Michael Jackson was an icon and an artist that brought joy to the hearts of millions of people, but I can’t seem to muster much grief over his passing. The hagiographies clog the airways, and Twitter is on the verge of collapse, but this dad is mystified by the outpouring.
To be honest, I’ve always been mystified by Jackson’s appeal. Mostly as a matter of musical taste. Shuffle my iPod and you’ll come up with americana, roots rock and folk. Maybe even some country. The King of Pop? Puh-leese.
But as a father, there is one thing that I can’t get out of my head. And it’s not the allegations of molestation (numerous and all settled out of court), or the self-mutilations (that he died the same day as Farrah actually solved the mystery for me as to who he wanted to look like). What I can’t get out of my head is the image of a squirming, kicking baby, with a blanket draped over his head like a prisoner at Gitmo, being dangled off the balcony of some fancy Euro hotel.
What sort of father is capable of that? That action is so utterly incomprehensible to me that it carries the actor out of the realm of the human for me.
Which does bring up one sad aspect to the death of Michael Jackson. His three children. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that he left no will behind (his lawyers should be disbarred if this is actually the case), but the enormous financial clusterf*ck that is his legacy will certainly provide his kids with something to do for the rest of their lives. Those children are certainly grieving, and I do feel sorry for them, but other than when he was yo-yoing one of them over the pavement, are there any pictures of them together?
Is it possible that these kids are better off without him?
This pop thinks Michael Jackson was a royal wingnut.
I have to agree DC… (I truly don’t believe he ever molested any of those children, but that’s my opinion. Whack job, most definitely. Child molester, whatever.)
You are absolutely right about the baby dangling incident! YIKES! He was def. not in “father” mode, and I would consider him a “sperm donor” more than a father. (Just from the persona that has been presented to me…) There are no doubt MUCH worse “fathers” in the world. But I really don’t get the feeling he’d be the best Dad. From what I understand, he didn’t have the best dad example in the first place, so it wouldn’t be too difficult to provide a better home life than he had… but still…
I won’t hate on the guy (and I’m certainly not opposed to hatin’ on dead people, I’ll kick ya when you’re down for sure if ya deserve it), but I wasn’t that close to him or his music, he/it wasn’t influential in my life, and his passing doesn’t affect my life now. So I think I’ll be ok. Billy Mays had more input into my life, and he didn’t seem like the funnest guy to hang out with either… (seemed kinda snobby on “Pitch Men”)
Peace to all the families and friends for their losses… particularly those in Iran…
I felt that my wife was being kind of bitchy about the whole thing when she said a few times over the weekend that Jackson was a pedophile, and it was no big loss. I thought she was being overly bitchy. However, now that DC has reminded me of the “baby dangling” incident, I stand corrected. Adios loser.
Over the weekend I have been coming across two distinct reactions to Jackson’s death; he was a great artist or he was a pedophile rapist.
I can say that I only liked one…. maybe two of his songs… I would not say he was a great artist. I can also say that I have no idea what was going on with him. He may have been a pedophile/rapist, he may have just had some seriously bad judgment when it came to kids…….. either way it does not matter to the majority of us who have not interacted with him.
What I see in this is an opportunity to teach (if it comes up) my child about (among other things) not picking on people who cannot defend themselves (there is no need to disparage the dead). I can say that I am a bit surprised about the focus of this thread of posts…. surely as a father we can do better than pick on a dead man?
I am not saying I disagree with what you are saying….. I am just saying that I don’t agree that you should say it.
Guard Well,
Brad
Growing up in the 80’s I can’t deny the impact his music had on many people of my generation. That being said he was a mess beyond the recording studio. What he did or didn’t do to some children can be debated but apparently nothing was bad enough that money couldn’t solve the problem for them, for me, I could careless about money if someone touched my kids wrongly.
As for not being seen with his children that may actually be the most fatherly thing he did in his life, his biggest fear and one wish to be carried out after his death was to keep his childrens anonymity safe so they could have some semblance of a normal safe childhood which in the day of auctioning off baby photos you know they could never attempt to having with him as there dad. I hope for the children the family and friends left to take care of them are able to give them what he wanted and that they will be able to learn of the great things he did in his life and not the freak show it had turned into.
And as for the dangling over the balcony, i can only say WTF was going through that freak shows head.
Runkle, I certainly don’t accept your argument that: “….. either way it does not matter to the majority of us who have not interacted with him.”
Throughout history, awful and terrible things have occured because people decided to “keep their mouth shut” in the face of evil since it “didn’t affect them”. When we suspect that our fellow humans are being abused in any way, we have a responsibility to speak up. And the accused have the right to defend themselves. Unfortunately, Jackson chose not to stand up and defend himself….every single time.
As a clinical psychologist, I think Michael Jackson says more about ourselves than we might, at first glance, realize. He is the archetype of the boy, and thus his inability to grow up may have contributed to his demise. Read more about this if it interests you: http://tiny.cc/e1eZj
Namaste (which means “the light in me recognizes the light in you”), Bruce
Here are my two-cents worth:
MJ has not been musically relevant in years; not since Bad, in my opinion. When was the last time you heard an influential, modern band, say that he was/is a major influence upon their music? I admit, I dig some of his more famous songs, how can you not? I do not like Elvis, but I dig some of his songs. Again, how can you not, they are all such a huge part of our cultural literacy.
Regarding the allegations surrounding him…well, I think it was Daddy Brad that mentioned on Twitter that “the dude hung his kid from a balcony.” In addition, let’s not forget that he mentioned on national television that he thinks it is appropriate to share a bed with children that are not yours: this is simply inexcusable!
To answer the questions whether we should morn the loss of MJ, I would argue that we lost him sometime in the nineties, maybe late nineties.
I think that MJ was extremely dilussional and certainly not in touch with what can be perceived as normal adult male boundary recognition. As a few people have mentioned, he appeared not to grow up from being a boy mentally. He also must have had the worst possible PR people on his payroll….at least someoen who culd have said “Michael, you may well think that but you will be perceived as a monster if you tell the world at large that”. Was he a child molester? Who knows. I think that any parent who wilingly allows their child to ‘hang out’ and sleepover with a grown man for a sum of money is asking for trouble, guilty by association and cetainly not affording their child the God given right to protection by a loving parent. Here endeth the sermon.