« Yes, Virginia, They Are Canceling "Hee-Haw" | Main | Head Alert! »
February 28, 2005
Please Stop, You Have Gotten Enough
I don't follow celebrity trials. I don't follow criminal trials. I follow trials where the verdict would affect the policies, the politics and the fabric of our lives. Roe V. Wade, Bush V. Gore, Miranda V. Arizona. Freedoms of speech, rights of the accused, process of law... I do not eat the bonbons pop culture throws at me and calls "trials."
I know nothing of the Michael Jackson trial, other then he is accused of child molestation and that he was accused of this before. I have no doubt that he is either guilty or innocent or somewhat guilty or somewhat innocent but definitely he is one of the above. He is either a black man or white woman. He used to sing songs and dance on Ed Sullivan.
A nation turns it's lonely eyes to Ed Sullivan. "Let's Spend Some Time Together", indeed.
When I was a young girl, there were rubix cubes and Michael Jacksons for everyone. Billie Jean was not your lover. It was a thriller when you beat it. One album and every kid in Pee Wee's playhouse owned it. There were no substitutions. Jermaine Jackson was not on option. Janet was years away from flashing us. The 80s were nothing but a sparkly glove and Reagan's polyps. The world was our cocaine-filled oyster.
But eventually, our other hand got cold and we put the second glove on. Reagan beget Bush lost to Clinton and now we all bring pork rinds to our boy king Bush. Ed Sullivan brought us Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, George Michael, R.E.M., The Smiths, Public Enemy, Jane's Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Pixies, Nirvana, Dave Matthews Band, Dr. Dre, Pearl Jam, Snoop Dogg, Biggie Smalls, PJ Harvey, Beck, Bjork, Tori Amos, Beastie Boys, Eminem, Nine Inch Nails, Ani DiFranco, Moby, Mary J. Blige and Jay-Z while Michael Jackson was petting his elephant. He has been out to play for twenty-three years. The bastard child of Norma Desmond and Howard Hughes.
What has he done for us lately? Nothing. Can a person be called a musician if they no longer make music? No.
Has Michael Jackson made any music since "Thriller" that is at all worthy of this adulation that seems to still, STILL, follow him? Madonna had "Vogue", motherfuckers. Prince, now that he's Prince again, has regained my respect. Prince and Madonna may have languished and faded but at least with the both of them it has been somewhat graceful. They don't demand that we still love them. They don't call themselves the "king" of anything. And they haven't been accused of molesting children.
Michael Jackson should be allowed to slink off into the dark corridors of his mind and the worse punishment we can devise is simply not caring. He needs us to care but he has been bad. No matter if he is a molester or not. He is still an egotist man-child whose talent is forfeit by now. Jackson believes he is king. He is much like George W. Bush.
We care because it was a thriller in 1983, what with Beirut, Korean Airlines Flight 007 and "Yentl." If we have to redo '83 in it's shoulder-padded glory, I would hope for the final episode of M*A*S*H and not a plastic face warbling about startin' something. He warbles now. He is Judy Garland in the final days. And that is an insult to Judy Garland, I apologize to Liza and Lorna Luft.
Michael Jackson will not overdose with a dixie melody in a bathroom. He will hang on to life as it drips off his nose. It will be brutal, it will be ugly and forty years from now, Leonardo DiCaprio will likely be nominated for an Oscar portraying it.
And we created it. The public-at-large, Joe Jackson, the Jehovah's witnesses and Diana Ross. We give him what he craves and he gives us back the Cheez-Whiz that is our pop culture. There is no discernible difference between Court TV and MTV in this case and the fall of Michael Jackson is sad only because it was a fall that we could have prevented it. We could have ripped away his tiara. We could have collectively shouted in the direction of the Neverland Ranch, "Fuck you! Grow up!"
If he is guilty, then I am sorry for those little boys. The parents, not so much. They are bathing in Cheez-Whiz just like the rest of the yahoos. I am not a parent. When I do become a parent, I doubt my style will be orthodox. I will probably let my kids watch rated R films. I will probably not take my children to church. But I will not let my children sleep in the same bed as a 45-year-old man, no matter how many times he's been on Ed Sullivan.
Spend some time together, not spend the night together. Even Mick Jagger was smarter then that.
Turn it off, my friends. It's the only way that we can save the pitiable farce that is Michael Jackson 1990-2005. It may just save us, as well. Our culture cannot overcome it's celebrity fixation overnight; small steps must be taken and forgetting Michael Jackson is an important first one. Do we still talk about Toto or Hall and Oates? No. Bette Davis has been dead since the late eighties and certainly has no eyes left to sing about.
Neither does Michael Jackson.
Posted by emily at February 28, 2005 9:10 PM