Like you care what I think.

Iran vs. Michael.

Who will have the best Iran coverage following the death of Michael Jackson? I'm hoping it's Andrew Sullivan considering his commitment to the ordeal in general. But seriously, I'm asking this question.

I don't want what's happening over there to fade into the darkness because every news outlet in the west is bleating about the death of a pop-star.

It drives me nuts and really pisses me off anticipating the overflow of MJ coverage in place of something that actually matters. The idea that someone who sings and dances is more important, gets more coverage than millions of people fighting for democracy enrages me.

I hope we all stay sane and focus on what really matters.

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Posted 8 months ago

Goodbye Michael.

Andrew Sullivan eloquently explains what created and eventually destroyed MJ. I won't say much else as his life has said enough. RIP.

Also, I feel like a dick.

There are two things to say about him. He was a musical genius; and he was an abused child. By abuse, I do not mean sexual abuse; I mean he was used brutally and callously for money, and clearly imprisoned by a tyrannical father. He had no real childhood and spent much of his later life struggling to get one. He was spiritually and psychologically raped at a very early age - and never recovered. Watching him change his race, his age, and almost his gender, you saw a tortured soul seeking what the rest of us take for granted: a normal life.

But he had no compass to find one; no real friends to support and advise him; and money and fame imprisoned him in the delusions of narcissism and self-indulgence. Of course, he bears responsibility for his bizarre life. But the damage done to him by his own family and then by all those motivated more by money and power than by faith and love was irreparable in the end. He died a while ago. He remained for so long a walking human shell.

I loved his music. His young voice was almost a miracle, his poise in retrospect eery, his joy, tempered by pain, often unbearably uplifting. He made the greatest music video of all time; and he made some of the greatest records of all time. He was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.

I grieve for him; but I also grieve for the culture that created and destroyed him. That culture is ours' and it is a lethal and brutal one: with fame and celebrity as its core values, with money as its sole motive, it chewed this child up and spat him out.

I hope he has the peace now he never had in his life. And I pray that such genius will not be so abused again.

Thinking About Michael

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Posted 8 months ago