Evil Is As Evil Is.
In the end, Michael Jackson was, as was Elvis Presley and so
many other tremendously gifted and talented entertainers, a
desperate, conniving, brain-addled drug addict. I am mystified
both by the strangeness of the cult of Jackson devotees and the
strangeness of Jackson’s father, whose own lunacy was evident in
the sheer number of second-hand Mr. Tee gold chains he insisted
on wearing to the courthouse. The gregariousness of Joe
Jackson’s bling fetish is, for me, the moral of this story: they
had the wrong guy on trial. Joe Jackson’s chronic
self-absorption and exploitation of his child is surely what
ultimately lead to Jackson’s demise. Did the doctor deserve the
guilty verdict? Who cares. I believe America’s fascination—at
whatever level it actually was—with the Conrad Murray trial was
hardly about the doctor himself so much as a voyeuristic thrill
of peeling back layers of the Jackson onion. So far as a matter
of law goes, Murray’s failure to have proper monitoring
equipment and to maintain a human vigil over Jackson earned him
a trip to the slammer: it was a violation of the most basic
tenets of medical ethics, regardless of whether or not Jackson
himself administered the fatal dose of whatever. Knowing Jackson
was a desperate, conniving, brain-addled drug addict, Murray
should never have left the singer alone in a room full of meds.
There really aren’t any other relevant matters to the case. Who,
what, how big a dosage, were all moot points. Murray’s
negligence certainly contributed to Jackson’s death. Murray took
the job knowing Jackson was a desperate, conniving, brain-addled
drug addict. He signed up for a $100k-per-month babysitting gig,
to be Jackson’s personal enabler. And he is now spending all of
his loot on attorney’s fees and going to the slammer anyway.
The other major story dominating the news last week was the
scandal at Penn State, where former assistant football coach
Jerry Sandusky was indicted on 40 counts of child sexual abuse,
and Penn State president Graham Spanier and legendary football
coach Joe Paterno were fired. The outrage over Paterno’s
firing—for having reported an eyewitness account of an alleged
incident to his superiors and not the police—equaled the manic
clown fetishism of Jackson’s followers. A graduate student on
Paterno’s coaching staff claimed to have witnessed Sandusky
sodomizing a ten-year old boy in a shower in Penn State’s locker
room. He did not intervene. He did not call the police or
confront Sandusky. He waited until the next day and reported the
incident to Paterno who in turn ran it up the chain of command.
As great an admirer I am of Jackson’s amazing talent, I have
absolutely no doubt, none whatsoever, that Jackson has been
sexually molesting if not sexually assaulting minor boys for
decades. This Penn State graduate assistant allegedly happened upon a
six-foot-two, 200-pound, fifty-something year-old silver-haired
man, naked in a shower with a naked 10-year old boy--by account
of the indictment--pressed up against the shower tiles while the
man sodomized him. The picture that graphic language
creates is horrifying. Yet, I am persuaded this is precisely
what Michael Jackson has been doing most of his privileged adult
life. Many of Jackson’s victims were delivered, eagerly, into
his hands by parents who either knew or suspected what Jackson’s
actual motives were, but who were either starstruck or were
positioning themselves to make money off of him. This is evil.
Don’t parse it, don’t excuse it. It’s evil. Why was America so
horrified by Sandusky while Jackson remains, in even my memory,
a kind of tragically beloved figure?
The Greatest Show On Earth:: The victorious coach.
Forgotten In All The Hollering
These stories, competing for the top headlines last week along
with the sexual misdemeanors of GOP presidential candidate
Herman Cane, describe a schizophrenic America whose moral
compass is subject to the prevailing climates of social
acceptance. Michael Jackson, as twisted as he ultimately became,
is seen as a tragic victim. Contrast Jackson with Jerry
Sandusky, whom we’ve never seen sing or dance and did not watch
grow up under the twisted pathology of Joe “Papa Doc” Jackson.
Sandusky is portrayed as pure evil. Aren't both men are guilty
of the same crime? In a zero-sum view, both men were, despite
their circumstances, evil and despicable and deserving both of
our disgust and God’s wrath. The strange bifurcation of American
opinion, led by the news media’s extreme differences in coverage
of the two stories, presents an inconsistent and incoherent set
of ethics, fairness and justice. The circus was all about
Jackson, all about Joe Paterno. No one was speaking for the
legions of lost boys—the 40 authorities know of certainly infer
a great many who have not come forward or whose cases cannot be
made. And God only knows how many victimized by the insane,
irrational, and tragically lost Jackson.
The obscenity of students
rioting over Paterno’s dismissal cross-fades with the obscenity
of the crowds cheering Conrad Murray’s conviction. All of these
people are idiots whose moral compass has been pinned to the
south. These were little kids, tortured and abused by adults.
And we looked the other way.
Christopher J. Priest
14 November 2011
Home | Blog | Projects | Comics | Rants | Music | Video | Christian Site | Contact
Clips from This Is It Copyright © 2011 The Michael Jackson Company. All Rights Reserved.
Unless Otherwise Specified, Text Copyright © 2011 Lamercie Park. All Rights Reserved.
TOP OF PAGE