[thechat] Public about MJ

[Paul Cowan]

Syed Zeeshan Haider
> My question is, what is the public opinion in USA about MJ? Do people
> think that he is really that kind of bad guy?

I can't speak for the USA, but I can tell you about the prevailing opinion
in Australia, which I suspect mirrors the US opinion very closely.

The guy is a freak.

At first, he was just a great performer (I don't really like his music,
but even I can see that he is one of the great recording artists of
our time -- not my cup of tea, but obviously very good at what he does).

Then, he started to get a little eccentric. Despite his denials, you'd
have to be a fool to believe that he hasn't gone to an awful lot of effort
to change his appearance, etc. Frankly, he looks like a monster, but he
doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with it. He does odd 
interviews,
tries to buy the bones of John Merrick, lives with animals like they're
his best friends in the world, etc. At first, it was one or two things --
and most of them harmless, if a little quirky -- but after a while, they
started to add up, and people began to think "what a weirdo". Only his
real fans didn't think he was weird, but over time more and more came to
realise that he was a total nutcase. Now, I think pretty much everyone
realises that the guy has more than one screw loose.

If there was one thing that totally threw everyone, it was the marriage
(sham or not) to Lisa Marie Presley. I don't know how well LMP was known
in Pakistan, but Elvis is probably the one single iconic pop-culture
icon that EVERYONE can relate to + understand, more or less -- more so
than probably JFK. So for the "King of Pop" to marry his daughter was
just -- well, some thought it was "amazing", but most people were probably
just convinced, the second they head that news, that something screwy
was afoot, and if MJ wasn't a weird person before, he was now.

Add in the odd circumstances surrounding the birth of his kids, the
strange names he gave them, the way he behaves towards them, etc., and
I think 99.999% of the population of the western world now officially
think Michael Jackson to be a headcase.

As for the child abuse allegations -- well, honestly? I think that no-one
knows if they're true or not. But if they WERE proven to be true, I don't
think one single person would be surprised. We're so used to him being
a weirdo that NOTHING he does now would surprise us. Frankly, if he were
to parade naked down Broadway wearing a pirate hat and shooting a
flare gun into the sky while singing "Frigging in the Rigging", I don't
think anyone would even look twice. We're all used to it.

If anything, people are inclined to believe it, just because of the
previous allegations. If he'd gone to court and won, people would
probably have forgotten about it by now -- the fact that he paid them
to shut up obviously leaves some lingering suspicions.

There are probably a lot of reasons for his behaviour -- he obviously
had a weird childhood, and I don't think he has coped well with his fame --
and I think most people, while they're happy to laugh at him, also realise
how sad it is that he has ended up in this position.

Cheers,

Paul