Sometimes it is hard to know the truth or have a strong opinion when the facts are either hidden from vast public, involves a massive social controversy or there are strong reasons from any of the parts involved to get some kind of profit.
I feel like this since early this week when I watched the controversy HBO’s documentary Leaving Neverland. It tells the confessions and experiences of two men that were supposedly sexually abused as children by Michael Jackson. It is a 4 hour documentary (split in two parts) with very hard moments and, in my opinion, leaves in you a lot of questions and a duality almost impossible to clarify.
Like many people around the globe, I consider Michael Jackson as one of the pillars in music history; one of the greatest in all time and probably the most prominent musician who changed the music business we know today. He was on top since he was a child till his dead and he influenced all the generations from grandchildren to grandparents. Since I was a child (exactly the same age as these two man in the documentary) I was hooked by his music, impossible dances and shows. Anyway, I am not saying something new… this was the same for almost everyone.
In my opinion there is no such big popular icon like him nowadays. This might be one of the reasons why very young people cannot understand this story, M.J.’s live and what I am trying to say.
If you watch the documentary blindly, it is like to throw a bucket of cold water over your head. The truth is that back in the 90’s and early 21st. century decade the world got shocked by the allegations against M.J. for sexual abuse to children. We all remember the news and the images on court. Although he was sentenced not guilty in both occasions, this hugely damaged his image and the world split in two since then: (a) people who support his innocence and that these allegations were part of a plot to get money, and (b) people believing he was a pederast monster behind a genius.
What is the real truth here? Was Michael Jackson a real monster destroying children and their families with his sickness or this is a new attempt from people to make money and profit from the greatest icon in modern history? After watching the documentary, most of the people would say: “Well, where there’s smoke…there’s fire” and I understand it. But I do not have a clear opinion. The moments that I was trying to see if all of this was true, I asked myself: “If this is true… what is wrong with the World then? How did we allow it to happen?”. But these things only can be cleared with M.J., and he is dead; meaning he cannot defend himself or be questioned anymore.
What will remain as unquestionable would be his music legacy and his legendary history. His “star” as a person however, it is something that will be questioned forever.
