Facebook has become the place to go and hear insensitivity, stupid jokes, biblical promises, and smelly opinions whenever anything notable happens in the world. This should teach me to specifically ignore it in interesting times, but like a dog to her vomit...
For the record, I know there are people dying everywhere of hunger and oppression, and that of course, their deaths are more important than everyone else's. For instance, Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, the King of Pop, my mother, all these deaths pale in comparison to those gruesome political deaths in Iran, Darfur, and so on. Those deaths are important, right? Except not really. A death is a death, it is sad. Quit trying to prove how aware and sensitive you are by being insensitive. I don't actually need to know how little you care, you can smugly keep that to yourself. Of course we have stronger emotional connections to the deaths of people we know, or shared time with in some way. I didn't know Michael Jackson, but I knew his music, and it provided me with some sweet times. What party is complete without a rousing group-sing of Will You Be There (the Free Willy song)? Who among us can listen to Man in the Mirror even once without resolving to better himself? And be honest, what musician was more well-known around the world? He is legendary, and he is a part of us. We are all parts of each other. I will not cry over his death, but I was surprised, and I will feel a little sad. Get over it. Don't try to make me feel like a Superficial Sandy or a Bandwagon Blanch or a Consumer Curt or a stupid little American Armand for caring a little about this particular death. Dude, it just happened. We will all have time to get sickened by the press-coverage in the coming month. Just tonight, let us be a little sad, let us drink a toast and listen to some The Way You Make Me Feel in remembrance, and keep your stinky little opinions to yourself, you people that I love and respect in every way.
The heart of it, I think, is this: The reason the media jumps on it whenever a celebrity dies is because it makes us actually feel connected, it makes us feel like a community, because we all feel this one thing together, we all feel a collective sadness, and so however fleeting or artificial our connectedness is, we can feel it for one moment, we can know that we humans are all together in this world, and I think that is good and beautiful, even if it is not entirely true. But the nasty thing about facebook is that it removes the facade, it shows that we aren't actually feeling the same thing. 1/3 of us are, another 1/3 are judging us, and another 1/3 are more concerned with their upcoming trip to Hardee's. It felt the same way on election night, when the entire world seemed elated, when we all felt like humankind had just taken a giant leap forward, we all shed a tear and it was so transcendent. And then we glanced at facebook before we went to bed, only to discover that every single person who felt even one bit different made sure to tell us all, and the sheer volume of it...There's just no need.
The only good thing to come out of facebook tonight was this killer picture my brother posted:
RIP, Mike.
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