn the passing of your favorite pop star, but does that warrant the insane wall-to-wall coverage? Have the 24 hr updating, the retrospectives, the tributes, the special reports really led us to a more reflective state or are they really just sensational diversions, exploiting our fascination with celebrity and death?
This article asks us to reexamine our priorities. Instead of allowing ourselves to be crushed by celebrity and by the outlets and enablers of that gossip culture, how about we take control of our own lives. By tuning out the incessant cable drivel, we might better see a world beyond MJ, beyond Ms. Fawcett (iconic as they might be). Then we can begin tackling some of the society's greater problems, perhaps in the spirit of MJ if you want to see it that way.
MTV didn't refuse to play Jackson's music because he was black; MTV refused to play Jackson's music because it didn't conform to its narrow definition of "rock." Before the Rick James/M. Jackson dust-ups, MTV played the videos of Prince, Tina Turner and others of the dwindling number of black artists working within the old musical framework of rock.
Major stars of all colors and nationalities were thwarted by MTV's early rock-only policy: important singers of country, jazz, reggae, salsa, pop standards, opera, folk, and world music of every conceivable type were all shut out by the same hopelessly old-fashioned policy conceived in the days when pop music was ruled by the marketing departments of major labels.
Right on!! As usual. I avoid the "news" except HuffPost or the Jets. How to turn the tide? Like health care as a right rather than a luxury? Separation of news and state? Founding Fathers probably thought the 1st Amendment would secure that but they never met a stacked Supreme Court. Or perhaps they did.
Correlated with our inability of looking ourselves in the mirror is the fact that once done, we're incapable of facing the truth we see there. Link this with an uncompromising desire to not think, and we have the state of our culture today.
By the way. Stephen Colbert cleared up the verbiage, in and around the "Tweet" phenomenon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4EoN4nr5FQ
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