The recent falderal concerning the demise of Michael Jackson has proven just how crazy the world is. It confirmed the old adage that first we create our heroes and then we worship them as gods.

Newspaper headlines are proclaiming that millions of fans are grieving and are in mourning for the icon of pop. Television stations have cluttered our living rooms with Jackson’s biography and talk shows have used theatrical overkill to eulogize someone who evolved from a child prodigy to ‘Wacko Jacko.’ People are even placing flowers around the gates of his property in adoration of their fallen star. If that’s not crazy, then I don’t know what is.

What’s even crazier is this process of selective public mourning for the dead. How we can mourn and grieve over the death of someone we don‘t know personally is something I will never understand.

Maybe someone can explain to me why Jackson, an accused pedophile who settled a civil court suit filed against him for $20 million because of inappropriate behavior with a child, should be mourned by the public?

And why is most of the world grieving over the loss of a man who should have been arrested for child endangerment after pretending to drop his own child off a third-story hotel balcony?

Every day the obituaries are filled with names, pictures and epitaphs of people we don’t know, many of whom have dedicated their life to children, theirfamily and our society. Their families’ loss and personal sorrow is far greater than society’s collective loss of Michael Jackson.

Every year, more than a million children around the world die from starvation. I don’t see anyone grieving, mourning or placing flowers on their little hole in the ground.

As a talented singer, dancer, entertainer and entrepreneur, he was probably unsurpassed. How-ever, as a grown man he was, without a doubt, the most complicated personality in show business. His life was consumed by those same complexities and his death was probably the result of them.

Because of his dreams of immortality, Jackson wanted to be frozen after his death and thawed out when future science could cure him of his present day disease. He is not alone in his quest for an eternal life. Currently, the leading cryogenic lab, Alcor Life Extension Foundation, has 178 members held in a frozen state with a waiting list of more than 1,000 pseudogods. Unfortunately for Jackson, because of the necessary autopsy, cryogenics is out of the question.

Jackson will never be resurrected from the dead. However, his memory will live on as a plastinated mummy created by the controversial techniques of German doctor Günter von Hagens. The good doctor verified the Jackson family has consented to have Michael plastinated and displayed in his “Body Worlds and Mirror of Time” exhibition in London. Jackson will join his deceased pet monkey, Bubbles, who was plastinated years ago and is on display at von Hagens’ exhibit.

Hagen said he will probably display Jackson in his “moonwalk” position. He hopes Michael’s final stage appearance will be ready for all his fans to see by the end of July. The Los Angeles coroner might have something to say about that.

Years ago, the curiously challenged could only visit their bizarre replicas and likenesses of their favorite macabre characters sculptured in wax at museums and the “House of Horrors.” Now they can see the actual body set in plastic in the center of an ice cube.

Plastination is a process that preserves the body after it is embalmed with polyurethane and then frozen. Next thing you know, when we take that final bow from the stage of life, we’ll all be laminated in plastic and our loved ones can store us in the family freezer.

The pope and the chief rabbi of Israel have condemned the practice of plastination. The pope always condemns anything and everything that doesn’t contribute to the churches wealth. Maybe the rabbi agreed with the pope because he didn’t want to be left out in the cold.

To be fair, Jackson was allegedly abused and abandoned by his father. He probably never had a chance to develop or mature into a sane adult because he lived in a transparent bubble created by his friends and business associates.

Jackson stated in most interviews that he had a “heart” and wasn’t wacko. He thought everyone else was crazy because we polluted our environment and killed each other in senseless wars. He was half-right and all wrong.

Philanthropically, he donated millions to worldwide charitable organizations. But with that in mind, his contributions shouldn’t be considered penance for his personal lifestyle or public mitigation for breaking the law.

They say that movie stars die in sets of three. First it was Farrah Fawcett followed by Michael Jackson. I wonder who will be the third?

Regardless of who it is, the odds are pretty good they won’t be eternally eulogized as a plastic mummy.

David Farside is a Sparks resident and political activist. The polemics of his articles can be discussed at farsidian2001@yahoo-.com. His Web site is www.thefarsidechronicles.com.