Who would have thought a herd could moonwalk?

01 July 2009

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The acclaimed web theorist, Mark Earls, says that the death of Michael Jackson unleashed the extremes of collective action: mass mourning and sick jokes

In lots of other ways, Jackson has become a topic for conversation again after years of invisibility — all the old stories about his father’s influence, about his alleged sexual orientation, about his fragile mental health and hopeless grasp of financial management have all been given a new lease of life. Nannies, staff, friends, victims of alleged abuse have all stepped forward to help us enjoy them together again. And again.

And finally, as every music executive will tell you, premature death is great box-office: from being a struggling former superstar whose record sales had dropped off dramatically in recent years, Jackson is now outselling all-comers — this week seven out of iTunes’ top 10 albums are MJ’s. The self-styled King of Pop is back in our hearts, albeit in circumstances that he himself would probably rather have avoided.

So what does all of this behaviour have to tell us about the human character — about who we really are? It shows that we are highly social creatures and not the individualists that our Anglo-Saxon traditions would have us believe: people’s first action on receiving news like this is to pass it on to those around us by whatever means they can. We check its veracity (or plausibility) by sharing it with other people; sometimes we just repeat it. Indeed, the more it is repeated, the more plausible it seems.

Second, it shows that we are highly social creatures — much of the emotional outpouring (the all too public grieving that can seem sickly sweet to many of us) seems to be less a response to the news itself and more a response to our peers. As with the Princess Diana experience, the emotions appear to be contagious — they spread far and wide as individuals follow other people’s responses to the ‘terrible news’.

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Moonshine

July 2nd, 2009 8:19am Report this comment

A sigh ......ohhoooerrugh gggggrrrooooannnnnn.......enuff orlreddy (sic)

ian skidmore

July 2nd, 2009 11:30am Report this comment

must you add to the acres of newsprint wasted on this poor sick man?
Max Wall and Wilson Kepple and Betty did a much better moonwalk before he was born.
Forgive me if you have mentioned this. I haven't read the article

Kathryn Parsons

July 2nd, 2009 11:35am Report this comment

Genius...

Mr Green

July 3rd, 2009 10:40am Report this comment

When you say "we", please exclude me.

MikePost

July 3rd, 2009 1:17pm Report this comment

Only in America can a poor black boy grow up to be a rich white woman.

Peter Colledge

July 3rd, 2009 3:24pm Report this comment

Many years ago, there was a film satire where a white racist becomes black overnight. In no arena whatsoever could the reverse happen, and I'm sure Jackson knew this from an early age. (cf OJ Simpson in a social context)