Moonwalking to Babylon

Posted by guest blogger, BroKen.

I know that just about everything that could be written about Michael Jackson has already saturated your brain over the last couple of weeks but if you will allow it, I would like to plant just a couple more ideas in the soil of your cerebrum.

I will start with three questions from my thirteen year old daughter as we were watching one of the last interviews with the King of Pop. Her first question was, “Who is that?” I’m still patting myself on the back. Even though I’ve made a lot of mistakes raising her, I’ve done something right in keeping her innocent of this little part of pop culture.

Next she said, “What is wrong with his face?” Most of us cringed as we watched the gradual self-mutilation of this fine looking young man. But even someone unaware of how Michael looked before was still struck by that pathetic, plastic façade.

Finally, after a bit of explanation, she exclaimed, “You mean he was black!?” Yes, my dear, he was.

So, we went on the internet and looked for videos of how he was and the bad example of what he allowed himself to be turned into. We saw little Michael with the Jackson Five, the Moonwalk and a few other hit videos. One song almost flattened me with irony. It wasn’t one of his biggest hits but perhaps you remember The Man in the Mirror.   

  “I’m looking at the man in the mirror.
    I’m asking him to change his ways
    And no message could have been any clearer.
    If you want to make the world a better place,
    Take a look at yourself and make the change.”

Now, that’ll preach! What a powerful expression of the human need for transformation! Sadly, the message would have been so much clearer had not the messenger looked at himself in the mirror and decided to change… his face and his race. His face and race? Isn’t the song really about changing the twisted human soul? Yet that twisted soul could not be content with the way God had made his body?

Then there is the Moonwalk. I still remember the shock and delight the first time I saw him slide backward across the stage. He had perfected this fascinating visual illusion. He seems to be walking forward. But the reality is; he is walking backward. But hey, don’t confuse me with reality. That dance move is the coolest.

Could our cultural fascination with Michael Jackson be summed up in that optical illusion? We identify with the moonwalker because we want to appear to be moving forward. And to us, like Michael, appearance is what matters. We want to be seen facing Jerusalem even as we continue walking further and further away.

Yeah, I think that’s it. We like what we see in Michael Jackson because that’s what we are doing to ourselves. We keep up appearances while we slip slide away. We are moonwalking to Babylon.

Comments

[Locutisprime]

An excellent metaphorical explanation.