Jacko. Wacko? Nonce? Both?

Morning Mugs,

Like many I watched the Leaving Neverland documentary over the last two nights.A very difficult watch, very difficult. I am no huge Jackson fan , but it's hard not to twitch a leg to Off the Wall or the Thriller albums. It's hard not to get swept up by the majesty of The Earth Song. There's a hell of a legacy there for fantastic pop music, even if by the end the talent was spent...unlike Bowie, Jackson had run out of creative steam. 

So, a fantastic pop star, but for me nowhere near Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Beatles, U2 or Abba. That's just personal taste though. 

After all of the latest allegations he now looks like primarily being remembered for being a child abuser. A paedophile. A sex criminal. Which is all rather sad and to me unnecessary. Watching the documentary wasn't easy, the detail was very graphic and hard to listen to. I'm still not quite 100% there bout the second part which exposed the rifts in the families involved seems very hard to make up. Both 'victims' came over as seemingly honest. Interestingly neither of them seemed to want to say anything nasty about Jackson which was odd, but also seems to underpin the conflicts the victims of child sex abuse feel. They feel they are breaking the trust of someone who loved them....as children that's a very big heartbreak. 

Some aspects of the documentary made me uneasy though. First of all, the two men's statements we're virtually identical when describing the activities they were engaged in by Jackson. Spookily so, and had I not known better I would have suspected they'd been coached by lawyers or others. That seems unfair I know......and maybe they're both describing the modus operandi of Jackson...and it seems well known that abusers follow patterns that have previously been successful. A tried and tested formula I suppose. Then there are the families...the nearest and dearest who allowed this near abduction to take place. A mother who slept along the corridor whilst her son shared Jacksons bed. I mean, come on what parent would find that acceptable? Unless of course, the money, the reflected fame, the gifts and the promises all add up to bribes used in a complete and planned grooming process. 

I've been sceptical that sane adult people can be groomed...then I watched Abducted In Plain Sight and that weird documentary truly opened my eyes up to the sheer gullibility, malleability and susceptibility of seemingly sane people to acts of apparent altruism and kindness. Groomers will groom whoever they feel is advantageous to them reaching their target. I'm also sceptical as to why, now he's dead, there aren't staff and workers and friends and even relatives who haven't seen this, haven't known this stuff was going on. What is there for them to fear? Backlash from 'the estate'? Well, fuck the estate...it's just an organisation dedicated to preserving the good memory of a flawed man in order to keep the big money rolling in. There must be so many others who knew...and if they're not speaking then they're being complicit aren't they? Would an amnesty on perjury or any follow up criminal action help? Would protection of any received income or 'pay offs' under a gagging order help them come forward?

Who knows? But as I say I'm leaning towards his guilt, quite heavily now and more so than before. I'm still uneasy about allegations against someone no longer able to defend themselves or explain but the truth is the greater priority I suppose. One thing is certain, Jackson himself was deeply flawed and deeply mentally ill. I can't help but think this was all a result of a bullying overbearing father, a culture within the family to be nothing more than a human performing seal. A closed brotherhood with secrets protected by the heinous false religion of Jehovah's Witnesses (how the hell does a civilised society allow them to exist?) and a willing and knowing collective cognitive dissonance amongst his family, his friends, his employees and maybe even the authorities. I think it's fair to say that in this case, the abused becomes the abuser. I hope the cycle stops with his alleged victims, both of whom came over as damaged and yet stable people trying to live as normal a life as is possible. 

But we certainly haven't heard the last of this whole sorry saga that is the life of Michael Jackson yet. The man who had everything and yet seems to have had nothing. 

Later Mugs.