Michael Jackson Has Died…

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… and the world just got a little less creepy.

[update (2009-6-25-09:50): My spouse says I was overly snarky so here’s a more  nuanced  view of Jackson from an old post from June 2005.]

16 thoughts on “Michael Jackson Has Died…”

  1. Dude, a little harsh. His family, friends and fans are sad about the man’s death. And he had a pathetic life, despite his talent and opportunities and wealth. A sad, early end. Look at a Jackson 5 video. Those were great records, and there is a lot zest and vitality there. Too bad about how it all turned out. Rest in Peace, Michael.

  3. Accuracy would incorporate the whole picture. The man is dead. Dead. His whole life is the basis for judgment, not just a few episodes, and not just the pathetic final phase. He brought a lot of happiness to millions of people, wholesale dispensing of happiness. He ended up a weird, creepy unhappy, possibly abusive person. His main victim, if he really had any, was himself. No need to spit on the coffin.

  5. Lexington Green,

    It would be harsh if I had said it about anyone except a celebrity. Jackson made. IIRC, billions being an outrageous personality and performer. On that basis alone, I get to laugh at his funeral.

    I never like the music he made as an adult. I found it technical and soulless. I have no positive memories of him.

    I strongly doubt any of his family read Chicagoboyz.

    More importantly, he was, and I don’t exaggerate, evil. He may have been troubled but with all his resources he never tried to do anything about it. He abused children and given the pattern of such people he probably had far more victims than we know about.

    I don’t regret his passing. The world is better off with madness.

  6. It is not a matter of what you “get to do” Shannon, it is the fact that it degrades you to do it that I object to.

    I am not so sure he was evil. He was not convicted. They wanted his ass in prison, and they failed to get him. That is unusual. They usually get you if they want you. I consider his case to be not proven. He was a damaged, sick man. That is beyond dispute.

    The people we spend our time opposing are mean-spirited and do things like jeer at funerals. We get nothing out of sinking to that level.

  7. I prefer the non-nuanced view. Jackson’s money and money-making abilities bought the goodwill of a lot of people who might have condemned him had he been a regular person. He also paid off the parents of some of his child victims, and I agree with Shannon that there are probably more victims than we know about.

  8. I guess I don’t do nuance. As a father, if I saw him withing 50 yards of one of my kids, I would give him one minute to clear out. Presumption of innocence only applies to judicial proceedings.

  9. Lex,

    This isn’t like jeering at a funeral. This is pointing out that the person who is being celebrated by the media, to the extent that their coverage of his death is upstaging even major world events such as the Iranian revolution, was profoundly corrupt. There wouldn’t be an issue if the celebration were less or if more observers mentioned the corruption.

    It’s possible to like the music without celebrating the person. Wagner is a good model for this.

  10. Well, I don’t think this brings out the best in us – it sure as hell isn’t at Fox.

    We tivo Baier; when I get home, my ideal is not to listen to every Fox personality take over that 40 minutes or whatever the hell that hour minus commercials is. I’m all for obits – they help us understand ourselves as well as take a moment for gratitude to those who’ve brought us pleasure, etc. I wasn’t someone that liked him, ever, and fast forwarding I remembered how really pathetic he was (in my eyes). But he had a power & certainly celebrity. I’ve been too caught up in the bureaucracy of my job to get back to television tonight – did they ever get back to the news? No Krauthammer, no . . . And then I heard Shepherd Smith going on about how he was at dinner and his friends said the most recognizable, famous guy in the world was Jackson. I would like to think that means he has strange friends. Oh, well. No wonder the legislators think we don’t care what the hell they are doing – clearly even Fox doesn’t credit us with any sense of proportion either. Or, perhaps, it’s just that they don’t have any.

  11. Mixed feelings on this. Anyone that abuses children gets a “zero” in my book no matter if they saved the free world, cured cancer, or did whatever. There is no going back from that, it is a plain old “zero” from me. Sorry, but I am hard wired that way.

    I would never stoop to make fun of or degrade anyone at a funeral or celebrate the death of anyone – I am also hard wired that way.

    The way his career is being celebrated in most of the media I saw yesterday you would think that the creepy, odd behavior of his later life didn’t even happen. That is OK with me as he still hasn’t been dead for a whole day – but I highly doubt that we will be seeing too many MJ specials that tell the whole story. Not sure if I want to see the whole story anyway.

    Bloomberg reported this morning that he ended his life $400m in the hole. Incredible for a guy that had all the money in the world at one time.

  13. I’m with Shannon and Jonathon on this. And as soon as this is posted I doubt if I will consciously think of the little creep again.

  15. Well I’m with Lex and Ginny. However weird Jackson’s self-inflicted torment made him, his death is not exactly bringing out the best in the Chicagoboyz.

  16. I watched a You Tube of Jackson singing Billy Jean and realized I’d never been clear on the lyrics (common problem on my part) so I looked them up.

    And then flipped back to the stadium where thousands of people- boys, girls,men, women, black, white were singing along to the refrain,

    The kid is not my son.
    The kid is not my son.
    The kid is not my son.

    I have to say it creeped me out.

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