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Betelgeuse.
Quando tutti intorno a te sono in preda al panico e tu sei perfettamente tranquillo, forse non hai capito qual è il problema
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PERSONAL REFLECTIONS, THE NEVER-ENDING MEDIA WAR, VIDEO
THE QUESTION WE’D MOST LIKE TO FORGET: WHAT “IF?”
MARCH 16, 2015 RAVEN
Over the years, LunaJo67 has been bringing us some amazing videos. Her tireless efforts have helped to build a volume of invaluable research in the never-ending quest to learn what really happened to Michael Jackson. However, this latest brings with it a lot of painful memories.
Although it is not something that most Michael Jackson fans like to dwell on, it remains perhaps one of the biggest “IF” questions that lurks in the backs of our minds. What “if” the verdict had gone down differently in 2005? What would have happened to Michael? What would his life have become?
Over the years I have seen two distinct schools of thought on this subject, not necessarily from fans but from the populace in general. And they can be pretty much summed up to either one of two possibilities: Either he would be alive today (the wisdom of thought being that prison life would have forced him to clean up his act and adhere to a strict regimen, one that did not include access to propofol and Dr. Murray, obviously) or he would have died even earlier than he did. Some believe he would have committed suicide in prison. Even some members of his own family have expressed this belief. Others believe that his spirit would have been so broken that he would have died; perhaps not an immediate suicide, but that eventually, refusing food and medical care, he would have fallen into a downward spiral-with the same end result. Worse yet, he would have been vulnerable to attacks from other inmates even if isolate.
Michael Was Stronger Than Many People Give Him Credit. But Could His Gentle Spirit Have Survived A 20+ Year Prison Sentence?
I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, I believe that Michael Jackson was much tougher than people gave him credit for. He said that he had rhinoceros skin, and certainly he proved it throughout his life by how much he was able to endure. Even if wrongly convicted, I could see him using that opportunity to turn intensely inward, to grow closer, perhaps, in his faith to God. He might have even written some of his greatest work yet, for surely, the experience would have either fueled the kind of bitter anger that led to brilliant works like “They Don’t Care About Us” or to the kind of intensely raw self reflection of pieces like “Will You Be There.” However, the truth is more likely that the utter humiliation of being convicted and forever condemned in the public mind as a child molestor would have been too much. His whole life had been built on the adoration of the public and the everlasting quest for love. It was important for Michael that he be loved; it was, if anything, the single most driving force of his life. To be sure, I believe that his fans would have remained loyal to him even if he had been convicted. I believe that, even in the face of a conviction, most would have remained convinced that he had been unfairly railroaded. There would have been an outcry, for sure; an outcry against the injustice of the system. There would have been drives and petitions for appeals; there is a reason, after all, that Michael’s fans call themselves his “Soldiers of Love.”
Nevertheless, had those men and women of the jury failed to recognize the absurdity of the Arvizo claims and those ridiculously trumped-up charges by the DA, it would have become a very different world in which to be a Michael Jackson fan. Guilty or not, there’s just something about the idea of a conviction that carries the stench of officialness. Sure, any MJ fan can tell you that it’s been a difficult long haul, anyway, given that he was condemned in the court of public opinion with or without a conviction. But the reality is that the “Not Guilty” verdict did allow his reputation to rebound. Because of that verdict, even those who think he “might” have done it can never say with 100% certainty, and thus (at least in theory) Michael Jackson became granted a benefit of the doubt which has enabled his reputation-especially posthumously-to rebound and survive.
This would never have been the case had he been convicted. The taint of being a “convicted child molestor” and a “convicted felon” would have forever tarnished his name, and death would not have changed it. And while his old fans may have remained loyal, it is doubtful he would have gained new fans or that the reputation of his glory years would have sustained him into the new millennium. His music and short films would have all but disappeared from the public lexicon, rather than continuing to be discovered and cherished. To be sure, there is still a very disgruntled minority of the population who believe this should have been the fate of his legacy, and apparently are working tirelessly to that effect (to little avail, it might be added) but the fact is, it didn’t happen that way because he wasn’t convicted. And although some thrive on the idea of rewriting history (I suspect for their own presumed glory) the truth is that a jury of Michael Jackson’s peers agreed on that morning of June 13th, 2005, that the charges against him had not been proven. Michael Jackson was a free man. But rebuilding his life after such an ordeal would not be easy. In the end, some say the Arvizos and Tom Sneddon got what they wanted, anyway. The cruel world that was salivating over the fate of Michael Jackson could not have known that he had only a little more than four years to live-God’s plan, ultimately, usurping the interests of a zealous prosecutor, a gold digging family and a media drunk on its own power.
I remember when this CNN clip originally aired in early June of 2005. Watching it now is a cruel reminder of just how badly the media was salivating over the prospect of a Michael Jackson conviction. It’s not the idea that the Santa Barbara county jail was already preparing for the possibility of a Michael Jackson conviction which is so irksome for me. After all, it makes sense that they would have already been putting a plan into place in the event of such a high profile conviction. They certainly wouldn’t have wanted to wait until the last minute-a sure recipe for chaos and disaster. However, were these preparations something that the public necessarily needed to see? It’s obvious that there were high stakes in the idea of a possible Michael Jackson conviction. The entire media conspiracy to convict Michael was based on one driving factor-ratings. They were already envisioning at least twenty years’ worth of never ending juicy gossip about Michael’s life behind prison bars, starting with this bit intended to tantalize audiences by providing their first glimpse of what Michael’s daily life would have been like. These days, I can’t pass a tabloid stand on any given day without reading that “OJ is dying in prison” or that “OJ has turned gay in prison” or any number of other choice headlines, usually accompanied by jailhouse photos intended to make him look sadistic, psychotic, hideous, pathetic and ridiculous, or all five combined. Obviously, these stories sell. If they didn’t, the tabloids would cease printing them. This was the very profitable future they envisioned with a Michael Jackson conviction.
There was something else at stake, too. The media was not only salivating at the prospect of a Michael Jackson conviction, but in the whole idea of seeing Michael somehow stripped of an imagined hubris. Note how Jim Thomas and Dan Abrams practically gloat over the statement that no one will be “holding Mr. Jackson’s umbrella for him” or that no armbands would be allowed. As usual, these things were thought of as nothing more meaningful than the eccentricities of a spoiled pop star. I wonder if they would have felt any amount of shame if told that the umbrellas were to prevent Michael, a vitiligo sufferer, from getting a potentially fatal sunburn, or that his trademark armbands were said to represent the suffering of the children of the world. Somehow, I doubt it.
This same sense of “rubbing it in” is further emphasized by the need to broadcast that Michael would be denied bond, and that eventually his fate would be to be placed alongside hardened psychotic criminals in the California state prison system like Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan.
With such high stakes invested in a Michael Jackson conviction, is it any wonder that the media immediatly tucked tail and went quiet as a ghost town on the matter once the verdict was announced?
I remember those days well. In the aftermath of the June 13th verdict, there were several days’ worth of the predictable media outrage and backlashing over the verdict. And then…silence. I waited for at least one report that might say, “Congratulations, Michael, for surviving such an undeserving ordeal. What’s next for you?”
Instead, it was like the proverbial ostrich burying its head in the sand. Wow wasn’t than an embarrassment! Okay, let’s dust ourselves off. On to the next story!
These days, as Michael’s legacy is honored and celebrated, the horrific events of 2005 are becoming dimmer and more distant in memory. That’s good in one way. But in other ways, it’s also good to never forget. Just as with all dark chapters of any historical past, there is a need to move forward, but also a need to remember. In June of 2005, Michael’s fate hung in the hands of those twelve men and women of the jury. An innocent man’s life hung in the balance, and could have turned out very differently that day. There is no weakness in keeping that memory alive; the weakness is in allowing that fact to ever be forgotten.
Source : www.allforloveblog.com/?p=9828
Edited by ArcoIris - 2/4/2018, 02:04
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La domanda che preferiremmo dimenticare: e "SE"?by Raven |
