Posted on 06/27/2009 8:37:41 PM PDT by Steelfish
June 27, 2009
The fans killed their idol. They always do
Those who professed to love Michael Jackson were vampires, feeders and jackals – their adulation hastened his end
Janice Turner
Outside UCLA hospital they gather with their candles and their teddies, spooky lookalikes in full Thriller garb, wan teenagers wearing a single lace glove. They sway and sing I’ll Be There with sad faces to disguise the serotonin buzz from their frenzied collective mourn-in. Fans cry now for Michael Jackson, but they killed him. They always do.
I met Pete Doherty’s mother a few years back when he was at his most vulnerable, flicking between rehab and jail, just one misjudged fix from extinction. And she told me about his fans, who’d slip him gear when he was struggling to quit, tell her they went to every gig he ever performed “just in case, you know, it happens to be his last”. They loved him, they said, but really they were just tearing at his fame, wanting a piece to weave like gold thread into their own hessian lives.
Unlike his mother, fans have no investment in a star’s fate. It is win-win either way. If he lives, it means, perhaps, another album, a few more weekly mag exclusives of his loucheness, pet collection, addled decline. But if he dies, they have conspiracies to tweet about, a myth, a shrine to visit and vandalise with tea lights and kisses, like Jim Morrison’s raddled grave at Père Lachaise.
Jackson’s fans forced him into seclusion; they watched while he squandered his millions on gaudy sculptures, chimps and ferris wheels — which meant, fatally, he had to drag his frail fiftysomething frame back on tour; they sent their children for suspect sleepovers at his ranch to drink Jesus Juice;......
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
Why do they sing that, when I understand that his favorite song was I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles?
Written like something out of the juvenile Rolling Stone. It’s somebody else’s fault, er... it’s Bush’s fault.
And drugs probably played no part. /s
The fans didn’t kill Jackson. The drug addiction he had been nursing for about 25 years killed him. Lots of junkies die, every day I suspect. Fans have nothing to do with it.
There, I said it. Deal with it!
:)
It’s somebody else’s fault, er... it’s Bush’s fault.
:::::::::::
Yes, typical liberalism. Jackson brought every problem he had, upon himself. But the MSM and the liberals at large, will always try to get mileage out of his passing, and blame others, as they always do no matter what the issue.
The concept of SELF-RESPONSIBILITY is just non-existent in the liberal world.
Did you know that while everybody is posting about MJ, Monica Conyers wife of the head of the powerful House Judiciary committe pleaded guilty and faces five years, but of course thanks to all the adoring fans of FF and MJ, nobody is noticing that the MSM is not digging into how much Rep John Conyers knew.
Overwrought swill from the Times.
I don’t get my news from the boob tube these days.
Oh, my no. Michael killed Michael, and his entourage kept him from realizing he was doing it. When a person experiments on himself to the degree that he did, he alone bears the responsibility for the outcome. Michael didn’t want to be what he was, but he couldn’t figure out what it was he really did want to be. But what he didn’t want to be was old. That, he managed.
“Little Tommy Tucker Sang for his Supper”
Tripe.
I don’t know who Janice Turner is but that was a helluva read.
“The fans didn’t kill Jackson. The drug addiction he had been nursing for about 25 years killed him. Lots of junkies die, every day I suspect. Fans have nothing to do with it.”
Go and read some of the comments by the mourners. You will be amazed at how many say that MJ is not to blame for any of his evils. They are basically saying that society killed MJ by making him crazy. But what would you expect from a society that thinks that there is no such thing as personal responsibility.
What role, exactly, did the fans play in this?
They made him filthy, stinking rich. Stupid fans!
Probably nothing. Their marriage was not very close, if you get my drift. Think MJ and Lisa Marie.
It would seem the idol killed himself. Inadvertently, perhaps. Don’t blame the goo goo head fans.
MJ was arguably the most self-indulgent person of recent history. He was killed by his own excesses.
No thanks, I've seen a few. I even got myself flamed on Facebook. And they do, kinda, sorta, have a shadow of a point. Jackson was pretty clearly very mentally ill, due in no small part to the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. And the drug addiction started innocently enough, when he started painkillers after his head caught on fire during the Pepsi commercial. And for a man with body dysmorphic disorder, vitiligo (and lupus?) is a cruel cosmic joke. Society is not to blame, but some of the roots of his troubles were not of his causing.
While he got dealt a pretty bad hand, he's ultimately the one that played it. He made bad decisions. He surrounded himself with sycophants, and fired those who challenged his decisions. According to the Times (UK) story on the governess, his friends and family even staged an intervention shortly before he died, but he didn't want to get help.
I do feel bad for the man who suffered from so much sickness. But at the same time, he had every tool he needed to overcome the sickness: gobs and gobs of money, and an unprecedented amount of goodwill around the world. Most junkies and most mental illness sufferers don't have those benefits. All he had to do was admit his problem and ask for help, and the world would have rushed to his aid.
Excellent piece. Thanks for posting it.
Don’t bother with real news. I want to see and hear more nonstop MJ...
This is actually quite true. Michael Jackson might have lived longer if the fans had made their support conditional on his behaving responsibly.
Their mindless worshiping just fanned the fires of his mental illness.
Have you read Rabbi Shmuely Boteach’s essay in the Jerusalem Post on this. He talks about why he and Michael Jackson parted ways after working together on some charity work about ten years ago. It’s pretty interesting.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1245924935526&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
It's amazing how many wish to be rich and famous when examples of such wishes-come-true are so endlessly tragic.
Human beings are not blessed by becoming rich and famous.
What is the most tragic about Michael Jackson is he became a "star" before he ever understood what it was like to be a normal person. He never knew anything normal about life.
He rode the train of life watching the comedy and drama playing out while a prisoner inside a sealed coach.
The lesson of his life: Be careful what you wish for.
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