Editing Interview:Dec 1999 Marilyn Manson Last Poll Of The Century

{{Interview
|Image     = Rollingstone1999.jpg 
|Caption   = Rolling Stone Magazine cover Dec. 1999
|Title     =  Manson's "Last Poll Of The Century."
|Date      = December 15, 1999
|Source    = Rolling Stone, Dec. 1999, Millennium Special
|scans     =
}}

'''Rolling Stone's "Last Poll Of The Century."<br>'''

December 15th, 1999<br>
By Marilyn Manson<br>
__NOTOC__
==Cultural Event==

The most important events in recent history form a chain reaction. It started with the spear of destiny being passed from Hitler to Patton, which then created the atom bomb; I think America’s detonation of the atom bomb was the beginning of the end of mankind. Following that, Kennedy’s assassination was to modern man what Christ was to the people of his time. I like to compare Zapruder film to da Vinci’s "The Last Supper"&mdash;I think it’s significant in that same way. The next significant event was Charles Manson being sent to prison as what many would consider a political prisoner in some ways, a scapegoat for the "love generation," a generation that probably contained more hatred than any other. I’m not defending his crimes in any way. I don’t think there’s any sense in letting Charles Manson out of jail now. He’s not going to get a job at Baskin-Robbins. I’m just saying that the way America handled the whole situation was a turning point. Nixon and the media declared him guilty before the trial was over; that’s when the media began to contribute to decisions rather than reporting on them. That was when things started sliding down. 

The next important event is my birth. I wouldn’t say I’m more important than an Aleister Crowley or a John Lennon or a John the Baptist or the guy who cloned sheep, but in my eyes I’d have to count myself as a significant thing. 

==Hopes for Society==

People have stopped thinking all together. They’re always relying on someone else to tell them what they’re supposed to think, and man has kind of painted himself into a corner with technology so that eventually he just becomes useless. I think there needs to be some greater event. People expect it to be associated with the turn of the millennium, but that’s very predictable. I always look to art as the thing that moves and changes people the most, over politics and anything else. I have constant desire to expose people to anything, whether it be bad, good, complicated or easy to understand&mdash;just to have people thinking. 

==Time Capsule==

To represent our society at the end of this millennium, this is what I would put into a time capsule: Frame 313 from the Zapruder film, which would be a good clip of mankind’s generosity to share his violence with the world in such a cinematic way. Frame 313 is where the brain matter lifts from Kennedy’s head and tries to fly away like a little bird. I would also include my father’s rifle that he brought back from Vietnam that he took from the hands of a deceased Viet Cong soldier, made in Russia and very similar to the one Oswald used. I think guns exemplify man and his other limb that he wasn’t born with, that he felt a need to create. And I would put my foreskin, which my parents managed to save from my circumcision; that way, if anyone wanted to clone me, they wouldn’t have any problems. It lies like a crusty Life Saver in a small plastic jar; I assume they keep it next to my grandmother’s dentures. I would also include the King James Bible, Nietzsche’s "Anti-Christ" and the dictionary. So when the time capsule is opened up, they would read the dictionary and learn our language; they would read the Bible and would be inspired to commit terrible acts of violence; and they would learn to read the Nietzsche book and it would enrage them that they had spent so much time reading the other books. And the conclusion they would come to about our society would be that there’s really no point in it&mdash;that mankind is God’s worst joke.

Resolution

New Year’s resolutions are for people who can’t deal with their problems. If I were forced to make one, my New Year’s resolution would be to stop doing press. If everyone stopped doing press, it would be good for the world. It would give mankind a moment to have to think for himself. And chances are everyone would probably commit suicide, because they wouldn’t be sure what they were supposed to believe in or buy or hate or be at war with or love. So they would probably implode within themselves. And it would be what man deserves. It’s neither good or bad; just God’s divine justice.

[[category:interviews]]
[[Category:Marilyn Manson essays]]