Michael Jackson's enemy was time
Seconds after the news first hit the airwaves, your own shock merged with everyone else's in the immediate vicinity. And you could feel it rolling through the rest of the planet like a runaway diesel.
As with most things you neither expected nor wanted to hear, you thought that there had to be more to it than what was being said.
Especially because it was Michael Jackson, who seemed too dominant, too other-worldly and, more than anything, too complex to be brought down by anything as simple as cardiac arrest. And also because most of what we'd been hearing about Jackson's personal life over the last decade and a half had been bizarre, sordid and sad.
It was to those aspects -- the deepening isolation, the child molestation trials, the financial woes, the "Wacko Jacko" moments like that 2002 interlude on the balcony with the baby -- that the talking heads on TV devoted tentative attention within minutes of the official announcement.
The commentariat presumed it had a responsibility to poke those embers for clues of something beyond the single, dreadful fact of Jackson's death. Even if we didn't care for this conversation, we had been conditioned by the most recent events to wonder, deep down, if there was something stranger or more unpleasant attached to his passing.
But acceptance came easier -- and sooner -- than any of us expected last night. And when it did, we wanted the talking heads to go away and leave us with our memories ... and nothing but the good ones, thank you very much.
We wanted the loop of performances and hit singles. Retrieve for us, please, the electricity of the 10-year-old wunderkind who literally leapt into our consciousness in that shattering year of 1968 with "I Want You Back" and "ABC."
Let us see that transfiguring moment 15 years later at the Motown Anniversary TV special when Jackson seized dominion over the pop firmament with his shattering, moon-walking recital of "Billie Jean." We wanted the videos -- "Beat It," "Bad," "Thriller," "Black and White" and all that incredible, unearthly dancing. That was all we needed to see and hear. Save the armchair psychoanalysis for later. Maybe, much later.
No one would have understood or indulged such yearnings as quickly or as intuitively as Michael Jackson. As surely as he was the King of Pop, Jackson was also a high priest of wish fulfillment.
His performances as both precocious child and child-like adult made growing up or growing old the only unimaginable things in the known world. This Peter Pan mystique even became part of the Jackson brand to the point of naming his combination of retreat and theme park the Neverland Ranch.
The promise of eternal youth was embedded in pop music way before Jackson and his four brothers emerged from the grit of Gary, Indiana, to jump-start Motown's winning streak. But it's when that promise expands to shatter boundaries and expand possibilities beyond Top-40 parameters that pop music becomes pop phenomena. And Michael Jackson, in the early 1980s, was a pop phenomenon powerful enough to pool together previously polarized audiences -- heavy metal, disco, funk -- and get them all on the same bandwagon.
Only twice before -- with Elvis Presley and the Beatles -- had the cultural landscape been changed as decisively by a pop star. It hasn't happened since -- and may never happen again. Certainly, "Thriller," the best-selling LP of all time, won't be surpassed because LPs have been superseded twice over by discs and downloads.
Jackson's off-stage public diffidence gave the impression that his transformations of both self and society were all happening by off-hand magic. But his wispy speaking voice belied a steely resolve to control his image, his artistry and his product. The energy he devoted to keep what he considered "negativity" at bay was meant to nurture his audience's dreams of release -- and to maintain his primacy in the pop marketplace.
Even the eccentricities, at the peak of his influence, seemed calculated to promote, if not perpetuate, his product. But time (by far, Jackson's worst and most formidable enemy) couldn't stop even his most devoted admirers from wondering what drove him to change his appearance so drastically over the years. Or why he wanted to both save the world and hide from it with the same ferocious intensity.
If he'd been able to stop the clock at 1985 or even 1987 (the year of "Bad"), life would have been so much easier. The magic faded. Setbacks and embarrassments were occasionally offset by a tour or show that transported us back to the better, happier times when we were willing to overlook real life for our most elemental dreams of release.
We seek those dreams even more urgently now that we know, for certain, that we'll never again see him on stage -- the one place where he was happiest and most assured.
But perhaps the hardest dream to give up -- and the reason so many people in so many countries were almost physically leveled by yesterday's news -- is of finding common ground and sharing common awe in a song or a dance or a single act of outreaching, transcendent audacity.
However divided (or worse) we may have felt about Michael Jackson at the end, we cherish how he brought out the best in us at the beginning. Whatever the days ahead, that will be more than enough for now, forever.
samedi 27 juin 2009
Can Michael Jackson's demons be explained?
No one knows exactly where Michael Jackson's problems stem from. But in the eyes of those who study behaviour, feelings and motivations, his unorthodox upbringing could go a long way to explain his troubled adult life.
Michael Jackson, who has died at 50, is known to have been a man who struggled with a host of inner demons.
Here, psychologists weigh up how the extraordinary childhood experiences of someone such as Jackson might shape a person in later life.
BEING BEATEN AS A CHILD
Michael Jackson's father Joe admitted to the BBC in 2003 that he whipped his son as a child.
The child star at work in 1972...
Violence occasioned by a parent on a child leaves lasting psychological and physical impact, says Peter Sharp, chartered psychologist at the British Psychological Society.
"Young people in receipt of physical violence have difficulty forming and maintaining long-term relationships," he says.
"They're 'anxious-avoidant', which means they will often take on what they know they can be successful in, therefore avoid challenges outside their comfort zones and may try to provide their worth by excelling and over-excelling in one particular area."
If that person thinks that to have affirmation and validity, they need to be successful at something, he adds, there is a risk that this is the only thing about them they define as worthy
HAVING A UNIQUE GIFT
Peter Congdon is a psychologist who works with extremely intelligent or gifted children.
"It's well known that the best preparation for growing up is to live fully as a child. Parents of clever or talented children shouldn't forget this."
...and at rest
Accelerated mental development, for example, slows down social and mental growth and the result can be a lop-sided and maladjusted individual.
Parental expectations bring undue pressure on children - one of Mr Congdon's clients is a boy who is being groomed to become an actor and already he is talking about buying his parents a house.
Another man took his teenage child to the swimming baths every day at 4am in an effort to make her an Olympic champion, but it was making her unhappy.
Sometimes the pressure can be overwhelming, he says. "Philosopher JS Mill was taught Latin at three, Greek at four, wrote his first history book at 16 and aged 19 had a mental breakdown."
Jay Belsky, director of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues at Birkbeck College, University of College London, says: "With a gift, the issue becomes 'Am I loved because I sing and dance or because I'm worthy of being loved?'
"I think the child figures that out, not necessarily in a conscious way but does it register? Certainly."
BEING AN IMPRESSIONABLE CHILD
Children vary in their sensitivity to things, says Prof Belsky, and you might think of Michael Jackson as one who benefited from being impressionable.
"You might think of him as a kid who was highly malleable for better or worse. Better in the sense that he could take advantage of the musical lessons and dance lessons and that kind of guidance, where for another kid it might be water off a duck's back."
But this same quality may have counted against him when he took alleged comments about his appearance to heart, he says.
Young people who have issues about their appearance often take those hang-ups into later life, says Mr Sharp.
"One of the things about teenage years is that young people frequently define themselves in terms of image and if they don't negotiate the transition to adulthood successfully then they take these concerns about the way they look with them."
BEING A CHILD STAR
Research into childhood fame is still at an early stage, says Kairen Cullen, but from her experience as an educational psychologist, the route to fame seems to be key to how well individuals deal with the effects.
"If fame is sought, either directly or vicariously, as in the case of parents for their children, frequently difficulties, usually of an intra-and inter-personal nature, develop.
Public adoration and private isolation
"Relationships with others can be problematic because the individual develops an exaggerated sense of self, their importance in the world and their effect upon others.
"Processes of idealisation can unfold and the individual can find it very difficult to live up to others' expectations and projections."
For those youngsters with unique talents who are "discovered", they are not living out the dreams of others, but realising their unique selves, so discovery could actually enhance their psychological health.
HAVING A LARGE, CLOSE FAMILY
As the seventh child in a large family, Michael Jackson was not lacking in the company of other children. But big families can multiply sibling rivalries, which need not be detrimental to a child's development.
"You can have a healthy sibling rivalry in which the older child is someone who you can compete with and reach for and as you struggle to do so, he or she is encouraging you and enabling you," says Prof Belsky.
"But if the sibling is demeaning and bullying, then what could be wonderfully facilitating can be destructive."
A child with an older sibling can be inspired by his or her accomplishments in music, dancing or basketball, for example, says the psychology professor. The child may want to be like that or better.
A skilled parent should monitor this sensitively, using the gap in their abilities as a way of motivating the younger child rather than mocking it.
Michael Jackson, who has died at 50, is known to have been a man who struggled with a host of inner demons.
Here, psychologists weigh up how the extraordinary childhood experiences of someone such as Jackson might shape a person in later life.
BEING BEATEN AS A CHILD
Michael Jackson's father Joe admitted to the BBC in 2003 that he whipped his son as a child.
The child star at work in 1972...
Violence occasioned by a parent on a child leaves lasting psychological and physical impact, says Peter Sharp, chartered psychologist at the British Psychological Society.
"Young people in receipt of physical violence have difficulty forming and maintaining long-term relationships," he says.
"They're 'anxious-avoidant', which means they will often take on what they know they can be successful in, therefore avoid challenges outside their comfort zones and may try to provide their worth by excelling and over-excelling in one particular area."
If that person thinks that to have affirmation and validity, they need to be successful at something, he adds, there is a risk that this is the only thing about them they define as worthy
HAVING A UNIQUE GIFT
Peter Congdon is a psychologist who works with extremely intelligent or gifted children.
"It's well known that the best preparation for growing up is to live fully as a child. Parents of clever or talented children shouldn't forget this."
...and at rest
Accelerated mental development, for example, slows down social and mental growth and the result can be a lop-sided and maladjusted individual.
Parental expectations bring undue pressure on children - one of Mr Congdon's clients is a boy who is being groomed to become an actor and already he is talking about buying his parents a house.
Another man took his teenage child to the swimming baths every day at 4am in an effort to make her an Olympic champion, but it was making her unhappy.
Sometimes the pressure can be overwhelming, he says. "Philosopher JS Mill was taught Latin at three, Greek at four, wrote his first history book at 16 and aged 19 had a mental breakdown."
Jay Belsky, director of the Institute for the Study of Children, Families and Social Issues at Birkbeck College, University of College London, says: "With a gift, the issue becomes 'Am I loved because I sing and dance or because I'm worthy of being loved?'
"I think the child figures that out, not necessarily in a conscious way but does it register? Certainly."
BEING AN IMPRESSIONABLE CHILD
Children vary in their sensitivity to things, says Prof Belsky, and you might think of Michael Jackson as one who benefited from being impressionable.
"You might think of him as a kid who was highly malleable for better or worse. Better in the sense that he could take advantage of the musical lessons and dance lessons and that kind of guidance, where for another kid it might be water off a duck's back."
But this same quality may have counted against him when he took alleged comments about his appearance to heart, he says.
Young people who have issues about their appearance often take those hang-ups into later life, says Mr Sharp.
"One of the things about teenage years is that young people frequently define themselves in terms of image and if they don't negotiate the transition to adulthood successfully then they take these concerns about the way they look with them."
BEING A CHILD STAR
Research into childhood fame is still at an early stage, says Kairen Cullen, but from her experience as an educational psychologist, the route to fame seems to be key to how well individuals deal with the effects.
"If fame is sought, either directly or vicariously, as in the case of parents for their children, frequently difficulties, usually of an intra-and inter-personal nature, develop.
Public adoration and private isolation
"Relationships with others can be problematic because the individual develops an exaggerated sense of self, their importance in the world and their effect upon others.
"Processes of idealisation can unfold and the individual can find it very difficult to live up to others' expectations and projections."
For those youngsters with unique talents who are "discovered", they are not living out the dreams of others, but realising their unique selves, so discovery could actually enhance their psychological health.
HAVING A LARGE, CLOSE FAMILY
As the seventh child in a large family, Michael Jackson was not lacking in the company of other children. But big families can multiply sibling rivalries, which need not be detrimental to a child's development.
"You can have a healthy sibling rivalry in which the older child is someone who you can compete with and reach for and as you struggle to do so, he or she is encouraging you and enabling you," says Prof Belsky.
"But if the sibling is demeaning and bullying, then what could be wonderfully facilitating can be destructive."
A child with an older sibling can be inspired by his or her accomplishments in music, dancing or basketball, for example, says the psychology professor. The child may want to be like that or better.
A skilled parent should monitor this sensitively, using the gap in their abilities as a way of motivating the younger child rather than mocking it.
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