Michael Jackson was no role model

I mean no harm to Michael Jackson—after all the harm he did to himself he certainly didn’t need my help. But I will do my best to help the millions of people out there who were duped into worshiping him to realize that maybe they would be a lot better off appreciating his talent for what it was – talent – not some sign that he was a savior, a hero, or any kind of role model, and instead focusing their love elsewhere like on their families, their friends and their God.

In my former life, as a tabloid reporter and celebrity editor, I spent way too much time talking about, writing about and worrying about what Jacko did or didn’t do, covering both of his molestation cases not to mention a litany of his other absurd adventures from gratuitous plastic surgery to deviant hobbies like collecting body parts of circus freaks to dangling his child from a hotel balcony.

All of it had one thing in common – it was self-absorbed, self-indulgent, and self-sabotaging behavior that did nothing to capitalize on his fame and fortune to make the world a better place, but in fact had exactly the opposite effect.

This was a man who could have truly made an extraordinary difference in the world, if only he realized that he was not above the rest of us. That he didn’t have the right to be “insane” and to waste his time, money, resources and his life allowing himself to go insane in public.

You see what makes us non famous people so lucky is that we don’t get that same pass. We must be accountable to others, like our bosses, like our friends, like mainstream society. That not only keeps us in line, but it keeps us contributing to society to the best of our ability.

But unfortunately we allow stars to do, say, act or self-destruct in whatever way they want, almost regardless of the cost to society, and why - because they are fun to watch, or because they have some special talent?

Well, whoop-tee-do! The bottom line is that the rest of the world needs us all to tow the line, to do our best to respect humanity- others’ as well as our own. And when we don’t, we are not respecting others, and we are leading others away from their own self-worth, from their own ability to love and respect themselves and down a self-destructive path that makes the world worse not better.

So to any of those supposed cultural and civic leaders out there right now calling Michael a hero (one of these misguided fools even claimed Michael sacrificed his life for us) ask yourself this question – who did Michael save by throwing away his life the way he did - nobody.

His “sacrifice” was nothing more than a self-obsessed series of snafus which didn’t do anyone in his family or the rest of the world any good.

Except for this – maybe every time another crazy star dies before his or her time, it exposes them and their lifestyle for what it really is and makes the rest us thankful that we get to live a more accountable life.

Chris Benguhe is a former PEOPLE Magazine Reporter and now a columnist for the Catholic Sun and the author of the recently released Overcoming Life's 7 Common Tragedies: Opportunities for Discovering God.  SeeBeyondTragedy.net


"