Michael Jackson's Apocalyptic Thought

          Apocalypticism is a subject about the supposed-up and coming END OF THE WORLD. With theories centuries old, the Christians's finite sense of time entail that it will occur after a series of events. There are many predictions of this in the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and many Christians devote their time to further predicting the events of the apocalypse. As stated in lecture, the purpose of apocalyptic thought is for a group in crisis, repentance, consolation in the face of crisis, and to authorize the message that the world will eventually come to an end. 
         Apocalypticism has managed to make its way into popular culture today and at times is used to make profit. An example of this given in lecture was the "Left Behind" book series that even has movies to capitalize on this idea. Furthermore, apocalypticism does not just belong to religious groups. Our presentations of the coming apocalypse reflect our present times, and with this comes with political and social anxieties.
         This got me thinking of the modern day apocalypse, global warming. Christian's have a firm belief on the thought of this subject:

“Our relationship with God is not dependent on our belief in human-caused global warming”*

Christian's believe that the end of the world will inevitably happen no matter what the causes are for global warming. However, Michael Jackson believes otherwise.
        In his song, "Earth Song" he asks his listeners to look at the world around them and notice how human's have slowly demolished it. 

**Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?
...
What have we done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son...
...
The heavens are falling down
I can't even breathe
What about apathy
...
What about the holy land
Torn apart by creed
...
What about Abraham
What about death again
Do we give a damn

Michael takes the realization that our world is coming to an end and calls the human race to prayer.  In this song he aims to illuminate the events that have unfolded on our planet and that they should be stopped. During the 2010 Grammy awards, this song and its message was revisited and performed by various popular artists that asked the entire audience the same question that Michael asked the world 16 years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxb548Jpck0

This powerful song and its approach to apocalypticism capitalizes on the fact it's an event to call the world to prayer in the midst of a state of panic. There are popular culture icons that give hope to the world in troubled times, and Michael Jackson was/is one of them.

         

* www.gotquestions.org/global-warming.html
**'Earth Song' lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/michaeljackson/earthsong.html