While almost everybody except his family and his lawyer is already convinced that he is guilty of child molestation and is ready to throw Michael Jackson into a dungeon full of dangerous felons, I believe that the pop star's troubles can lead to something good. That's right. Even though he is at least creepy and probably degenerate, it is also true that he is such a talented performer that he has reached the highest heights of fame and fortune but is now about to lose everything because of hubris. That's what ancient writers like Aristotle and Sophocles called the arrogance and excessive pride which blinds a person in high places to the fact that the laws of nature and the gods eventually apply to everyone, even the top dogs. Michael is doing us all a favor by reminding us that hubris is just as real and just as deadly today as it was in the time of the ancient Greeks. That lesson is so valuable that we really ought to be thanking Michael Jackson.

None of my readers should make the mistake of thinking that I am excusing Michael or defending him. Like most people I don't even like him because he is obviously creepy and because he is probably guilty of the child molestation charges. That eerie clown-white face so badly damaged by the many plastic surgeries seems just a bit scary to those of us who remember Michael as an absolutely cute African-American kid dancing and singing on the Ed Sullivan show or appearing with the Jackson Five. Even more troubling, however, is the fact that there are disturbing images and admissions -- Michael dangling a child over a balcony railing, Michael admitting to sleeping in the same bed as young boys who visited his Neverland Ranch, Michael's very brief marriage to Elvis Presley's daughter, Michael's 1993 escape from molestation charges by allegedly paying that victim's family about 20 million dollars. Jackson is clearly not an easy guy to like.

The fact is that Michael Jackson is (or was until recently) one of the top dogs. He is (or was) perched on top of a multi-million dollar fortune which he earned by being one of the best popular singers and dancers who ever lived. Just his main residence, Neverland, cost him about 50 million dollars. On his way to visit Elizabeth Taylor recently, he popped into a store on Rodeo Drive and bought her a $10,000 gift of perfume and on another occasion he popped into a jewelry store in Beverly Hills and impulsively bought a two million dollar watch. The bottom line is this: Michael Jackson has earned over 500 million dollars just for performances and record sales during his career. That's over half a billion dollars! His other investments in the entertainment business are at least as valuable as his performing income. Like any tragic hero of old, he has a lot to lose and he is definitely going to lose it. Just like Oedipus or Antigone or Agammemnon in the ancient Greek plays, Michael Jackson is going down fast and hard.

And what is taking him down is hubris. How could Michael be so blind as to miss the fact that even the appearance of child molestation would destroy him? How could he fail to see that admitting to having slept with a twelve-year-old boy would turn millions of people against him? How could he possibly miss out on noticing that even being accused of child molestation as he was in 1993 would lead only to more and worse troubles? And all those questions have the same answer -- hubris. He came to think that he was so special that he was no longer subject to the same laws of nature as other people.

So the creepy but talented Michael Jackson has done us a favor. He has reminded us that we all are really subject to the same laws. In Jackson's case he reminds us that a child molester is especially despised no matter how wealthy or talented the molester is and no matter how convinced the molester is that he has done no wrong. Just as Martha Stewart has destroyed her empire by failing to follow simple rules governing the sale of stocks, just as Richard Nixon threw away the presidency of the U.S. by telling lies about Watergate, and just as Richard Scrushy appears to be headed to prison for his improper handling of HealthSouth's finances -- just as all those folks have sinned by hubris, so too has Michael Jackson sinned. The best we can do is thank him for the reminder.