Some questions about Michael Jackson

by Lady Lee 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  TallTexan

  Then I'd feel obligated to have sympathy for him, and I couldn't stomach that !!

  On some level, how can you not feel sorry for the guy. He is obviously one messed up dude.

  I saw the thing on VH-1 about him the other night. It talked about how his dad would sleep with the band's groupies, how the older bros would sleep with groupies in front of the younger boys, including Mikey, how his dad would tell them that the Bible says to "Obey your parents" and then order them not to tell his mother. So Mike was torn between being honest w/ his mother and disobeying his father. Between meeting his father's demands for them to succeed, and his mother's and the WTS demands to be 'no part of the world'.

  It's kinda funny, but back a few years ago his being a Witness was simply mentioned in passing. Now that a lot has come out about the pedophilia, etc, there is more attention being paid to his background. I'll bet that if he had never been a JW, his craziness would be at a much more 'normal' level.....
• 

  jwfacts

  I have been wondering if the lawyers in his court cases brought up or thought about raising the issue of his up brining to justify his alleged illegal behaviour. I am sure that the lack of a real childhood mixed with the WTS saying he would never grow old and die must have done damage, and could be used to get out of full legal responsibility on the grounds of insanity.
  I feel my emotional development is different than normal and not as developed as someone with a realistic view of the future.
• 

  Lady Lee

  I feel my emotional development is different than normal and not as developed as someone with a realistic view of the future.

  I feel that too. Some of the info I have been reading suggestes that high control groups stunt emotional development. To me, that makes perfect sense. If you are constantly told "We are a happy people" and "we don't have the problems of the world" how on earth are you supposed to learn to cope with the many emotions that life brings to us?

  Then add to that all the limitations on free thought and doubt I don't think we had much chance to develop normally. This would be especially damaging to those born in. But even if you came in as an adult you are pretty much forced to deny so much of what you feel.
• 

  DanTheMan

  I never thought of it that way, but yeah, when I try to put myself in his shoes I can see how the mixed messages of "no part of the world" at the KH versus the adoration of the world he was getting via his music career was a recipe for a mental disaster. His dad was perfectly willing to reap untold benefits from his son's brilliance yet at the same time he obviously didn't realize that MJ needed a good bit of sheltering and kid gloves. But then again, maybe it's the inner conflicts resulting from his surreal childhood that fueled MJ's artistry. Who knows.

  He just seems like such a completely broken person, I am amazed that he hasn't killed himself. Uh-oh, I resemble those remarks....
• 

  rebel8

  On some level, how can you not feel sorry for the guy. He is obviously one messed up dude.

  AA has a good viewpoint on this. The disease is not your fault, but you are responsible for your recovery. I am sorry that MJ became messed up, however that happened. I have zero sympathy because he has taken no responsibility to get better. Instead he has intentionally harmed others.

  I lost all my sympathy for rapists when I had to treat them as a social worker. I asked all of them if there was any point in time where they felt they could not have just talked themselves out of it and made themselves stop. They all said no, we followed through because we wanted to, felt it was ok and we need not deprive ourselves.

  Having a bad thought is something a person has only a little control over. Acting upon it is a choice. JMHO