I have pondered how to write this post. I am a huge fan of Michael Jackson’s music. I am not a huge fan of what Michael had become, as the soul killing Hollywood culture mutilated this fine young man over the years. From early reports it seems his circle of sycophants finally completed their endless damage on Michael:

Brian Oxman, the Jackson Family spokesman and former lawyer for Michael, told CNN in an interview on Thursday night that “I can only tell you that this is something that was not unexpected.” Oxman went on to say that “the medications which Michael was under, this family has been trying for months and months and months to take care of Michael Jackson.”

Oxman went on to compare the Jackson situation to that of the late Anna Nicole Smith. “The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him. If you think the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it’s nothing in comparison to what we have seen taking place in Michael Jackson’s life,” Oxman told CNN.

Britain’s The Sun, citing sources at the UCLA hospital where Jackson was treated, is reporting that Jackson stopped breathing shortly after a shot of Demerol, a drug similar to morphine. “Shortly after taking the Demerol he started to experience slow shallow breathing. His breathing gradually got slower and slower until it stopped,” the Sun source said.

If there is one industry that actually reflects the liberal and Hollywood caricature image of humanity-consuming ‘big business’ it is Hollywood itself, and the rest of the entertainment business. It is cut throat world  which promotes the worst human behavior short of violent dictatorships. It is an ugly, vain world where prima donnas torture the people trying to work with them to produce a product, where people are obsessed with silly baubles, strange and useless fashion ideas, expensive toys, etc. They mimic people living actual lives (in the case of Hollywood), but spend their time trying to prove they too have a purpose beyond being a trussed up echo of reality. At least the music industry runs on the pure creative talent of the artist, not the telling of some story about someone else’s triumphs.

But the blood sucking parasites are the worst. They come in many forms. They find personality weaknesses and exploit them for their own needs. They are co-dependent wanderers living off the vast amounts of money fame can provide. There is a sad truth about fame and fortune: it robs you of your connection and oneness with humanity. It pulls you from the heart and soul of what humanity is, and slams you in gilded cages.

We see it in Pols who lose touch and think they are better than everyone else, who lecture morality and cheat on their spouses, who lecture conservation and splurge senselessly on themselves, who demand fealty but show no respect for the average person. The entertainment industry is just a worse version, hidden behind stage curtains. We see it in the destroyed lives of those who became rich, and then completely lost any purpose or meaning to life, wandering around trying to ‘live’ through adventures in debauchery and drug induced fantasies.

It seems at some point the only game is who can consume and throw out the most.

 

For those of us who grew up with Michael Jackson (he was only a year older than me) it was like watching a beautiful masterpiece be cut up, one horrible slice at a time. The self inflicted carving up of Michael Jackson is so evident you can see it in his face – literally. He had this amazing talent, where his music allowed him to touch just about every human being on this planet with his message, his vision.

But in the end his demons drove him to run away from all he was, to the point he had his face carved into some bizarre mask, some distorted image of what one can only guess Michael thought was ‘better’. He was sitting on top of the world, and he was not able to find peace or purpose inside himself.  He was in perpetual escape.

People made a lot of money continuing Michael’s self destruction. From those who isolated him as ‘aides’, to those who carved up his face, to those who sold him the drugs he killed himself with. There were plenty of people egging on his indulgences. There apparently too few dishing out some hard love.

So, I pondered how to write a post honoring someone who, in the end, failed. I think Michael’s heart must have had a lot of innocent good in it, because he had so many dear and true friends. That is undeniable. But his life was a tragedy, and no one should deny that either.

If the entertainment industry truly loved this man they would do him the honor of cleaning up their cesspool of an industry. They should make sure no more tragedies like this happen (and they are happening now with the Lindsey Lohan’s of the industry). One has to wonder: what if Michael could have grown up in a professional work environment AND explored his great talents, would he not only be alive today, but  have been been alive and whole? Would the discipline of behavior required in the average workplace given this supreme talent a chance to indulge that goodness that attracted so many friends?

That question is something people should seriously think about. What price is too much to before we end the limitless self indulging of the entertainment ‘business’? How many more talented lives must be wrecked? How many more Michael Jackson’s will it take to clean up the entertainment world.

Tags: Michael Jackson