by Scott Darnell
Daily Lobo Columnist
More than 20 million people watched Michael Jackson's recent interview on ABC; it was a monstrous hit in England and the United States and such an event, centered around such an unusual person begs many questions, the most principle of which is: why did Jackson partake in the interview in the first place?
It seems there are two possibilities for why Jackson would have agreed to such an intrusive interview. Either Jackson is a sad after-effect of fame, limelight, scrutiny and a tough childhood and he did the interview to relay his story, or he used the interview as a media stunt to spark record sales, in light of his last album flopping like a fish in a frying pan.
Early in the interview, Jackson asked the interviewer why he was asking him such tough questions; he looked devastated, tried to cry and said, "Why do you do this to me?" Jackson could have ended the interview at any time, but it didn't seem he wanted to; he needed as many people as possible to be hooked onto what he was saying.
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After the initial interview at Jackson's Neverland home (in other words, soon after Jackson was done declaring, "I am Peter Pan"), Jackson visited Las Vegas and solicited the continuation of the interview by asking the interviewer to meet him there. This is where it became evident that Jackson wanted his strange story heard in order to thrust himself back into the mainstream, so that people would be interested in his sputtering career once again, allowing him to live as extravagantly as he demanded.
He loved to see people love him, and he loved to flaunt the money he was able to spend; could his ego and "manic" personality, as the interviewer described it, have led him to be so angry at the flop of his last album that he took desperate measures to ensure his pop-star life for a bit longer?
Jackson continually emphasized that he was a 44 year-old kid who loved climbing trees, riding go-carts, etc. After the failure of his last album, however, this 44-year-old kid threw what should appropriately be called a temper tantrum and alleged racial discrimination on the part of his record label; supposedly, the label didn't promote his album well enough because he was, by all rights, black. And, it's worse that Reverend Al Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran ran to his aid, creating and adding fuel to their life-long goals of making America look like a racially upset and divided nation; of course, without that premise, Sharpton and Cochran would have no one to manipulate and denigrate -- they wouldn't have jobs.
So, Jackson is adult enough to allege racism in the workplace, but not adult enough to stop sleeping with young children; he is adult enough to have his own children, but not adult enough to allow them to walk around without masks on their faces (preserving their identities). He complains of his tough childhood and of the abuse he suffered during it, of not being able to be a true child; shouldn't he realize that most children aren't forced to parade around with masks on their faces, and that he is carrying out the same disservice to his own children that was allegedly carried out against him?
How about when he dangled his newborn baby from a hotel window over a large crowd of fans below? He said the baby enjoyed it, and began to sing. No, Michael -- you've got it wrong -- that's not singing, it's crying (babies do that when they're scared).
He is in denial when he says he is not rearing his children in an unorthodox manner; he is in denial of the fact that he has entirely reshaped his face through plastic surgery (he admits to two surgeries on his nose, but insists that the rest of his facial developments are simply signs of growing and flowering); he is in denial of his habit of sleeping with young children, and insists his actions are all about "sharing love" and the parents that worry about and fear these actions are supposedly, "ignorant." Finally, he is in denial of his career being close to over and of his stream of fans and cash slackening to an uncomfortable level.
The evidence on the interview speaks for itself; the American people aren't ignorant. He has had plastic surgery -- no one blooms like that, thank heaven. He is rearing his children in a manner that will only cause them to be confused about the world around them and his sleeping with children can be fluffed however he likes, but it looks to be a strange, sad and horrifying fetish.
Finally, his last record didn't do well because it wasn't that good and his career is almost over; there are others now in his place.
Michael Jackson does not understand the power he wields as a celebrity. Whether he likes it or not, people listen to him, and some, to a degree, try to emulate him. For example, Rosie O'Donnell, after Columbine, shot off her mouth about how all guns should be made illegal -- obviously, an ignorant statement, she has since retracted those words. But she has to realize that many that looked up to her because of her stature took those words as the gospel and utterly believed them. When celebrities shoot off their mouths for whatever reason, they have to be able to cope with the possible ramifications of the unfortunate power that their words possess.
No, it is not right, as an adult, to sleep with young children for any reason. No, it's not right, as an adult, to dangle babies from hotel windows. No, it's not right, as an adult, to create an issue of racial discrimination simply because you can when you're down on your luck. And, no it's not right to captivate audiences with a well-rehearsed, melodramatic, disgustingly impractical way of life in order to save a dying career.
