Michael Jackson and the Narcissism of Minor Differences

I don’t intend to add to the cacophony of responses about the thoroughly sad life and death of Michael Jackson; instead to the cacophony over people’s reactions to the death. I’ve seen three major pillars of responses on the social media sites and blogs–expressions of sadness, jokes, and mockery/scolding of individuals expressing sadness over his death.

You know the basic argument; it’s made by your Reason Magazine-subscribing acquaintance whenever there’s a large public outpouring of grief over an event deemed unimportant by said bastion of reason and logic. And of course, it’s a bit ridiculous for your average person to experience sadness about a person-as-abstract-concept, a faraway figure of wealth and decadence. That doesn’t make the sorrow any less valid, however. And these responses don’t make a reasonable argument; instead, they’re merely the outbursts of trolls expressing their narcissism of minor differences.
Skeptics can tut-tut all they want, and (rightly) wonder why more people are choked up about the death of a pop star, than, say, yesterday’s reports of the increasing death toll in Iraq. Fair enough. But to express confusion at why so many people are affected by this death in particular, and suggest that this sadness is merely a ridiculous response to a minor event, is disingenuous at best.

For people between the ages of, oh, 25-45, Michael Jackson is a vector of childhood nostalgia. He’s the last of an era of bigger-than-god pop stars, the sort of figures that people feel a personal identification with, no matter how much (in this case) that figure was troubled/disturbed/potentially criminal. There won’t be another figure like MJ, and his passing, I think, represents to people the passing of a certain era with which a distinct generational span feels a real, personal identification with. People aren’t necessarily mourning Michael Jackson–an abstract public figure who’s been the subject of primarily public scorn for the past 15-20 years–but the passing of something more personal and intangible. And yes, that may be somewhat maudlin and nostalgic, but it’s a valid emotional response to a news event this size. It may be, to some degree, misplaced, but it’s far from silly or ridiculous.