The Man in the Mirror
By James Howard Kunstler on June 29, 2009 6:01 AM
As America entered the horse latitudes of summer, befogged in a muffling stillness on deceptively calm seas, we were distracted for a while by visions of a pale death angel moonwalking across the deck of collective consciousness. Eerie parallels resound between the sordid demise of pop singer Michael Jackson and the fate of the nation. Like the United States, Michael Jackson was spectacularly bankrupt, reportedly in the range of $800-million, which is rather a lot for an individual. Had he lived on a few more years, he might have qualified for his own TARP program -- another piece of expensive dead-weight down in the economy's bilges -- since it is our established policy now to throw immense sums of so-called "money" at gigantic failing enterprises (while millions of ordinary citizens wash overboard, without so much as a life-preserver). Anyway, Michael Jackson was on the receiving end of one huge bank loan after another long after his pattern of profligacy was set and obvious. They threw money at him for the same reason that the federal government throws money at entities like CitiBank: the desperate hope that some miracle will allow debt servicing to resume. Michael could burn through $50-million in half a year. It didn't seem to affect his credibility as a borrower. When his heart stopped last week, he was living in a Hollywood mansion that rented for several hundred thousand dollars a month. You wonder how the landlord cashed those checks. Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a song worth listening to in over two decades. He had done almost nothing but spin his wheels, hop around the globe from one place to another at enormous expense, and make himself available for award ceremonies to stoke his ego (and give advertisers a reason to promote some televised award show). He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished by moonbeams of attention, famous for saying that he loved his worshippers when the truth was he merely sucked the life out of them. In his last years, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit way back in the last century. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot. He was a poseur, vamping in weird military outfits as though he were a five-star general in the Honduran army, or a character from a melodrama by the reprobate Jean Genet. He once materialized during halftime at the Superbowl in a shower of sparks, thrilling the multitudes while grabbing and stroking his sex organs, as though that was a heroic activity -- and indeed the nation seemed to emulate him as its culture became dedicated more and more to acting out masturbation fantasies. America was a fat man jerking off on the sofa watching a vampire of no particular sex vogue deliriously on the boob tube. More than once the authorities tried to pin charges of child molestation on him for suspicious activities at his boy-trap, Neverland Ranch, with its carnival rides, private zoo, video game galleries, and inexhaustible supplies of sugary treats. The first time he settled with the alleged victim's family for $22-million. They just walked away with the loot and happily shut up. The second time, he moonwalked out of a court-of-law while weeks later jurors mysteriously went on TV to say, well, they did kind of think after-the-fact that he really did those things he was accused of, but, you know.... The defendant himself behaved as though his trial were a TV celebrity challenge show on another planet, arriving on one occasion twenty minutes late in pajamas with some lame excuse about a backache. He spent the last years of his life wandering a few steps ahead of his creditors, gulling concert promoters into "comeback" schemes (with walking-around money up front), and with three bought-and-paid-for children, obviously not his own, for consolation. When he dropped dead last week, the nation's morbidly maudlin response suggested a cover story for the relief of being rid of him and all the embarrassment he provoked. One CNN reporter called him a genius the equal of Mozart. That's a little like calling Rachel Maddow the reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt. A nation addicted to lying to itself tells itself fairy tales instead of facing a pathology report. Yet, like Michael Jackson, the undertone of horror story still pulses darkly in the background. The little boy who grew up to be the simulation of a girl was really a werewolf. The nation that defeated manifest evil in World War Two woke up one day years later to find itself stripped of its manhood, mentally enslaved to cheap entertainments, and hostage to its own grandiosity. Maybe in grieving so exorbitantly over this freak America is grieving for itself. All the loose talk about "love" from the media and the fans gives off the odor of self-love. America is "the man in the mirror," the gigantic, floundering Narcissus, sailing into the stormy seas of history.
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asoka June 29, 2009 9:41 AM Reply
"America is ... the gigantic, floundering Narcissus, sailing into the stormy seas of history."
But not necessarily doomed. America can yet right itself. And storms do subside.
david mathews June 29, 2009 9:49 AM Reply
The analogy between Michael Jackson and the United States is pretty strong but I wouldn't limit it to simply the USA (USA! USA! We're the greatest! USA!) but apply it more widely and say that the Homo sapiens are the Michael Jackson of the animal kingdom. Not only is humankind living way beyond its means it has transformed in a grotesque manner just as Michael Jackson rejected his natural face and replaced it with a horrendous mask, a byproduct of science & technology against Nature.
Just as Michael Jackson died before his time, the Homo sapiens are accelerating the life cycle of the species and headed to an inevitable and well-earned extinction.
Incidentally, there is a two hour program about the disintegration of America's infrastructure on the History Channel:
http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=452430&action=detail
Which, incidentally, I am very much in favor of the crumbling of America. Our civilization was built to last between 50 - 100 years ... which the vast majority of the infrastructure already over 50 years old.
It can all crumble to dust.
What I recommend is that everyone wait for the end of civilization on the beach:
http://www.flickr.com/dmathew1
If you don't love Nature you might as well live on Mars.
zerotsm June 29, 2009 9:51 AM Reply
All the coverage of Michael Jackson is a waste of spectrum space, but of course the MSM these days doesn't want to report anything serious, like the commercial real estate market about to implode.
spencer June 29, 2009 9:51 AM Reply
Jim: This is such brilliant writing it took my breath away. Thanks!
Spencer TheNothingStore.com
Essential Dissent June 29, 2009 9:55 AM Reply
A courageous (and all too accurate) post. I predict a record volume of hate mail in response.
Riddick's Ego June 29, 2009 9:55 AM Reply
The passing of the celebrity creation that was Michael Jackson has only pointed out the weird "Alice in Wonderland" qualities of reality. Yes, he sang some good songs and made some cool spins and moves in his youth. Okay, great. But in the interest of the almighty buck and all that having lotsa of bucks can do for one; he was elevated, used, abused and allowed to live a satirical life before everyone; great fodder for the tabloids TV shows, press and blogs.
That is what the West has degenerated into, a freaking side show. The masses pay n attention to the fleecing of the economy but dam if they miss and Idol or Dancing with the Stars. Yeah, we are as doomed as the idiots who never missed their spot on the bench to watch lions maul
By James Howard Kunstler on June 29, 2009 6:01 AM
As America entered the horse latitudes of summer, befogged in a muffling stillness on deceptively calm seas, we were distracted for a while by visions of a pale death angel moonwalking across the deck of collective consciousness. Eerie parallels resound between the sordid demise of pop singer Michael Jackson and the fate of the nation. Like the United States, Michael Jackson was spectacularly bankrupt, reportedly in the range of $800-million, which is rather a lot for an individual. Had he lived on a few more years, he might have qualified for his own TARP program -- another piece of expensive dead-weight down in the economy's bilges -- since it is our established policy now to throw immense sums of so-called "money" at gigantic failing enterprises (while millions of ordinary citizens wash overboard, without so much as a life-preserver). Anyway, Michael Jackson was on the receiving end of one huge bank loan after another long after his pattern of profligacy was set and obvious. They threw money at him for the same reason that the federal government throws money at entities like CitiBank: the desperate hope that some miracle will allow debt servicing to resume. Michael could burn through $50-million in half a year. It didn't seem to affect his credibility as a borrower. When his heart stopped last week, he was living in a Hollywood mansion that rented for several hundred thousand dollars a month. You wonder how the landlord cashed those checks. Like the USA, Michael Jackson was a has-been. He hadn't recorded a song worth listening to in over two decades. He had done almost nothing but spin his wheels, hop around the globe from one place to another at enormous expense, and make himself available for award ceremonies to stoke his ego (and give advertisers a reason to promote some televised award show). He existed strictly on image, an anorectic figure nourished by moonbeams of attention, famous for saying that he loved his worshippers when the truth was he merely sucked the life out of them. In his last years, he even looked a bit like Nosferatu, the personification of the un-dead, and his fascination with ghouls was the basis for his biggest hit way back in the last century. A zombie nation deserves a zombie mascot. He was a poseur, vamping in weird military outfits as though he were a five-star general in the Honduran army, or a character from a melodrama by the reprobate Jean Genet. He once materialized during halftime at the Superbowl in a shower of sparks, thrilling the multitudes while grabbing and stroking his sex organs, as though that was a heroic activity -- and indeed the nation seemed to emulate him as its culture became dedicated more and more to acting out masturbation fantasies. America was a fat man jerking off on the sofa watching a vampire of no particular sex vogue deliriously on the boob tube. More than once the authorities tried to pin charges of child molestation on him for suspicious activities at his boy-trap, Neverland Ranch, with its carnival rides, private zoo, video game galleries, and inexhaustible supplies of sugary treats. The first time he settled with the alleged victim's family for $22-million. They just walked away with the loot and happily shut up. The second time, he moonwalked out of a court-of-law while weeks later jurors mysteriously went on TV to say, well, they did kind of think after-the-fact that he really did those things he was accused of, but, you know.... The defendant himself behaved as though his trial were a TV celebrity challenge show on another planet, arriving on one occasion twenty minutes late in pajamas with some lame excuse about a backache. He spent the last years of his life wandering a few steps ahead of his creditors, gulling concert promoters into "comeback" schemes (with walking-around money up front), and with three bought-and-paid-for children, obviously not his own, for consolation. When he dropped dead last week, the nation's morbidly maudlin response suggested a cover story for the relief of being rid of him and all the embarrassment he provoked. One CNN reporter called him a genius the equal of Mozart. That's a little like calling Rachel Maddow the reincarnation of Eleanor Roosevelt. A nation addicted to lying to itself tells itself fairy tales instead of facing a pathology report. Yet, like Michael Jackson, the undertone of horror story still pulses darkly in the background. The little boy who grew up to be the simulation of a girl was really a werewolf. The nation that defeated manifest evil in World War Two woke up one day years later to find itself stripped of its manhood, mentally enslaved to cheap entertainments, and hostage to its own grandiosity. Maybe in grieving so exorbitantly over this freak America is grieving for itself. All the loose talk about "love" from the media and the fans gives off the odor of self-love. America is "the man in the mirror," the gigantic, floundering Narcissus, sailing into the stormy seas of history.
Categories:Commentary on Current Events
No TrackBacks
TrackBack URL: http://kunstler.com/clusterfucknation/mt-tb.cgi/34
163 Comments
asoka June 29, 2009 9:41 AM Reply
"America is ... the gigantic, floundering Narcissus, sailing into the stormy seas of history."
But not necessarily doomed. America can yet right itself. And storms do subside.
david mathews June 29, 2009 9:49 AM Reply
The analogy between Michael Jackson and the United States is pretty strong but I wouldn't limit it to simply the USA (USA! USA! We're the greatest! USA!) but apply it more widely and say that the Homo sapiens are the Michael Jackson of the animal kingdom. Not only is humankind living way beyond its means it has transformed in a grotesque manner just as Michael Jackson rejected his natural face and replaced it with a horrendous mask, a byproduct of science & technology against Nature.
Just as Michael Jackson died before his time, the Homo sapiens are accelerating the life cycle of the species and headed to an inevitable and well-earned extinction.
Incidentally, there is a two hour program about the disintegration of America's infrastructure on the History Channel:
http://www.history.com/shows.do?episodeId=452430&action=detail
Which, incidentally, I am very much in favor of the crumbling of America. Our civilization was built to last between 50 - 100 years ... which the vast majority of the infrastructure already over 50 years old.
It can all crumble to dust.
What I recommend is that everyone wait for the end of civilization on the beach:
http://www.flickr.com/dmathew1
If you don't love Nature you might as well live on Mars.
zerotsm June 29, 2009 9:51 AM Reply
All the coverage of Michael Jackson is a waste of spectrum space, but of course the MSM these days doesn't want to report anything serious, like the commercial real estate market about to implode.
spencer June 29, 2009 9:51 AM Reply
Jim: This is such brilliant writing it took my breath away. Thanks!
Spencer TheNothingStore.com
Essential Dissent June 29, 2009 9:55 AM Reply
A courageous (and all too accurate) post. I predict a record volume of hate mail in response.
Riddick's Ego June 29, 2009 9:55 AM Reply
The passing of the celebrity creation that was Michael Jackson has only pointed out the weird "Alice in Wonderland" qualities of reality. Yes, he sang some good songs and made some cool spins and moves in his youth. Okay, great. But in the interest of the almighty buck and all that having lotsa of bucks can do for one; he was elevated, used, abused and allowed to live a satirical life before everyone; great fodder for the tabloids TV shows, press and blogs.
That is what the West has degenerated into, a freaking side show. The masses pay n attention to the fleecing of the economy but dam if they miss and Idol or Dancing with the Stars. Yeah, we are as doomed as the idiots who never missed their spot on the bench to watch lions maul
posted by Read All Books @ 4:05 PM
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