Who would have thought a herd could moonwalk?

01 July 2009

/article_images/articledir_7462/3731258/1_listing.jpg

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

Of course, we can do this because, as the neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni puts it, much of our mental apparatus is highly tuned to the other people who populate the world we inhabit: in the game show of life on earth, ‘other people’ is our specialist subject. This is also what lies behind the renewed popularity of Jackson’s music. It’s popular because it seems that other people find it popular (as Yahoo’s Duncan Watts has previously demonstrated is the case for most popular music).

Finally, it just shows that we are — that’s right — a supremely social species. Very quickly, we find new and admittedly often tasteless ways to use the thing — in this case, Jackson’s demise — to interact with other people; to turn the news, to use the current jargon, into a ‘social object’. Alas, poor Michael. It turns out that even though we didn’t know him at all, he’s provided us with another great set of excuses to do what we humans do best — interact with others. Lord knows what the public funeral will bring.

Mark Earls is the author of Herd: How to Change Mass Behaviour by Harnessing Our True Nature.

Previous page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

More articles from: Mark Earls | this section

Print this article | Email to a friend | Permalink | Comments (8)

Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Post comment

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)