‘We Are the World,’ Air America RIP & more

As the World Turns

When we heard last week that more than 80 pop music stars had collaborated to remake the famous “We Are the World” video from 1985, we were surprised, happy, and grateful.

Surprised? Yes, because we could scarcely believe that there are 80 pop musicians who can seriously be described as “stars” and further surprised to discover how many of these lucky people, even the most celebrated among them, have names designed to give the willies to the most well-adjusted proofreader: Will.I.Am, LL Cool J, India.Arie, Trey Songz, Iyaz, Jason Mraz, Musiq Soulchild, and Swizz Beatz, just for starters. 

Back in 1985, the worst a well-adjusted proofreader had to worry about was correctly spelling Bruce Springsteen. (And we don’t mean to imply that there are a lot of well-adjusted proofreaders.)

Happy? Yes, because the new video has the potential at last to transmute the limitless vanity and goofy cluelessness of show folk into something useful​—in this instance, money to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

And grateful? You bet, because the new video gave us an excuse to dig up one of our favorite pieces by P.J. O’Rourke, our much-valued contributing editor. O’Rourke bent his ear and cast his jaundiced eye over the original song in 1985, in an article in the American Spectator. Mentioning how some critics had credited the song’s composers—Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, and Michael Jackson, back when he was alive—with “illuminating the plight” of the world’s starving and helpless, O’Rourke wrote: 

Note the insights provided by these lyrics: 

We are the world [solipsism], we are the children [average age near forty]

We are the ones who make a brighter day [see line 6 below]

So let’s start giving [logical inference supplied without argument]