Michael Jackson: Pitiable. Pathetic. Sad.

I really don't want to be fascinated by the Michael Jackson spectacle, but I am. The whole circus if just another example of the sicknesses of our modern society.

I feel sorry for Michael Jackson, I truly do. And that is despite what he may or may not have done with and to the boys who slept in his bed. Now, when I say I feel sorry for him, I am in no way being an apologist for him. But Michael Jackson is, by any standards, a pitiable, pathetic freak. And it's not entirely his fault.

He was robbed of his childhood by an abusive father, and the crushing demands of his profession. He's been sheltered and fawned over all of his life, and was immunized from reality by money and staff. I believe that his view of the world is so filtered through the lens set in place by all of those things, that if most of us were able to see things from his perspective, we'd find it frightening, naive, alien and completely fanciful. Michael Jackson simply has no idea what real people do and think, and how the world operates. And he's 46 years old.

Now, ABC News says he claims he's the victim of a conspiracy:

"...he believes he is just the latest of several 'black luminaries' to be unjustly accused, citing former South African President Nelson Mandela and former heavyweight boxing champions Muhammad Ali and Jack Johnson as others."

He goes on to say:

"I just want to say to fans in every corner of the Earth, every nationality, every race, every language, I love you from the bottom of my heart," Jackson said toward the end of the hourlong interview broadcast live on the Internet.

"I would love your prayers and your goodwill, and please be patient and be with me and believe in me because I am completely, completely innocent. But please know a lot of conspiracy is going on as we speak."

"A lot of conspiracy is going on"??? Does that sound like anyone with any grounding in reality? Michael Jackson is making the same old claims made by everyone else with a hopeless case. One thing they never do, though, is to come up with any cogent reason why anyone would conspire against him. What possible ends could be served through a conspiracy against Michael Jackson?

This is really a personal tragedy made public. We eat it up as if it's just another show, and to many people it is. This will have no long-range effect on anyone other than Jackson and those around him. And when it's all over, we will feed on the carcass of someone else that we have created and thrown away.

And the beat goes on.