Yesterday, someone left a charming comment calling me a “Stockholm syndrome-infected pedophile-lover” because I’m not, like, ecstatic that my childhood hero and pop star legend Michael Jackson has died.
I would like to invite this person, and anyone else who may hold similar views, to kindly kiss my ass.
As I mentioned in my column on Michael’s death, the allegations against him have always left me confused. The one thing I’m sure of is that he never grew up, and hence developed inappropriate relationship patterns, particularly with kids. Could that stuff have been hurtful and damaging? Sure. In my previous post I talk about just that. HOWEVER, we simply DO NOT KNOW whether or not Michael Jackson was a bona fide molester and abuser. The facts are not all clear, and I, for one, hate the self-righteous desire to collectively sharpen our pitchforks and go after the monster on the outskirts of the village.
I don’t think we will ever know for certain, unless new facts come out. I think we need to accept the fact that this issue will remain ambiguous.
People say that Michael’s money and fame bought him protection as if they are 100% sure of this fact. You know what else money and fame can buy you? False friends. Leftists in particular can act as if money alone can erect some sort of impenetrable forcefield around a person, forgetting that it can also paint a giant target sign on your back.
Was Michael a dupe? I don’t think so. By all accounts of people who knew him (this, oddly enough, includes someone close to me as well), he was a clever individual. And he wasn’t socially incapacitated either. But he did have glaring vulnerabilities and eccentricities, and his desire to reclaim his childhood may have left him open to attack.
So don’t call me a bloody “pedophile-lover” if I refuse to unquestioningly accept the narrative of “Wacko Jacko” and his harem of five-year-olds. In my experience, some of the most evil, calculating abusers and rapists were best at feigning normalcy above all. Considering that Michael happened to be one of the least obviously “normal” people on this entire earth, I have to wonder. Would I want my kid brother sharing a bedroom with Michael Jackson? Um, no. But neither can I pretend that this issue is as clear-cut as I would, perhaps, like it to be.
I think we may never know who Michael Jackson really was. Maybe Michael Jackson himself wasn’t sure.
Natalia A. 
This post perfectly sums up my feelings re this matter.
It is as though since OJ got away with murder (literally) in a California court, *all* celebs acquitted from charges in California are guilty.
In MJ’s case, his eccentricities and often blatantly obvious immaturity only ‘helped’ to blur the line between what happened and what we *think* happened.
I know that some people have a difficult time with the concept of “innocent until proven guilty”. I find it more difficult to understand their difficulty with the notion that a person who has been found “not guilty” just might be innocent.
I read an article in my least favourite ‘news’ paper this morning that was actually quite decent about him. The journalist in question had spend two years with him for a biography and he is completely certain that Micheal Jackson was *not* a pedophile but simply as you say a man who never got to experience the proper process of growing up and really did feel he had more in common with people far younger than himself.
I just hate it when anyone has a sad life then dies young. All humans should get to experience at least a few minutes of joy in their lives before their time’s up.
I also think it’s a shame that some people who are crying over a celebrity that they never actually knew couldn’t show the same caring for the elderly neighbour who hasn’t had a visitor for weeks.
See, I told you your blog has a weird force field around it.
They probably meant to write:
“I agree, I loved Michael Jackson too. How wonderful that his music was able to touch so many people across the world”.
And it is wonderful. Being a child of the 80’s, it’s kind of lovely to imagine so many of us, no matter what our location, circumstances or political situations, sat (ever so slightly too close) in front of the telly, gazing up in amazement.
So much of pop culture now is cynical marketing, dubious social engineering, but there are times when it can be so much more then that, something truly life enriching.
We should remember that and demand the amazing instead of tolerating the tepid.
Phew. Rant over.
Wow, I ❤ this post. Michael Jackson was never a force in my life, but basically what you've written is what I think.
Especially the part about the way he presented himself, that’s why I always felt it could go either way.
Oh and people who call you names smell. 😛
(PLEASE let this not be a double-post, it didn’t show up despite refreshing…)
MICHAEL THE NARC-ANGEL
Millions of little members of the worldwide F.F.A. (Future Followers of the Antichrist) have learned how to find a certain part of their lower anatomy and quickly touch it while dancing – thanks to Michael Jackson, the highest paid Lower Anatomy Toucher of all time! Special thanks also go to the Jesus-bashing, Hell-bound Hollywood moguls who were just as quick to see higher profits in lower anatomies! [Just saw this opinion on the web. Other grabby items on MSN, Google, etc. include “Bible Verses Obama Avoids.”]
I think Mike had three main parts to his story, and people are concentrating so hard on the music genius part, and the circus freak part that they’re forgetting the first part… where, when he was a child, his talent fed his family.
“Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man…”
I think Mike spent a lot of his adulthood searching for things he didn’t have in his childhood.
Maybe it’s just me, but buying albums made by a man who was at the least dangerously disturbed to be an odd choice for a feminist to make. I admire you for being open about being molested as a child but I think you can see the connection between admiring Jackson and having Stockholm Syndrome.
I noticed you didn’t give the same pass to Derek Walcott.
Thank you for everyone’s comments. Gaina, you wouldn’t happen to have a link to that piece, would you? I might like to include it in my post.
Tabby, but I did “give the same pass” to Derek Walcott. I think he’s a brilliant poet. I read his poetry in the same way that I listen to Michael’s music.
I wouldn’t want my brother to share Michael’s bedroom in the same way that I wouldn’t want to, say, introduce a vulnerable female undergrad to Walcott. I think I was very clear about that.
Admiring a genius isn’t the same thing as giving the owner of said genius free reign over all and sundry.
Oh and Ron – people are saying that for real?! I guess they have a new demon now, after Elvis Presley (who taught people to shake their hips, dont’cha know).
It was in the Daily Mail. I can’t remember who the journalist was who wrote it, but your best best of finding the article is following this link :).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/index.html
Amen, well said. I have so enjoyed Jackson’s music over the years, and I was so incredibly saddened when all the pedo-mania started rolling. I can make no judgement on whether the man is guilty or not, I can just conclude that there wasn’t the necessary evidence to sentence him for it. That’s often the case in cases of sexual abuse, however, it’s also often the case in cases of false allegations. And I have no idea which it is.
It has always seemed pretty clear to me that Jackson was a pretty disturbed individual. But that far from makes him dangerous, it just makes him out-of-the-ordinary. I have a mental disorder myself, and I know from experience how people tend to think I might go murderous in the blink of an eye. (Well, I might, if they say something really awful).
There’s a thin line between brilliance and madness, and individuals toeing that line usually waver back and forth on both sides of it. There’s no doubt Jackson was brilliant – in his choice of song-writers and composers, in his selection and combination of songs, in his performances etc, but as is so often the case with people whose brilliance is so intensely concentrated in one field, he was completely lost in other fields, socially acceptable interaction and economy clearly being some of them.
I mourn the loss of a brilliant mind, but at the same time I am sort of happy for him. Because now he has the peace the world hasn’t allowed him since he was a small child.
sorry it is a bit of a late response, I am only just discovering your blog.
I am not sure if you watched the Bashir’s documentary on living with Michael Jackson, I think it was called? Being in the UK I watched it entirely. I could not help it but wonder if the guy was just set up by clever media. Because, being a journalist, you must agree, media has the power to present whatever they want however they wish. I think he definitely was disturbed. He definitely was unusual. But that does not make him into a pedophile. Also, being a star of such a caliber, it is just so easy, isn’t it to claim abuse to get money.