The death of an icon

So, Michael Jackson.  I’m about the least competent commentator on this subject in the entire world, his general ouevre having passed me by more or less completely, but there have been some elements to all of this that have intrigued me.

I’ve heard some of his songs.  They were pretty good.  I get that they were excellent and groundbreaking in terms of pop music, but, shit son, it’s just pop music.  Amazing pop music is only pretty good music, and it has to struggle even to be that, a lot of the time.  Jackson’s music seemed to me to always be fighting against its own artificiality.  There were times when a certain authenticity came through – “Ben” is a good example – but it would be hard to describe something like “Billy Jean” or “Black or White” as being in any sense innovative or accomplished in terms of music.  The chief draw of the man for me was always his dancing and his wider sense of the theatric.  It’s hard to watch something like the video for “Thriller”, or again, “Black or White,” and not be impressed in spite of one’s self.  There was a real talent there, and a deft hand in how he presented himself and his associates, and he used both for all they were worth.  One might be scandalised that so much time and money were spent in the production of mere music videos, but at least it can be said that you can easily see how both time and money were spent.

But man, he was pretty weird.  Most of it is basically proverbial by now so I don’t intend to spend any time ennumerating his list of sins and misdeeds, whether actual or only suspected.  It remains the case that he was a man who suffered much and who led an awful and in some ways monstrous life, and whatever his desserts may be at this, its relatively early end, it would likely be safe to say that “well done thou good and faithful servant” will not be the Lord’s immediate and heartfelt response.

All of which underscores something that bothers me quite a bit.  I understand that using the occasion of a man’s death as a platform for ideological grandstanding is unseemly, but I get so few opportunities to do it, after all.

The messages of support and remembrance that I’ve been seeing on message boards and comment sections about Jackson’s passing have all been pretty positive.  “Your music was great and we’ll miss you.”  Fair enough.  A goodly number of them, though, have taken the basically necessary form of “you were weird and you did some bad stuff with kids, but your music was great so it’s all good.”

Well, great; how charitable of you all.  “You were apparently a pederast, but you were also the King of Pop so we’re fine with it in the final analysis.”  Mighty fine of you, one and all.

A man molests some children (purportedly) and gives us pop music in exchange and it’s basically fine.

But, say, a centuries-spanning Church runs an entire network of universities and hospitals, and gives hundreds of millions of dollars to charity every single year, and performs a thousand other acts of kindness for the impoverished and the sick and the threatened and the sad throughout the world, and man, when trouble comes along, people can’t call it quits on the whole thing fast enough.  We’re the most corrupt and dangerous and destructive force in the history of mankind.  We’re the source of all human suffering.  Our immediate dissolution is necessary for the safety and succour of the world.

Maybe we should have moonwalked.