The Evil that Men Do

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

-Antony's speech in Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Strange, but I think that may be one occasion where Shakespeare may have been guilty of a generalization. I think that is true for kings and dictators, but hardly so for martyrs, artists and writers. In fact, it seems that quite the opposite is true for these people.

When you think about it you'd realise that we'd much rather sing eulogies to dead famous authors than famous authors still alive. So also for artists, and by that I mean entertainers of any kind.

Many of my friends would rather be caught dead than listening to pop. Imagine what it'd do to their rebel image - the tattooed - where - the - sun - doesn't - shine - body - pierced - kinda brand cool or the gun - toting - gansta - rapper kinda brand cool, all carefully imported in Chinese made retail packages with American designer labels complete with sticky tag-lines.

Strange it seems then that Micheal Jackson has posthumously won everybody's respect (even my friends), the deprivation of which drove him to death. For some reason, all the purported evil he was charged with now seem irrelevant to all of us (including myself) who once railed at this alleged child molester.

If this is the evil that he left behind, you should admit it sounds amazing.