28 September, 2011

The king with no clothes

I suppose it is inevitable that the trial of Michael Jackson's doctor should be televised, but I think it is unfortunate. In the news reports you can sense the prurient voyeurism. You wonder whether the people, his fans, wanted him to live a normal life, wanted him indeed to live, or whether they prefer it this way. It seems to have been the latter but now he is dead there are regrets. Did they have to publish a photo of his corpse? Was this the prurience or a lawyer's trick to shock?

And you can sense the desire for a guilty verdict. People don't want to think of their hero as a weak minded, drug dependent automaton who could be got on stage with the right cocktail. So he must have been killed.

I suppose for many this must be compulsive viewing. For me it is repulsive. Michael Jackson allowed himself to be pushed into an ever more artificial life. He was killed by his fans.

No comments: