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Michael's childlike behavior and how it is not childish

analogue

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Many people have said that Michael had a very childish attitude (E.G playing with super soakers, watching cartoons and visiting Disney Land) but his approach to life was actually more mature than the people who feel that they need to put away things from their childhood when they get older

Here's a great quote from C.S Lewis which I Think sums up Michael's situation very well

“Critics who treat 'adult' as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.”

So Michael was the real mature one in all this for not being afraid to enjoyed what he enjoyed and not be embarrassed by it
 
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Michael never stopped appreciating the little things in life. He showed that it didn't matter what age you were but you could have fun and laugh. He was young at heart but he was very wise too. He connected with people because he understood them. Michael was ridiculed and treated like a weirdo but he stayed true to himself. I would rather be around someone like Michael than any phony and ignorant people in the world.

All adults like to have fun, play games and go on rides. They are lying if they say they don't. But when it came to his work ,his music and his children he was as serious as any adult could be. Michael was a real man and many people could take lessons from him.
 
Quincy Jones said that Michael had the enthusiasm of a 6 year old and the wisdom of a 70 year old, and that is very true
 
Yes, and he was absolutely right because, after all, what's wrong with watching cartoons when you're 30 or 40 or 50? Is it immoral? No. Is it unethical? No. Is it illegal for some reason? No. What's the problem then? Adults put some "limits" which really don't make sense, also because almost everybody likes doing what they used to do when they were children... I haven't seen a grown up not liking to go to an amusement park, even just to look at kids playing, yet... Most of us don't say it, but we all know it's true.
 
Michael was just doing what he enjoyed and doing it without bothering or hurting anybody. Then you had people (Mostly from the media) making fun of him for just enjoying the things he enjoyed. I think it's very obvious who the real childish ones in all this is.
 
analogue said:
Michael was just doing what he enjoyed and doing it without bothering or hurting anybody. Then you had people (Mostly from the media) making fun of him for just enjoying the things he enjoyed. I think it's very obvious who the real childish ones in all this is.
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Yes, especially when they would call him w***o j***o... They couldn't be more childish...
 
Michael Jackson was 'childish' on the premise he did child like things. You're almost implying here there is something wrong with being childish? What's wrong with being branded 'childish' if you aren't doing the negatives of it but instead the things that don't affect others like playing with a super soaker?
 
Mary93 said:
Yes, especially when they would call him w***o j***o... They couldn't be more childish...
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Exactly! You see, what are meant to be, professional news organisations calling him that stupid childish name and you wonder if these people ever left the damn playground.

No sense of respect or dignity.
 
Dilan said:
Michael Jackson was 'childish' on the premise he did child like things. You're almost implying here there is something wrong with being childish? What's wrong with being branded 'childish' if you aren't doing the negatives of it but instead the things that don't affect others like playing with a super soaker?
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Michael doing childlike things didn't make him childish. The people who made fun of him for doing childlike things were the real childish ones
 
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I feel like there is a difference between childish and child-like. Michael even mentioned it in his 60 minutes interview. Like marebear said, he enjoyed the simple things in life. The reason he loved children so much were that they treated him simply like a human being, and not the mega superstar that you would see from some fans, acting hysterical in his presence (I honestly don't blame them, lol) Also, he said several times in interviews that he felt most creative when he was around children. They have a pure innocence which allows them to enjoy, again, the simple things in life. Michael never stopped loving that, and a lot of that shows in his work :)
 
Here's a quote from Dancing the Dream:

"Children show me in their playful smiles, the divine in everyone. This simple goodness shines straight from their hearts. This has so much to teach. If a child wants chocolate ice cream, he just asks for it. Adults get tangled up in complications over whether to eat the ice cream or not. A child simply enjoys.

What we need to learn from children isn’t childish. Being with them connects us to the deep wisdom of life, which is everpresent and only asks to be lived. Now, when the world is so confused and its problems so complicated, I feel we need our children more than ever. Their natural wisdom points the way to solutions that lie, waiting to be recognized, within our own hearts."

I think him being innocent and child-like made him more relate-able. He kind of represents what we could all be like if we just stopped to have some fun once in awhile.

Children love, they don't judge. They don't care how much money you have or if you're pink and polka dotted. The trivial things that we adults get caught up in matter little to children. They would rather play hide and go seek than spend a day in an office. Kids act innocently and from the heart.

I'm twenty-one and I'm not afraid to admit that I like cartoons, games and all sorts of "childish things". I don't see why there is such a stigma attached to it. If you want to have fun, go HAVE FUN. Let your heart decide instead of your head. :)



"He was robbed of his childhood, which is why he surrounds himself with children. When you're around kids you can be a little kid yourself and pretend that life is magic and you don't have to be one of those sweaty people going to work every day. I completely see what he is doing."
-Amy Winehouse
 
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Dilan said:
Michael Jackson was 'childish' on the premise he did child like things. You're almost implying here there is something wrong with being childish? What's wrong with being branded 'childish' if you aren't doing the negatives of it but instead the things that don't affect others like playing with a super soaker?
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I didn't get that implication at all. What's being said here, is Michael was just basically being himself. He knew who he was, he never tried to hide it and he simply did it without much care of what others thought about it. That's more "grown-up" than anything.


I like to say Michael was "staying Gold" preserving his innocence, which we all have as children coming up in this world, well into his adulthood.
 
Mary93 said:
Yes, especially when they would call him w***o j***o... They couldn't be more childish...
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That is WAY MORE than being childish, it's plain evil and racist!

I never minded Michael's child-like behavior, tastes. If those allowed him to have more creativity and inspiration, I thank him profusely for keeping that quality because most of his body of art are master pieces. If he had been childish, he wouldn't had been a savyy man in entertainment and business.

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Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:
That is WAY MORE than being childish, it's plain evil and racist!
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How exactly is the term W.acko J.acko racist? I don't think the insult is to make him feel like shit for being African American, but to instead put him down because they think he's a w.acko, a weirdo.

(Excellent Dr. Seuss quote by the way! I love it too :))
 
Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:
You're totally wrong on making that assumption, check out the thread 'The Origin of the word Ja..' http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/t...-cko-quot-is-racist!?highlight=racist+origins
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Interesting... you learn something new every day. I still wouldn't call everybody who uses that term a racist though. Many (like I did) would take the insult at face value and just assume that they were rhyming a reasonably common nickname for somebody called Jackson with the word w.acko. It's not exactly like that the origin of the term 'J.acko' is common knowledge or anything either.

Now, the people who are fully aware of the racist origins and still continue to label him that term - are they racist? Yes. It's no different than walking up to a black person and calling them a n****r as everyone is well aware of the origins and true meaning of that term. It's sad, maybe if one journalist in a position of power (i.e. Bashir in Living with MJ) actually had the guts to point out the racist origins, maybe it would make people think twice about using that term.

Thanks for that.
 
Absolutely agree with the OP. It's the one aspect of Michael I can relate to the most. :) Also to clear some things up because there is a difference between what "childish" means and what "childlike" means. Maybe it's not well understood in other languages, but in English childish usually tends to refer to a person who behaves in an immature manner, whereas childlike would refer to innocence and being young at heart. Different words, different meanings :)
 
Snow White luvs Peter Pan said:
Now you see what I meant media people aren't childish to call him like that. They're evil, racist and conniving bastards; of course many of them know that word is a racist slur. They just continue to call Michael like that because they don't consider him human. Here it's more detailed. http://www.innermichael.com/2011/09/watch-your-language-a-word-about-comments/
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They are childish as well. Only children resort to stupid name calling like that.
 
I never read that quote in the OP, but it's so true! Funny thing is people do not consider rappers who rap about guns, violence, misogyny and $ people who are stuck in their childhood. Or rock artists who sing about teenage angst and rebellion. Or those who never have any other theme in 90% of their songs than sex, sex and sex. They are considered cool and "real" etc. But in fact, a lot of those things are more childish than Michael's worldview.
 
HIStoric said:
Interesting... you learn something new every day. I still wouldn't call everybody who uses that term a racist though. Many (like I did) would take the insult at face value and just assume that they were rhyming a reasonably common nickname for somebody called Jackson with the word w.acko. It's not exactly like that the origin of the term 'J.acko' is common knowledge or anything either.

Now, the people who are fully aware of the racist origins and still continue to label him that term - are they racist? Yes. It's no different than walking up to a black person and calling them a n****r as everyone is well aware of the origins and true meaning of that term. It's sad, maybe if one journalist in a position of power (i.e. Bashir in Living with MJ) actually had the guts to point out the racist origins, maybe it would make people think twice about using that term.

Thanks for that.
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I don't think most people use that term as racism, as probably most people are not aware of the origin. But I can imagine the tabloid which first used it was fully aware. Tabloids target the ugliest instincts in humans. They do that quite deliberately and consciously as well.

For example, Kelvin MacKenzie who was the chief editor of The Sun for a long time once said of the target audience of papers like The Sun:

You just don't understand the readers, do you, eh? He's the bloke you see in the pub, a right old fascist, wants to send the wogs (blacks) back, buy his poxy council house, he's afraid of the unions, afraid of the Russians, hates the queers and the weirdos and drug dealers. He doesn't want to hear about that stuff (serious news).
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An Old Lady's Poem, Anonymous
When an old lady died in the geriatric ward of a small hospital near Dundee, Scotland, it was felt that she had nothing left of any value. Later, when the nurses were going through her meager possessions, they found this poem. Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital. One nurse took her copy to Ireland. The old lady's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the Christmas edition of the News Magazine of the North Ireland Association for Mental Health.

... And now this little old Scottish lady, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this simple, yet eloquent, poem traveling the world by Internet. Goes to show that we all leave "SOME footprints in time".....

An Old Lady's Poem

What do you see, nurses, what do you see?
What are you thinking when you're looking at me?
A crabby old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, "I do wish you'd try!"
Who seems not to notice the things that you do,
And forever is losing a stocking or shoe.....
Who, resisting or not, lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding, the long day to fill....
Is that what you're thinking? Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse; you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of ten ...with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen, with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet.
A bride soon at twenty -- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now, I have young of my own,
Who need me to guide and a secure happy home.
A woman of thirty, my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last.
At forty, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn.
At fifty once more, babies play round my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead;
I look at the future, I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing young of their own,
And I think of the years and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old woman ...and nature is cruel;
'Tis jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells.
I remember the joys, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years ....all too few, gone too fast,
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, nurses, open and see,
...Not a crabby old woman; look closer ...see ME!!
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We have all been children..many fathers have played with the electric car track they bought for the children before the childen were old enough to play with it.
In Sweden we look at Disneyfilms between 15-16 every christmas eve,same stories every year and middleaged and older persons are more interested than young people.
It´s no christmas without checkered chess color..

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/d1KDhYWly04" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
 
I didn't say all the people who call him with that disgusting nickname are racist. I said media people (specially in tabloids) because they know it's a racist slur. And I still disagree they're childish, they're not because Michael himsel told children for the most part treated him kindly and didn't judge him, that's why he felt so connected to them and allow himself to preserve his childlike quality.
 
Michael was bullied. I don't know what else to think. He was ridiculed, name calling, accused of horrible things and the list goes on and on. They couldn't attack his talent and people were jealous and intimidated by that. So they went after him as a person and twisted everything he did and everything he said. They wanted to make him feel worthless but he was true gift to the world. People should be ashamed of themselves and are total hypocrites in what they say or do. It is sad the way people can be.
 
I never understood why people thought that Michael was childish. Seems to me like instead of being overly serious and putting childhood things away when you become an adult, you keep them around. That's what he did. I see a lot of overly serious people (family members, friends, teachers) and I just don't understand. Like, you can be mature and serious sometime, but learn to have some fun. Michael did exactly that and I applaud him for it.

I don't know why, but a part of me and my heart believe that if people in the world were like Michael was, the world could be so much better.
 
An honest man is always a child.
Socrates
 
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