We have seen it before and it is intriguing in it's tenacity and endurance. We saw it with Elvis. After his death the media and the worshiping hordes made the event much larger than life. It was much larger than even the many hugely popular and controversial events of his own life. The Elvis cult following was enormous while he was alive. It is one of the factors involved in making him a legend while he was yet alive. But it pales in comparison to what he has become since death. Since death, the legend has become a god and his status has not waned in the interim to today. He is adored after death by untold millions of people who never saw him, never even heard him, and are far too young to have been caught up into the furor of his musical popularity. It now appears that the same phenomenon is asserting itself with the untimely passing of Michael Jackson.

I must confess that I have never cared for this kind of thing. Idolization of anyone is more than a bit distasteful to me. I am not one to follow the drama of celebrity lives played out nightly on various TV programs and the Internet as well. However, as it happens today one can hardly escape being bombarded by personal information about the various musicians, sports stars, actors and others who have become “celebrities” in our culture. Even so, I generally have not paid a lot of attention to this. The celebrity worship culture has always seemed to me to be of little real importance or relevance to what really matters in the world. It seems to me that Britney's latest fashion faux paus pales in comparison to Iran trying to acquire nuclear weapons. However, after giving this most recent tragic event some thought I have decided that a change of mind is in order.

You see, even with the endless parade of tedium ranging from the truly boring to the overtly obscene that has repulsed me in the past, the passing of Michael Jackson is taking on a special significance I am only now beginning to recognize. It is because of this that a window of understanding has opened which gives a glimpse of the true importance of all kinds of cult-like behavior toward celebrities in general, as well as what happens to those we bestow this worship upon.

In the case of Michael Jackson, there were some circumstances of his family life as a child that set him up for a fall. The abusive behavior of his father, Joe, toward Michael and others in the family was a catalyst for the bizarre behavior Michael later displayed.

Be that as it may, it seems apparent that Michael was ill-equipped for his rocket to fame and fortune which especially manifested itself in the early 80's. He became a mega-star that outshined everyone else in popularity as a musician. The 24/7 media we are used to now was in it's infancy then, and they were more than ready to grow at anyone else's expense. Michael was perfect for them. His insecurity was exposed to a captivated audience on the gossip train via TV shows and news desperately searching for sensationalism. Soon enough, his quirky behavior began to become self-destructive with the various plastic surgeries and drugs to handle the pain. Bizarre alterations of his face became almost grotesque. There were actually points when one would wonder if his nose would simply fall back into his face because of the surgeries. His own behavior was also increasingly strange. His profligate spending and weirdness toward young children (though he was cleared of child abuse) only served to fire up the media machine more. We began to see a picture of a tragic young man probably in need of at least some serious psychotherapy. Perhaps one of the good things to come out of Michael's passing is that he won't have to endure the media scrutiny anymore. Of course it also means that many young children have possibly been saved from a terrible fate.

However, I think that another casualty is this is our society itself. It was telling enough that during his life, especially his tortuous late teen and early adult years, we couldn't seem to get enough of him. It was almost as if we enjoyed seeing someone more famous and more rich go from fame and fortune to become an emotional and physical wreck. Worse yet, we watched him become a potential danger to others and it didn't seem to matter a lot. His records sold at a brisk pace and his concert tours were sold out. What does this say about our own state of being as a culture?

One of the things that screams to me is that human envy and jealousy seems to be unbounded. Those who have what most of us think we want, money, power, fame or some intangible that accompanies these, appear to be targets at which it is fair game to take a potshot or two. If the chance arises that they fall in one way or another, the person of note is judged in a harsher manner than we would judge ourselves in the same situation. Should it happen that real tragedy befalls that person, remorse is often mingled or even overcome by the feeling that somehow, this otherwise fortunate person really deserves what happened. Why? Because we envy them. Why do we envy them? Mayhap it is because we believe that we are at least as good if not better than they are and if we cannot have what they have, they shouldn't have it either. It doesn't seem to matter very much whether of not the person who was successful worked extremely hard for many years to gain his or her fortune and fame. We perceive that somehow, they got what they have through some kind of short cut or even immoral activity. Otherwise we, whether we are hard working or talented or gifted at all, would have the wealth and fame and power too. After all, we're entitled.

These factors have, of course, always been present in our race. What disturbs is the appearance that envy and jealousy of celebrity figures has become far more prevalent in recent times. It was not always so, if we are to believe our history.

At the founding of our nation, those who were of privileged position tried to create a government which would encourage equality of opportunity to such an extent that accomplishment was rewarded. The idea was that if one actually buckled down, worked hard and honestly, and applied themselves one could rise above perceived class and deficient economics to make a better life for themselves and their posterity. The fact is this concept was alive as recently as the baby boomer generation, of which I am a part. I can remember the so-called 'protestant work ethic' being instilled within me at a young age. Both my mother and step-father provided wonderful examples of such a belief. They worked long and hard to provide a home for us. Much was sacrificed so that we children, four boys and two girls, could at least have a solid roof over our heads and food on the table. We were not well off at any time during my childhood that I can remember. The best one could say was that we were lower middle class during the years when we were most prosperous. For most of our years we were what would be called today the “working poor.” Yet our financial struggles never seemed to touch us much as a family. Every one of my brothers and sisters have grown to become hard workers themselves, and are trying to raise families of similar ilk.

Much has happened in the intervening 40 years or so. An entirely new generation has reached parental status and are now raising families of their own. Technology has exploded onto the scene in ways that reach into everyone's life. Government has become more and more intrusive and, despite the conservative Reagan years, the nanny state is alive and well and wanting more power than ever. Liberal policies of government created this cradle to grave care monster, nurtured it and fed it until it has grown to gargantuan proportions. Perhaps most significant, another generation of government dependent families has grown up and are raising families of their own. What are the chances that upwards of 90% of the children of those families will be repeating the government dependent cycle, especially considering our current economic atmosphere? And it is because one is so dependent on government assistance that one begins to believe that the actual function of government is to “care for” you from birth to death.

However, though the government does provide much, no one will ever reach the wealthy lifestyle level as a government dependent. Also, because as a government dependent, one is often not overly fond of working for a living, neither will high monetary status be attained through hard work.

Yet you, and him, and her, and me desire the blessings of riches, with whatever motive in mind. That desire and the inability to fulfill it lead to a frustration of our circumstances. Envy is one of the natural fruits of frustration. When we see others with those possessions and position and power and popularity that we crave, we envy them. We wish the circumstances were different and we were the affluent ones. However, since we can't be what they are, we want to turn the tables on the “rich”. We want them to suffer as we have suffered. We want them to know what it's like to light candles because you can't pay the light bill. To know how it feels being rejected for the 15th or 50th job you have tried to get. What it is to decide whether or not to buy groceries or pay the car payment. We want them to know these things and since we cannot go up to their level, we will try to drag them down to ours. Since we cannot take their money from them directly, we will have our government heap tax burdens upon them until they are crippled or leave. Since we can't have their position and power, we will hound them for photos and video and statements, while we analyze their lives with a microscope. We probe for every indiscretion, peer into their darkest past secrets, and pry in the closets and bedrooms looking for any morsel to use for public celebrity humiliation. Even the best among us might fare poorly under that kind of scrutiny. And when it happens that one of the icons fall, we mourn the falling. Why? We as the public, the gossip fan, the entertainment junkie, set up the conditions for failure and then we are shocked when it happens? The bigger the star, the more we mourn his or her passing, as we can see with Michael Jackson.

I believe that the cult of the celebrity is beginning to show signs of becoming a very ugly part of humanity. Certainly the mirror of Michael Jackson's death and it's aftermath is not showing us a pretty picture, and I fear it will only get worse. I fear as well that the ugliness of that picture will affect our icon worshiping culture. The culture will absorb the ugly scenes of Michael's demise in life through to death, and go on devouring others who have the temerity to achieve or simply are fortunate to have what the rest of us don't have. The message this sends is simple. Don't be famous! Don't be talented in any way that could garner attention. Lay low and stay low. If you have some kind of gift or talent, hide it desperately. For if you become a celebrity, there will be followers and even worshipers. And may God help you then.