The world is morning the passing of Michael Jackson. It's amazing how easily our media-saturated “culture” rehabilitates dead pop stars no matter how damaged they were in life or how damaging they were to others. They say you should not speak ill of the dead, but I think an exception can be made in Jackson’s case.
Entertainment serves a purpose. At its best, it takes us to spiritual heights of beauty that we call art. Popular culture, on the other hand, momentarily lifts us out of our everyday lives and is more of a whimsical, child-like diversion. How fitting that the freakish Michael Jackson dubbed himself the “King of Pop.”
For Jackson, his child-like diversions seemed to be, well, children - the most vulnerable among us. In the British documentary film “Living with Michael Jackson,” a young Gavin Arvizo (who later accused the pop singer of sexually abusing him) and Jackson discuss the boy’s sleepover at Neverland Ranch. Public outcry finally forced the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office to file child molestation charges against Jackson in 2005. A Los Angeles jury, of course, acquitted him of all charges.
During Jackson’s trial, there was a question not asked nearly enough: what possessed parents to entrust their child to such a dysfunctional misfit? The answer, of course, was that they were blinded by Jackson’s glittering celebrity and, more importantly, by his vast fortune. For these parents, celebrity and money was enough to make them forget the awesome responsibility that comes with bringing a life into this world. That it took so long for law enforcement to step into the three-ring-circus taking place in Jackson’s Neverland was a testament to the power celebrity holds over the law in Southern California – the entertainment capitol.
A physical sign of the singer’s mental degeneration was his addiction to plastic surgery. His self-loathing compelled him to alter his face, time and time again. There was a period when it looked as though his nose had fallen off. Before departing America for a safe haven sympathetic to his bizarre fetishes – the Middle East – Jackson took on the appearance of Batman’s archenemy, the Joker.
Half a decade later, Jackson signed a deal to perform 50 concerts in England (leave it to the Europeans to embrace this freakish mental case) in an effort to rebuild his declining fortune. He recently moved to a lavish rented mansion where he planned to rehearse for his upcoming European concert tour.
When word reached the public that Jackson was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, celebrity-crazed Angelinos began gathering around the hospital. Once his death was officially announced, the media instantly overlooked Jackson’s freakishness and need for the company of young boys and waxed eloquently about the great man’s contribution to our lives. The public that once scorned him now light candles at makeshift sidewalk shrines. In America, celebrity triumphs over all.
The Los Angeles coroner’s office will conduct its autopsy to determine what caused the pop idol’s death. Michael Jackson's twisted soul, like the insane, empty-headed public that now celebrate him, died long before his heart stopped beating.
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