Not My Lover
We went to the movies tonight to see Michael, a bio-pic telling the early days of Michael Jackson, and it was pretty good! It doesn't get into any of the scandal and focuses on his early career, and I think it was pretty well done all up and the lead (played by his nephew Jaafar Jackson) really worked well for the film. And of course, at least for someone of may age-ish or a bit older who grew up with his music, there is definitely sentimental connection with the soundtrack.
I think that the focus on his brilliance is a good reminder that despite all the rest, he was an incredibly talented individual who shifted the way the world consumes music. And as the movie points toward the eventual trajectory tied to his early childhood and relationship with his father, it is another good reminder that brilliance is often coupled with some kind of offset traits that are well away from the norm.
What is a counter-factual argument, is that without the treatment he had when he was young, perhaps he both would have never become the superstar he became, but he might also have not been such a strange and twisted individual either. Maybe he would have just been a normal guy, living out his life in Gary, Indiana - being a nobody.
My wife doesn't agree.
She thinks that the sort of treatment (beatings) he would get from his father added no value to his life other than trauma, but I think that there is likely a lot of drive that he had that was there because of that treatment. It seems to me, that a lot of brilliant people tend to have very difficult origin stories with circumstances that they had to overcome in order to achieve what they eventually did. If I remember correctly from something I read some time, a lot of the people who are very successful in some skill, have a parent that drives them hard, and one who supports them.
A pusher and a protector.
It is an interesting observation in today's world, where many parents want to be friends with their kids, but also want what is best for them. But if what is best for them isn't a parent who is a friend and instead someone who challenges them to be better, to push harder, to improve themselves, than the parent is actually a hurdle to the child's growth.
The parent is not what is best for the child.
And no, success isn't just fame and fortune, because it can encompass many different kinds of situations and skillsets. But the thing with learning any skill is that no one can learn it for another person. A parent can't learn for the child, and a child can't learn if they are constantly sheltered from the experiences they need n order to learn.
As I was saying to the family that were here the other day, learning to be brilliant at something isn't fun. Learning a skill to begin with can be fun and it can get a person up to an okay level, but to be brilliant takes dedication to repetition and often discomfort, pain, boredom, and an acceptance of very slow progress. Because the better we get at something, the harder it becomes to get better again. At some point, no matter how hard one trains, the improvement is miniscule.
And maybe to be able to push through into brilliance takes a certain kind of person with a mindset that allows for it. And maybe, while some might be born with that innately, perhaps difficult childhood experiences and people who get pushed hard are able to get into that same frame needed to keep on training, practicing, learning and overcoming day after day. Staying safe and protected by the parents, might run counter to developing certain kinds of brilliance.
While I don't think beating children is the way to develop high-level skillsets in most people, hardship can sew the seeds for growth. But, that same hardship can also generate a host of other reactive conditions, which might be the case for many of the brilliant people who excel in one or two areas, but fail hard in others. Michael Jackson might be one of the very public examples of developed brilliance coupled with other broken frameworks that made it difficult for him to navigate his life, especially under the public pressure he faced.
Anyway, this all aside, it was a decent movie and what was interesting was after the movie ended and the credits rolled, no one left the cinema. Everyone stayed until the last song finished and the lights came on. Love or hate the person, it is undeniable that Michael Jackson, despite all the many flaws and problems, was an incredibly talented person and made some brilliant music.
And while the movie was full of music, it only scraped the surface.
Taraz
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I haven't watched it yet, but I think it is very nostalgic to hear those familiar songs while watching. Jaafar bring his uncle's story to life, well done!
It was definitely nostalgic. And I remember some of the events in it from when I was a kid - like the release of the Thriller video clip.
I remember his music from my teenage days, he was really good musician. The weirdness that it all ended in is unfortunate.
I think that a lot of talented people have a skill-disbalance as they focus on a single skill it could become such an obsession that they fail to develop other skills completely.
Also, you are correct environmental challenges are needed to push us to excel at something. I see this a a problem for my children. They basically have everything and there is no desire/drive like what I had or my wife had in the former Soviet Union as it broke apart and we didn't know what the next day will bring...
P.S. I am going to write a post on it as I have not announced it yet, but I completed my dashboard that analyzes Hive weekly authors and results look quite grim... What are your thoughts when you look at this data?
https://seattlea.z5.web.core.windows.net/weekly-authors-dashboard.html
The last five years sure have not been kind to Hive...
We are nose-diving and not just price of Hive wise... This sure is some serious adversity. Is this adversity going to be an opportunity or as themarkymark says it is likely a failed project?
Yeah, this is another side of it. It is a type of autism perhaps.
The lack of challenge that many kids have today is going to cause some issues not too far down the track for us all.
Yep. but I still hold out some hope. Hope only though. Unfortunately the development in the right areas didn't come. Lots of potential, few people able to build something great. Even Splinterlands is faltering badly - and remember that players there used to post also.
However, one thing to remember is that a lot of the authors in the good times, were alts :D
Oh, I know about Splinterlands alts, but I thought alts on Hive were a no-no?
Plenty of alts on hive. Thousands and thousands... Especially when prices up.
I've heard a lot about Michael movie, but I am yet to see it. Looks like a cool experience, I should give it a try as well.
It was decent. Whole family liked it
I don't think hardship or beatings are the only way to help someone succeed. Encouragement and discipline can also bring out the best in a person. I have learned more from people who believed in me than from fear.
Are you wildly successful based on your exceptional skills?
I'm not. Maybe I needed to get beaten more as a kid.
😂Maybe, but I still believe people can become successful with the right guidance, discipline and encouragement without being beaten
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There's probably more good musicians and sports people (and probably other celebrities too and probably even famous) who had perfectly normal backstories that didn't involve beatings and being driven into the ground XP they're much less "interesting" from a storytelling standpoint though as they also tend to be a bit more balanced/grounded/at least somewhere in the realm of "normal".
And while far away from music, I've noticed kind of the opposite in the sport I'm in where difficult childhoods just put up more and more and more barriers for entry. There's a literal handful that I know of that moved to other gyms because they were really good and getting hounded by the state gyms/and/or wanted to be more srs bsns, and a lot more kids that were very talented and would have done really well that dropped out because of lack of money or inability to reliably get there or whatever.
I remember listening to a bit of MJ growing up, we had some best of album (or something, there were 4 cds in it from memory) that got played a lot. When this movie came out some songs appeared on Youngest's playlist including one where I recognised his voice but not the song (because I'm not a dedicated fan I haven't heard every single song). I'd say we haven't seen it yet but I don't know if we will given that we almost never go to the cinema XD I only ever go when sibling dearest is up on holiday and drags me because she enjoys her movie experiences (and the tub of popcorn as big as her head).
Glad you enjoyed it, sounds like there were a lot of people there that would have been happily nostalgic :)
Maybe, but often even the people I know personally who are great at something, had an "above average" amount of hardship in their early lives. The extremes get the attention of course, but I think there is something to it.
For sure. This is what happened to me as a kid with hockey, where I couldn't reliably get there. However, perhaps if I was going to be great, I would have found a way?
"Best of" pretty crazy, eh?
I get those sideways looks because I eat all the popcorn. But last night, I didn't have any candy!
Yeah, It seemed like people felt good after the film, which is interesting considering we mostly know what happened for the next twenty years after it ended.
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It seems that my dreams are getting a beating as well... Despite low prices Hive is still awesome. But some assholes keeps trying to destroy it (and other less interesting coins like bitcoin...). It is weird. We have a tool that could perhaps even save this world or at least greatly improve it. And yet people are doing their best to destroy that tool instead of using it...Stupid, stupid humans. Do you think that binance will get that license in some other country and things will go back to normal? And how soon can this happen? I would also ask if this will have a negative effect on Hive price...
But at the moment price is so low that it probably doesn't even matter anyway...The history of the world and we are only getting stupider. It seems that natural selection and evolution have failed us.
I have no idea on Binance....
I remember when Thriller came out. All the well to do kids had jackets like him. Break dancing was all the craze. Everyone was moon walking. It was nuts.
As far as the theory about the asshole parent and supportive parent. I think there may be something to that. I mean, although my father was a deadbeat dad and never around, it was a driving force for me to be better. To not be like his worthless drunk ass. I had a very supportive mother and uncles who kept me steered right until I was old enough to get out on my own. But like you said, there is some baggage that comes with that too. Some of it I still carry. But most has been dealt with. Some spilt over onto my oldest son when I was younger, regretfully. We have talked about it and think we have worked through it. We talk almost daily and have a great relationship now. He has also turned out well and is a DC. So this asshole did his job I guess.
I watched Thriller released and I was about three! I remember the evening still, and being able to stay up late.
And this is probably some of the issue with a lot of the stars. They have that baggage, and then means and access to all kinds of "coping strategies" to deal with it.
It is enough, isn't it? I wonder if there is such a thing as a perfect parent who does no damage.
Not sure if there is a perfect parent. We try the best with the tools we have. At least the good ones do I guess.
Trauma is definitely generational. My wife and I really liked the movie. It was sad to see just how lonely he was despite being surrounded by so many people. My friend said that while the movie was good, he had to temper his judgement after watching the Netflix documentary about the later accusations. Apparently if even a fraction of it is true, it is quite disturbing.
My youngest watched the movie twice. She was impressed and gained an appreciation for Jackson's music. Based on her telling of the movie, the talent made more of an impression than the hardship.
One summer, I worked as a preschool teacher for the children of migrant workers. Part of that required doing periodic home visits. Although it shouldn't be, it was surprising to see that the children were carbon copies of their parents. Rough cut parents had rough cut children. And the most loving and supportive parents had the children most loved by the staff. I can't explain it. I just witnessed it.
But that doesn't mean that we're doomed to be our parents. There are plenty of examples of people who had rough childhoods, yet they became shining examples of humanity. I think we are largely shaped by our environments, but there is still something intrinsic, or lacking, that allows some individuals to excel despite their circumstances.
I've heard that hardship builds character. It's implied that hardship builds good character. But I'm sure we all know people for whom hardship brought out the worst. Perhaps it has to do with the support and guidance the person has during the hard times to avoid wallowing in bitterness.