Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Michael Jackson suffers cardiac arrest

Hack&Lube · 06-26-2009, 03:07 AM

I found this on The Atlantic :

"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."

Personally I think that Michael Jackson always desperately wanted a childhood, he wanted childhood friends, he wanted to have the chance to be a kid and play. He grew into an adult that loved children and loved surrounding himself with children and built his entire world around trying to make them happy. Neverland wasn't a stranger trying to lure kids into a van with candy, it was a rich man giving candy to kids because he wanted them to smile (and to be his platonic playmates in his own fantasy land in a deranged way). I'm don't have the authority and judgement to say whether or not he crossed certain lines, I don't think many of you have the knowledge to definetely say so either. I don't see how it is any of our business anymore.

Everyone knew he was wierd. Everybody knew he grew more and more grotesque as he got older...but everyone also knows the cultural impact he has had over the years, even to the entire world. I was reading the Iranian blog that often has many twitter and e-mail messages from Iranians protesting and dying right now, and all of a sudden around the time of death, there was a sudden influx of sadness and admiration for Michael Jackson from those young Iranians - who were influenced by his music regardless of the censorship and limitations of the regime they lived under.

06-26-2009, 03:07 AM	#359
Hack&Lube Atomic Nerd Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Calgary Exp:	I found this on The Atlantic : "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." Personally I think that Michael Jackson always desperately wanted a childhood, he wanted childhood friends, he wanted to have the chance to be a kid and play. He grew into an adult that loved children and loved surrounding himself with children and built his entire world around trying to make them happy. Neverland wasn't a stranger trying to lure kids into a van with candy, it was a rich man giving candy to kids because he wanted them to smile (and to be his platonic playmates in his own fantasy land in a deranged way). I'm don't have the authority and judgement to say whether or not he crossed certain lines, I don't think many of you have the knowledge to definetely say so either. I don't see how it is any of our business anymore. Everyone knew he was wierd. Everybody knew he grew more and more grotesque as he got older...but everyone also knows the cultural impact he has had over the years, even to the entire world. I was reading the Iranian blog that often has many twitter and e-mail messages from Iranians protesting and dying right now, and all of a sudden around the time of death, there was a sudden influx of sadness and admiration for Michael Jackson from those young Iranians - who were influenced by his music regardless of the censorship and limitations of the regime they lived under.