The death of Michael Jackson has moved me more than I would have predicted. His hits are a part of my childhood and his passing reminds us of not only of our mortality but also of our collective cruelty.
There are so many fascinating things about the Michael's life. The magic image of his movements during his best performances remain a delight to watch. He assumed the behavior of a child as an adult; one wonders how much of that was also performance. The man changed his skin color and the shape of his face to the dramatic extent that he literally became a walking mask. When he was observed shopping in Arabia wearing an all-covering burqa, it was as if he had added a disguise over a disguise. For all the joy he had brought the world and through all the weirdness, it was easy to see a deeply hurt individual in his interviews. As he faced his accusers (see the interview with Diane Sawyer - which ABC foolishly does not have posted), he claims innocence and purity. It was natural for Michael, abused as a child, to use his fame and power to put himself outside of behavioral expectations. The worldwide acclaim put him beyond superstardom and he used the acclaim so that no one would ever tell Michael what to do again.
In the end, Michael Jackson will take a place in history as a rare occurrence of someone who became other than human. He was much more than an influential eccentric like a Howard Hughes. He had an otherworldly quality, in his performance, his actions, and his words that were weirdly like a possessed person; a saint sans the religion. He was the product of our cruel televised culture: one that allowed his tyrannical father to abuse him for profit as a child, one quick to judge and abandon over speculative events, one which raised the man to a self-destructive hyperstardom.
MJ dead at 50. Name any other entertainer credited with something as powerful as the moonwalk.
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