But Can He Moonwalk?

Since Obama loves the TV camera so much, couldn't he at least dance?

The abrupt death of Michael Jackson and the predictable wave of worshipful mourners shown swarming the streets on every TV station got me thinking about parallels. The moony-eyed worship of movie stars and musicians used to be confined to the US teenager who eventually outgrew the immature behavior. Today cult personality worship pervades a disturbing percentage of our population. The influence of worshipping cult personalities, many with questionable moral and ethical character, affects the manner in which many of our young men and women conduct their lives long after it should, including how they determine who to vote for as president.

Talk about a case of mass arrested development!

It's an appalling realization that a huge chunk of our electorate vote for their politicians based on the same criteria and with the same immature vision one expects to find in a teenie-bopper! Does my idol look good, dress sharp, appear sincere? Yes! Oh, my idol cares about me! He looks through that TV screen and I know he sees the real me! Understands me! He is soooo "cool", letting the media "catch" him bare chested for a bit of cheesecake...and oh yeah, he plays with his dog! Isn't that precious? All right, so he promised to get a rescue dog, but that was just a tiny lie. He can promise me anything with sparkling eyes and a smile. And if he smilingly reneges, I'll forgive him! He's so cute! He's a STAR! Who cares what he actually does...it's what he SAYS he'll do! That's what really matters. He tries, but those mean old Republicans stop him. But really...0he's so wonderful! He's my HERO!

Having been born in the nifty fifties, I gratefully appreciate the fact that my elders and educators provided me with REAL heroes and role models to admire. My teachers taught history and current events making certain to laud the accomplishments of men and women who actually deserved our respect. But at the same time we were taught to maintain a level perspective realizing that these great men and women along with their deeds and accomplishments, while worthy of our deepest respect and even reverence in some cases, did NOT deserve to be worshipped as demigods.

We find ourselves today in a country staggering under a horrible infection of full blown personality worship. In most cases, men and women who are the recipients of this worship don't even deserve more than a modicum of respect, much less reverence. While in the past we could count many authentic heroes among our popular entertainment and sports figures, we sadly find few worthy recipients of such praise today. I'm talking about the current crop of popular yet shallow icons we observe in movie, television, music and sports entertainment...and sadly, as it turns out, in our political arena.

Obviously, pointing out that we should've seen this coming serves no other purpose than to attempt to pinpoint the beginning of this "cult of personality" worship.

I recall visiting a friend many years back who emigrated to the US from England and noticed a rather extensive collection of royal family collectibles in her home. The collection seemed to begin with the crowning of the current Queen Elizabeth, progressing through Princess Diana, then the young princes and all sorts of memorials in between. I learned that the English people were pretty keen on their "royals" and attended in droves every sort of special royal occasion, much like their ancestors did when they were REQUIRED to offer their worship centuries ago. While today we might say that the royals "ain't what they used to be" still there is that definite star quality that continues to attract and dazzle the faithful masses.

Poor US of A. We really haven't been able to truly enjoy having a royal family to worship, have we? Oh yes, we had JFK and "Camelot" and perhaps this was the beginning of our modern longing for royalty to worship. But going back earlier in our history we can find many exemplary (and some not so exemplary) figures who did or could've lassoed in a crowd of personality worshippers with their charisma. After all, our founding fathers wanted to make George Washington king and it was our great fortune that he and wiser men prevailed. It just might be that a certain lust to hero worship is in our DNA, certainly as idealistic youth. But maturity used to bring wisdom and while we've always enjoyed and even admired the talents of our movie stars, musicians and athletes, all of us grew up understanding that real heroes actually accomplished real and meaningful things.

We still have heroes worth our respect in this country. Sadly, our children have been indoctrinated into a liberal agenda in our public classrooms then allowed to marinate in a deteriorating and warped popular culture outside those classrooms. Parents, either by benign neglect or fear they will alienate and thereby lose their children's love, have abdicated their roles as moral and educational authority.

Dear reader, I've no idea when your preteen through college formative years occurred, but if you're reading this I'm pretty sure they didn't include the upside down morality exalted by the popular culture today.

Our schools and now our government have hijacked moral authority, rightfully the province of the family and more elementally, the individual. Worse, these schools no longer provide their most important service, teaching the foundations whereby critical thinking evolves, the very critical thinking which should enable our youth to do more than rely on sound bites to effectively arrive at logical judgments. This includes the critical thinking our young people need in order to make one of the most profound judgments they will face, the choosing of our country's leader.

Our old and proper heroes have been well and truly buried...in the dark stacks of some antiquarian book store, and the memories of we who read them. They're entombed in history books our children will likely never see. And our genuine heroes of today labor in anonymity, ignored by a sycophantic mainstream media bent on propping up false idols.

No wonder our young people wail and shriek over the death of a music icon. They also faint and moan over a slick-packaged empty suit, propped up by a mysterious cast of directors and money pushers and takers.