PUBLIC CYNICISMS AND MICHAEL JACKSON!

Joseph Danladi Elvis Bot Mr Bot is a Research Fellow at the African Centre for Strategic Research and Training, National War College Abuja, Nigeria, department of defence and security studies Nigeria. He heads the Security Sector Unit in the department. He is noted for writing beautiful poems and thought provoking articles. Though a graduate of Political Science, with a Masters in International Relations and Strategic Studies, Joseph has an innate ability of treating life’s issues in a way that seems to betray his vocational training. September 12, 2006 It has been said in numerous circles that the 70’s was psychadelic (a decade of outrage); the 80’ was laizez faire (almost care free); while the 90s was downright cynical. For most of us living now in the 21st century our perceptions about life seem to have been shaped by the 90’s, we have truly become a cynical generation, we seem only to have eyes for the dreary part of life and always seem to concentrate on the negative, never wanting to see the good in anything (particularly if the negative is more pervasive). As a result, we have a generation now were you are best to display your good side or else, you will be severely criticized. One of those that has felt the severe weight of these times, is the erstwhile king of pop, Mr Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson, more than most, particularly in the entertainment industry, has come under a barrage of criticisms. He has faced immense public scrutiny in his life time and variously, he has become an object of ridicule and outright disdain. But what really happened that would have turned the darling of an age, into the monster of another. In the past, it was said that at school dances, most of the kids did the robot and the Moonwalk; they pop-locked to "Dancin' Machine," and nobody made fun of Michael Jackson. Jermaine was the cool handsome older brother, Tito the quiet one -- but Michael was the one who sang to us. When Michael went solo - we listened to all his hits. He was the suave, sure voice we danced to at house parties, or while cruising. He was safe but sexy, the favorite among most women, the alternative to James Brown, who the guys liked better because he was rougher and more political. The guy groups like the Spinners and the O'Jays and the Stylistics were big, but if you asked the girls who they wanted, it was Michael, even as he was reinventing himself with hair products and what many suspected were eyeliners. He was misunderstood, he was soft enough to understand us, and he was so handsome, with those huge eyes and delicate brows and sad mouth. Then came the changes; the nose, jaw/chin jobs and ultimately, his skin. It has been said in several quarters that his childhood may have had a lot to do with this- that he had a dysfunctional childhood, and this may be so. After all, it was said that Michael Jackson never got to be a child. He was performing constantly, like many child stars who grow up to have mercilessly unhappy adult lives. At 12, he was already enduring long hours and road trips and endless work. Maybe that's why he made Neverland, his ranch in Santa Barbara, into a child's paradise. For the childhood he never had. Ironically his eccentricity was his greatest attraction yet his greatest undoing, it made him an enigma and made him a villain, particularly when the child molestation cases sprang up. He was a recluse of soughts and that further increased the suspicions against him. As a result, when these allegations were being leveled against him, it was easy for many to believe of his guilt, even his most adoring fans. The last straw was in 2005 when he was put on trial for molesting a boy he had brought to his Never Land Mansion. As it eventually turned out, he was discharged and acquitted without a guilty verdict. However, I have to admit that the no-guilty verdict even though a relief to Michael Jackson, was only part of the problem- he had to also face a hostile press and a very, very cynical public, who had almost had it with the metamorphosis of what was now Michael Jackson. They were essentially, ready to crucify him and were outraged by the no-guilty verdict even when it seemed like most of the evidence and facts were overwhelmingly against the plaintiff. This didn’t matter, the public were fed up with Michael Jackson, his looks and his alleged antics- nobody was ready to listen. Well, in a sense, you may not have blamed the public, the man they used to know was not the man anymore, he had changed, he had become someone else-someone they couldn’t understand or relate with. And it has been said in the past-people fear or reject what they can’t understand. On his part, Michael hadn’t helped matters, he had either by omission or commission changed his looks and persona and it was now counting against him and he was now feeling the full spleen of a very CYNICAL and UNFORGIVING generation. But how did we really get to this point, how could we hate soo much, an individual that had brought us soo much joy in the past- with beautiful melodies, someone that at one time, represented innocence for us, what happened? I have heard it many times been said that to air is human and to forgive is divine. Michael Jackson cannot be perfect, certainly he must have aired in one way or the other-maybe by giving in to changing his looks. But it was Denzel Washington who once said that if everybody in Hollywood who had had some form of plastic surgery, happen to leave town, Hollywood would be empty. His sin is therefore not common to him, and if it is the child molestation wrap, evidence has shown time and time and again that it was all one big set up. Here, we only have to look at the conglomeration of rich celebrities in Hollywood and the amount of underprivileged people leaving side by side with them, who want to get their hands on some of that cash to better their lives. No doubt, we are leaving in a world were nothing is as it seems and sometimes the fact is stranger than fiction, but if every one of us were to be crucified for our misdemeanors then non of us will be alive. May be we do not see this because we have become too cynical. However the greatest tragedy in this saga for me is Michael Jackson himself, not as a result of the criticisms and torment coming from the general public, but more from his own attitude in handling the adversity-his defeatist stance. The fact that he has survived the torrent of abuse thus far makes Michael Jackson somewhat of a Trojan warrior (unfortunately, it seems like he is unmindful of this innate quality of his) and therefore should rise up to face the storms and overcome them. This is no time to recoil into a shell, rather it is time, as a Trojan warrior would do, to retreat and re-strategize. This is the time to reinvent yourself and make us believe in you once again-this time around, the real you, for when we saw glimpses of it in time past, you shone like a million stars-you can still shine again. Make peace within your self and come out and be the man you are supposed to be, it is certainly not too late. And for this generation of ours, all I can say is that; ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first the stone’

lonely

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