How we thanked Michael Jackson

[Robbie_James_Francis]

I mean, again - name me another person who managed both to entertain and unite the world for a good cause to such an extent.

I completely agree with your point and am sickened at our treatment of him. I was never a fan of his music, but on a human level what has been done to him is terrible.

But I do have to mention Bob Marley (if we're talking about musicians) as someone that entertained and united the world far more than Michael Jackson. Infinitely more. Marley was a man who really knew oppression and suffering, and if I hear one more time that MJ "brought black music to a wider audience" as a middle-class American growing up in a showbiz family when it was Marley who brought reggae from the streets of third world country to international acclaim, I might explode.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Woody Guthrie

 

[Maren]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Elvis as being equally influential. I mean there is still "Elvis worship" going with all the look-alikes and Graceland some 30 years after his death.

 

[Penumbra]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Elvis as being equally influential. I mean there is still "Elvis worship" going with all the look-alikes and Graceland some 30 years after his death.

On the day Jackson died, I was driving home from work and listening to the radio stations. The breaking news of his death was all over the music stations, and at least two of them said that his death is as striking as that of Elvis.

-Lyn

 

[*Starlight*]

He was a grown man and knew right from wrong just as you and I do. No excuses! His choices did not serve his life well.

He didn't choose to be accused of something he didn't do. You're blaming the victim here. Since you're saying stuff about his choices, can you give one example of a situation where Michael Jackson chose to hurt someone?

 

[MoonLancer]

This is something i wrote a few days ago, but its appropriate for the thread.

His body is a road map of pain, showing us that like all great artists, fame creates legends but destroys men.

 

[SypherX]

He didn't choose to be accused of something he didn't do. You're blaming the victim here. Since you're saying stuff about his choices, can you give one example of a situation where Michael Jackson chose to hurt someone?

Do you find it "OK" for a 45 year old man to take strangers children to his bed?

To turn his house and property into an amusement park so he can attract these children?

 

[Penumbra]

Do you find it "OK" for a 45 year old man to take strangers children to his bed?

To turn his house and property into an amusement park so he can attract these children?

All of that is unproven assumptions on the part of the media. A defense is that parents just want to use him as a means for getting rich. Nothing can be proven.

-Lyn

 

[KCKID]

Do you find it "OK" for a 45 year old man to take strangers children to his bed?

To turn his house and property into an amusement park so he can attract these children?

Please guys, the man is dead.

 

[The Nihilist]

Please guys, the man is dead.

Yeah, well do you know who else is dead?
(I swear, I will Godwin this thread so fast...)

 

[LightHorseman]

Michael Jackson was, quite possibly, the individual to inspire the most people worldwide since Jesus Christ. Before you call that a ridiculous claim, I ask you to give me another name that you believe eclipses him.

Mohommed? Jimmu? St. Patrick? Peter the Hermit? Lennin? Mao? Washington? Roosevelt? Even, (though it irks me dreadfully to say it) HRH Diana Princess of Wales?

 

[HighwayMan]

Mohommed? Jimmu? St. Patrick? Peter the Hermit? Lennin? Mao? Washington? Roosevelt? Even, (though it irks me dreadfully to say it) HRH Diana Princess of Wales?

Can't say any of them match up.

To be clear, I'm not saying he was "the most important" person, but that the most people worldwide knew and loved him. A fact made possible because of mass-media, but still.

 

[LightHorseman]

Can't say any of them match up.

To be clear, I'm not saying he was "the most important" person, but that the most people worldwide knew and loved him. A fact made possible because of mass-media, but still.

I'm not saying "most important" either... the question was as to number of people influenced... you are shifting the goal posts. But even so, I'd say the Beatles and HRH Diana Princess of Wales are right up there in your new definition.

 

[AnneSally]

Michael Jackson was, quite possibly, the individual to inspire the most people worldwide since Jesus Christ. Before you call that a ridiculous claim, I ask you to give me another name that you believe eclipses him.

The Apostle Paul.

Martin Luther King Jnr.

Princess Diana.

There's prolly tons more too that I can't think of just now....but the list would be endless....

 

[AnneSally]

He chose to be accused of being a pedophile and mocked through society? Ok, this is a new one.

The point the poster is trying to make is that he shouldn't have had little children in his bed and declaring publicly that it was ok to do so.

 

[HighwayMan]

I'm not saying "most important" either... the question was as to number of people influenced... you are shifting the goal posts. But even so, I'd say the Beatles and HRH Diana Princess of Wales are right up there in your new definition.

Princess Diana was not more famous than Michael Jackson, she did a huge amount of good but isn't in this league.

Beatles vs MJ had long been debated amongst fans, but again I'm talking about a single individual, not a group.

 

[AnneSally]

HRH Diana Princess of Wales are right up there in your new definition.

She's at the top for me. I still miss her now and cried for a week when she died, I still get teary eyed now if I think about her too much....

RIP Princess Diana.

 

[AnneSally]

Princess Diana was not more famous than Michael Jackson, she did a huge amount of good but isn't in this league.

Sorry, but I totally disagree with you. No-one has been as famous as her, the outpouring of grief at her death hasn't been matched by any other public figure in modern times, not even JFK and certainly not Michael Jackson.

 

[AnneSally]

Beatles vs MJ had long been debated amongst fans, but again I'm talking about a single individual, not a group.

I think of MJ the same as John Lennon and Elvis. All musical genius and on a par with each other....

 

[HighwayMan]

The point the poster is trying to make is that he shouldn't have had little children in his bed and declaring publicly that it was ok to do so.

And my point is that he did things that society would definitely classify as strange, but that does not automatically make him guilty of the crimes he was accused of. It is not his fault that society cannot possibly imagine an adult and a child sleeping together (literally) without there being anything wrong about it.

It's kind of like Catholic priests and altar boys. The relationship has become massively taboo and suspicious amongst general society. Millions of jokes are cracked about it every day. But that hardly means that every such relationship is based on something immoral. People have just heard so many horrible stories they immediately are looking for something wrong.