Excuse me while I try to yell over the braying of the sheep, because what we've got here is a failure to communicate. So...Michael Jackson died. You know what? Big deal. The guy hasn't done any appearances outside of court since the late 90s. I'm still not convinced this isn't another attempt to rip off McCartney. (See: Paul is Dead) "But he touched millions!" the crowd says. I don't think he was ever formally convicted of that. (If you think that makes me an asshole...Hi! I'm Chris, have we met?)
So, while the media turns into a Perez Hilton sideshow, the US is pulling out of Iraqi cities. Hundreds have died since the announcement was made. No vigils are being held. The International Pissing Contest is reaching a crescendo as North Korea threatens to launch nukes and Iran takes offense to Obama's stance against the violence. Hundreads have died. Thousands more potentially should this go the distance. Jesse Jackson is not pushing for answers. Probably because there's less cameras over there covering it.
You go ahead and light your candles for a fallen pop star who had faded well before he vanished. I'll take the "asshole" stamp you've given me, press it firmly to my forehead, and wear it with pride. I'd rather be regarded as an jerk for not caring about the one so long as I don't bleed indifference over the many.
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3 comments:
I appreciate your stand, but I find myself somewhere in the middle of total apathy and the mass over the top hysteria expressed over a pop star's demise. Maybe because I'm just a few years younger than Jackson, it kind of feels like another part of my childhood has vanished, and I will admit to being a Jackson 5 fan back in the day.
But as I told my older brother today, if this is the reaction a Michael Jackson gets when he dies, then when someone like Bob Dylan passes on, they better fucking stop civilization for about 3 full days.
Did you catch the prisoners in the Philippines reenacting the fucking Thriller video? If that isn't surreal, I don't know what the word even means then. And all these people praising Jackson the person (versus the entertainer), saying things like we learned a lot from him... his songs were disposable love songs for the most part, with trite lyrics and shopworn sentiments. As you referenced, it's been close to 20 years since he even had a passable impact on the culture at large, except of course for his train wreck of a tabloid life. The country has lost its collective mind, or whatever's left of it.
When I was a kid, I liked the guy. As I got older, his music started meaning less to me. As his career progressed, his music became shit.
I didn't hear about the prisoners in the Phillipines reinacting the video, but yeah...that's gotta be about as surreal as it gets.
Totally agree about this country losing its mind. One dead "celebrity" trumps the thousands of lives lost in a pointless war.
It still reads well the second time. Oh hi hello.
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