RIP VIP: We Will Always Love You Michael... Or at Least Until Next Tuesday
Let's get it over with: Michael Jackson was a magical entertainer. Okay? You only had to see him to know it was true. Now that I've established my pop culture bona fides, let me also say he was a creep, a likely pedophile, a drug addict, a plastic surgery junkie, a man who bleached out his blackness and, at the time of his death, wound up looking like an anorexic Bat Mitzvah girl with a lousy nose job. His early life was hellish: he was a victim of horrific cruelty by his father. And not only was he exploited by his family, but by Motown and the other media companies that appeared to act on the belief that the antidote to child abuse was a big, fat royalty check.
But it's not Michael Jackson and his brilliant, pathetic, loathsome life that's the issue for me. It's the tributes. The candles, flowers, teddy bears, signs, white glove, hats, and of course, the mourners. They wept and watched the giant screens in cities across the world. They flew to LA from every continent except Antarctica to stand in a crowd a thousand feet from the Staples Center. There was amazing unanimity in their expressions of grief: "I loved Michael!" and "I just had to be here."
Take away the gloves and hats, toss in a hundred thousand hearts, cut to London from LA, and it's Princess Di all over again: weepers, wailers, scribblers, T-shirt buyers. A crowd draws together to celebrate a celebrity who died, if not young, then not old. (And the tears flow more copiously when it's a VIP who spent a good deal of time and energy publicizing his/her own victimhood.) Unlike the dignity and sincere grief people around the globe displayed by offering simultaneous prayers in memory of John Lennon, these Hey, did you catch my blubbering on YouTube? people mainly want to be at the party. And if they're not invited, they simply go.
"I just had to be here." That's the key phrase. An exploited life ends with an exploited death. People rush forth so they can align themselves with celebrity. They want to be able to start a sentence with "When I was at Princess Di's funeral..." and thereby achieve mini-stardom for themselves. To be a mourner along with Elton John, Hillary Clinton, Sting and Donatella Versace is to be kind-of, sort-of famous.
There's nothing new in public displays of grief. It's part of some religious practices and cultural traditions, from Muslims mourning a victim of violence to jazz funerals in New Orleans. And people sincerely want to pay their respects for notables whose lives have meant something: They came out to watch FDR's funeral train pass by, to file in to see Rosa Parks lying in state in the U.S. Capitol. They came, too, to grieve over the violation of the soul of a city or nation: to lay bouquets near the debris of what, days before, had been the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, or the World Trade Center in New York. That's not just appropriate behavior; it's a form of loving citizenship.
But to get all weepy over poor Farrah one week, then, seven days later, snicker about how she picked the wrong day to die shows how deep these public displays of anguish go. To shove aside a stranger so you're close enough to kiss the CNN mic and thus get the chance to snivel "I just loved Michael sooo much I can't begin to tell you!" is not just crass, it's the height of self-centeredness.
That's what modern celebrity is all about: Me. My moment. My fame. My sign saying MJ We Luv U 4Ever!
They just won't get the People cover.
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Sad.
There may be some valid points in this piece regarding celebrity worship, but they're invalidated by your opening paragraph where you comment:
"...let me also say he was a creep, a likely pedophile...wound up looking like an anorexic Bat Mitzvah girl with a lousy nose job."
Why such nastiness? Doyou even realize that he was an innocent child who was dragged through the ringer of show business and endlessly victimized by his own fame? That he was falsely accused of the most heinous crimes? You seem mostly to resent what he "looked like" to you at the time ofhis death.
The generosity of his spirit is whatmany of his fans admire, not just his pop music. This man founded USA for Africa and brought his talents and connections to bear to help children around the world who were starving, long before Live Aid and all the other mega-celebrity charity shows. He created the Heal the World Foundation.
Where exactly do you get that he was a "creep"? A "likely pedophile"? You are either a pedophile or you're not. That is a mental/behavioral disorder that does not just "pop up" once every 15 years when someone wants a cash settlement. A jury of twelve of this man's peers, whoheard actual witness testimony and examined actual evidence and fact found that there was no basis to the allegations against him. Too bad you and others will continue to defame a man who can no longer defend himself.
Her personal feelings about MJ do not diminish the valid points Isaacs raises about the "me moments", which, unless I am mistaken, is the main premise of the piece. And, she acknowledges the "hellish" circumstances MJ had to endure in his life. So if you wish to castigate Isaacs, at least balance it out. It shows a bias on your part: if her personal bias invalidates her blog, then it invalidates your rebuttal as well.
There is nothing personal in the rebuttal at all. Just a series of questions. Is not the author indulging her own "me" moment? Why does anyone have an issue with the response of MJ's fans? It isn't as if the media has not covered every move he made for years, as if in need of its own "me moment" As much money as the tabloids and the TMZ's have made off of MJ one would think that they'd at least be grateful for his time here.
The problem with most of those who imagine that they have some insight on MJ is that they don't. Clueless. We have been celebrating celebrity deaths with these me moments as long as I have been alive. MJ gets more because he is the biggest of all. Who else gets a tribute from one thousand inmates? What kind of "me moment" is that?
When people deeply identify with human interest stories, such as they do in the wake of Amber alerts, these type of human outpourings emerge.
I am amazed at the amount of people who dismiss human empathy towards someone who may very well have inspired them one way or another.
The fact the mourners didn't know Michael Jackson personally is completely irrelevant.
I would not want to live in a world where we only care or feel human compassion towards people we know personally.
It is true, that modern society ignores its own family members and cares more about celebrity. Make no mistake even Muslims respect the corpse and have a burial before sundown, but here, Jackson's corpse, yes he is now a CORPSE has been freakified just as much as he was in life. James Brown's corpse lay in his home for two weeks before he was interred, MJ' s has reached his expiry date, but his family still seem to want to toss around the corpse for more celebrity worship. Bury the corpse already and give MJ some dignity he never had while he was alive. it won't surprise me if he is mummified and interred in some glass case in the Jackson mansion.
Great talent no question...
without that and his money he would have been in jail.
This is the best the Black community can do as a role model?
Black community huh? Thats so racist! I think u need to come to terms with the fact that we are humans. And we aint perfect. Black or white, we all make mistakes, make wrong decisions and have skeletons in our closets. And unfortunately, only the famous have theirs exposed to the world for people to judge. People that are probably worse than them. Thats so sad!!! Like Jesus said 'He that is without sin should cast the first stone'...
Like whites are knockin' em dead with their role models? Palin?
You hit the nail on the head, Susan. Thank you.
Contrary to other commenters, I found this post to be quite cynical.
Right on Susan! I could not have said it better myself (unless I had the mouthpiece)!
Just wait and watch how his children get screwed out of their fair share of his estate by the vultures circling overhead.
I am an online arsonist. Let the flaming begin.
Oh, and one more thing. A government resolution? If they are going to spend any time discussing that in the House or elsewhere, they should do it off the clock because the economy and the war and a hundred other things have barely improved while they've been paid to change these things. If they want to form a Capitol Hill fan club, let them do it on their own time.
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I really enjoyed your piece. Such rare sanity in an insane week.
Of course, when I die, there better be riots! But that's just me.
Tallulah, when you die, I will suspend my disdain for public celebrity spectacle.
I for one will hold a memorial fit for an Empress!
Tallulah, dahling, I loved your turban at the Billy Mays memorial!
Such a lovely service, and what a nice idea to have you speak for the "millions of drag queens who never actually met Billy" but who bought their first bottle of OxiClean from him. I was moved. And Ron Popeil's eulogy was so powerful that I bought two Chop-O-Matics, one for me and one for Vince the Sham-Wow guy's hooker. And didn't Billy look peaceful turning slowly in his Showtime Rotisserie Casket?
I was so glad to be there, and even gladder to be seen being there.
Americans love to build someone up so that they can tear them down, then build them again in death. Whether or not you're offended by this writer stating his negative side or not, her point that it is ridiculous how we go overboard when particular celebrities die is valid. When I was a kid I LOVED Farrah Fawcett. I never missed Charlie's Angels, I had the swimsuit poster, the Angels poster, and the lesser known Farrah as Holly in Logan's Run poster. When the banner popped up on my screen that she died, I definitely had a teary moment. I did not, however, haul myself down to the cathedral which is a 5 minute subway ride from my house to prostrate with grief. We make these people into more than they are for many reasons. Sometimes I think that if a lot of people think someone is cool, and then we acknowledge our love for them, some of their cool transfers to us. Michael Jackson made a lot of good music. Michael Jackson also got paid a lot of money to make that music. He wasn't Ghandi, he wasn't Christ. This writer isn't wrong to wonder why so many people acted as if he was.
second.
Great post - props
I find a lot of the language in this article borderline offensive. I guess we are in for a big battle in Congress over the issue of whether or not to honor Michael Jackson, but the debate will only provide a proxy subject upon which to play out unstated underlying sources of conflict, which may well become unpleasant if this article is a taste of what's to come.
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nisha darling, what are you blathering about? Really. I've been trynig to make some sense out of your comment for five minutes, and I still have no idea what you think you're talking about.
Congress will not be debating anyting to do with MJ. congress has IMPORTANT matters to deal with, you know: The economy? The war? Healthcare? You know, those boring issues on the pages behind the MJ full-color-coffin photos.
What the F are you talking about?
I am utterly offended by the notion that anyone who refuses to buy into this Jackson hysteria is undoubtedly a racist. There were a lot more reasons than race to take a dim view of MJ and the attendant hysteria (some might say exploitation) surrounding his death-. And if you can't understand that, I think the racist in the equation may well be you.
Why is it I write something along these lines and get blasted for it? Yeesh.
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