Intermezzo -- Michael Jackson

I will remain silent on the sudden death (and rather tragic life) of Michael Jackson. However, something has begun to concern me. Specifically, after his death, his CDs flew off the shelves. Or, to put it another way, he—like Elvis—is as important economically in his grave as he was alive.

What worries me is that this may be part of a major larger trend. People have already noted that a successful celebrity is less a person than a business. But, more, the celebrity has become an object. Whether or not he lives or dies is irrelevant so long as his image remains to be animated and marketed.

Thus, it is all too likely that, eventually, the human will be extracted entirely the system, and discarded. Our idle hours, what few remain to us, will be consumed by shimmering artificialities—whether generated Matrix-fashion in the soul of a new machine, or else materially, as creaking automata, chill and predictable, like plastic presidents in theme park attractions.