Bill Cosby is out of prison, but Britney Spears is still captive.
Once the titan of comedy, Cosby has just been released from prison because a judge threw out his three-year-old conviction on due process grounds. It may be the case that the ruling is correct, while the substance of the original judgment — Mr. Cosby’s guilt for aggravated indecent assault — remains sound. Sometimes the guilty go free.
The “Princess of Pop,” on the other hand, has not been released from her confinement.
After a series of hit singles and albums, and a wild phase in the mid-2000s, Ms. Spears was placed under a conservatorship. Though worth tens of millions, she was given a $2000 per week allowance, forbidden to marry or take out her birth control device, and forced to work under the direction of her father and managers.
She may be the world’s richest slave.
Conservatorships are designed to protect the health, welfare and rights of incompetent people. Ms. Spears has every appearance of being ultra-competent musically, but is undoubtedly deficient in other areas. As are we all. After her father suffered a severe illness a few years ago, she had a breakdown. But reports now say she has been trying to end her decade-plus conservatorship for even longer.
Some of her public statements indicate that she has been gaslit and traumatized by people she loved. “I’ve lied and told the whole world I’m okay and I’m happy,” she has testified in court.
“I’m scared of people. I don’t trust people with what I’ve been through. . . .”
Without pretending to understand the legal mess, I side with Britney: “It’s not okay to force me to do anything I don’t want to do.”
Exactly. Slavery is not okay.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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