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When a society loses its memory, it descends inevitably into dementia. Mark Steyn
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June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson

I didn't plan to say a word about Michael Jackson but found the following in my inbox. I couldn't agree more:

Jonah Goldberg on Michael Jackson:

And while we’re at it, his relatively early death wasn’t “tragic.” He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not his own.

Meanwhile, in the last ten days, we’ve seen or heard of remarkable people who’ve given their lives for freedom in Iran. We’ve heard of innocents killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last decade, America has lost thousands of heroes in noble causes and thousands of innocent bystanders who were denied the simple joys of life through no fault of their own. Those deaths are tragic, and we're hard pressed to think of more than a handful of names to put with the long line of the dead.

If anything, Michael Jackson’s life, not his death, was tragic.

Read the rest. It's all good.

h/t: Pundit

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Posted by jill at 5:37 AM
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3 comments:

  1. he abused children and for that he can't be forgiven. If there is any tragedy, its in the evil of the sycophants who surrounded him , catered to his whim, and created the bubble he loves in that allowed the bizarre aspects of his life to flourish.
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  2. Thanks for the tip on Jonah's posting Pundette.

    The Michael Jackson I first got to know was the pre-self-mutilated one who was lead singer for The Jackson Five. He was a couple of years older than me and, man, could that kid sing. I was a big fan of The Jackson Five cartoon show and looked forward to it and the Harlem Globetrotter's and Osmonds's cartoon shows every Saturday morning. At some point mentally, the kid took a journey to out where the buses don't run—in fact all his siblings did, but not as far out. When he made his biggest splash in the 1980's, he had begun his spiral downward—if you couldn't tell something was wrong with the dude, you weren't looking or you were wearing rose-tinted glasses. Well, many artistes are eccentric, so he was cut some slack. But, when the stories began to emerge about what went on at his Neverland Ranch [pre-molestation accusations] and we witnessed the repeated self-inflicted mutilations, then it was obvious the man/boy was mentally ill. And the media and his fans encouraged him to remain that way—they showered him with adulation, admiration, and praise when what they should have done was condemn and shun him, perhaps forcing him or one of his so-called loved ones to take action. But it did not come to pass. The adulation, admiration, and praise kept coming. He was given a pass. When he was brought before the courts to face charges, many of his fans, the ones who were mindless and soulless, stood by him despite the fact that it was very obvious that, if he did not actually molest children, at the very least he was not a person who should be around them, even when supervised by an adult. Michael Jackson was mentally ill. He was called The King Of Pop, but he was, in fact, in reality, The King Of Court Jesters to the sovereign: the American People.

    Cross-posted at:
    http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.06.21_arch.html#1246020666372
    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm sure you're right that the fame and adoration fueled his sickness.

    One thing that struck me last night when I went to watch an Office rerun and found Michael Jackson instead, doing his Thriller thing, was that he spent most if not all of his life pretending. That's fundamentally sick and his life reflected that.
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