The news media’s nauseating gushing about Michael Jackson’s death is a prime illustration of what is wrong with the cult of celebrity in our declining civilisation. From the family lawyer telling us he has been crying to the effusive ageustia of empty-headed Hollywood entertainment merchants – enough!

Jackson was abused as a child, possibly abused other children, was sufficiently obsessed with his appearance to have repeated operations that transformed his face into a grotesque mask, lived in the type of fantasy world that only an excess of money and ego can provide and was addicted to drugs.

The truly sad thing about Michael Jackson was that he was a victim of the sycophancy that accompanies celebrities, most of whom have characters that are too feeble to cope with it. He is being hailed as a pop icon – an object of uncritical devotion; Mother Teresa may have been closer to deserving this kind of adulation, but her death was largely ignored.

In case anyone is wondering, no, I don’t like his music.