Michael Jackson,
A Plastic Man The New York Daily News
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Yesterday,
we honored men of integrity and achievement. Today, we worship a plastic
mannequin. Socially inept, a by-product from the mixture of high-tech
plastic surgery and an immense disposable income. Michael Jackson is
the center of a nationwide hysteria sucking millions of screaming, fainting
fans into the record stores to buy his new album. This idol sold 40
million records the last time he released a solo album. FORTY MILLION!
His music may be good, his album "Thriller," produced by pop-legend
Quincy Jones, flawless. But the Jackson sweep is about more than just
fastpaced tunes. Everything he does makes the headlines of the national
press. When, for some strange, unexplained reason, he started to wear
a single, glittery glove on one hand children all over America imitated
him. He is the main focus of a Disneyland and Epcot attraction. He slept
in an oxygen chamber hoping to preserve his youth. He has worn a surgical
mask in public. He has made many bids for the remains of John Merrick,
the "Elephant Man." And now, after five years, he releases
an album and television news shows close their broadcasts with it and
newspapers splash his photo across their front pages. The New York Daily
News quoted a plastic surgeon who studies photos of Jackson and concluded
that he has undergone three nose jobs, two chin operations, eyelid surgery,
cheekbone implants, facial fat suction and more. U.S.A. Today ran a
color, seven-picture photo spread in which it showed the transformation
of Jackson's face. And the only thing that makes this information interesting
is that people are almost rabid about obtaining his newest album. At
a local Provo record store a clerk said, "We started selling them
(copies of the new Michael Jackson album, "Bad") before we
even got them out of the boxes." More than 2.25 million copies
were released nationally, the largest pre-order in CBS history according
to U.S.A. Today. Why? Society has finally reached its apex of role models.
No longer is "good" good enough. Now, we want perfect--the
kind of perfection only untold amounts of dollars in facial reconstruction
can buy, the kind that results when you take a great producer and excellent
promoter and let them loose on a young pop singer. What we end up with
is a fictional character more real than He-Man and Max Headroom. Too
many young people of America follow his moves closely and emulate them,
from his dancing to his fashion, to discount the idea. And if this is
the model for America's young, then what does this say about the society
we live in? It says, perhaps, that we ought to take a serious look about
what we're doing and the reasons we do it. You can fool some of the
people all of the time and all of the people some of the time, but...you
know the rest (or you ought to). (The above is the opinion of the Editorial Board of the Daily Universe which comprises the associate publisher, editor, opinion page editor, a teacher of opinion writing and a student staff member. Universe opinions are not necessarily those of Brigham Young University, its administration or sponsoring church. Editorial Board meetings are open to the public.) |
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