The Sunday Reed :: The Devils are All Here, and They're In Charge
Epstein's Web Lays Bare Our Institutional Rot
The last thing I want to offer you, loyal Reeders, is one more article in your feed about Jeffrey Epstein or Donald Trump. There are plenty of excellent writers and reporters who are doing yeoman work on this story and have been, in some cases for years, that provide excellent research and analysis.
This latest dump, though, brought home that the political and financial elite of this country - and I’m talking about maybe 200 people in all, are (or were) living lives that would be at home with Caligula. As they go about their trafficking and trysts, the politicians could be sitting next to Nero, fiddling while the country sinks; subsidence the result of of decades of decadence and neglect.
I’m re-reading Tom Holland’s excellent Rubicon, about the end of the Roman Republic. As the final act comes into focus, Holland notes that the Roman elite, Pompey, Caesar, and many others, had locked themselves into a devil’s flywheel: Power begot money, begot power, begot money, and no matter how much of either they attained, it could never be enough.
We can replace famous names of antiquity with Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Larry Summers, Leon Black, Howard Lutnick, and dozens of other members of the Super Elite who now claim they only ‘barely knew’ Jeffrey Epstein, despite thousands of emails, text messages, visits to islands, ranches, and town houses that belie their innocence.
Last night, I watched Children of Men, another fictional story that has one too many reflections of our own reality for my comfort. The world, devoid of children after an infertility epidemic, is dystopian, militarized, and violent but still leaves enough ‘normalcy’ to understand our current state of affairs. During one scene, the protagonist, Theo visits his cousin, a high official. Looking out over smoggy London, Theo asks how his kin deals with what’s happening, “I just don’t think about,” is the response.
Too many of us are in the ‘just don’t think about it’ camp. The same men who paraded around Esptein’s properties are the same who control much of the world’s communications, hold its financial systems in the palm of their hands, and run the most powerful nation on Earth.
What we the people are left with are distractions and extractions. Every waking moment of our days are filled with algorithmic offerings to anger, delight, frighten, and at last, convince us to buy something. If doomscrolling isn’t enough, we have Zyn pouches and unlimited gambling at our fingertips, anything - anything - to keep us in line as Lotus Eaters rather than agents of our own destiny.
Many of those that haven’t ascended to billionaire’s row but still maintain power and authority are more than willing to let Epstein’s reindeer play their games so long as the money and influence keep flowing. What’s another trafficked girl when an eight-figure campaign check comes over the wire?
These same paragons of the Establishment will say, “Are we really still talking about this guy? He’s been dead for years.” Yes, even I, against my wishes, believes we must talk about Epstein and his web of sickness and villainy because it shines such a bright light on just how corrupt, and corrupted, the highest reaches of our nation have become.
Many Americans have shown us their unhappiness: What healthy system elects Donald Trump? Twice? None. What equitable social contract allows for the disparity in power, wealth, status, and well-being that too many Americans are now facing? None. How many more elections must be ‘the most important of our lifetime’ only to see nothing change? None.
MAGA calls our system the “Uniparty.” Those of us who toiled in the political reform space referred to them as the “Duopoly.” We’re describing the same broken infrastructure. Senior Republicans and Democrats alike were friendly with Epstein and took advantage of his ‘hospitality’ and largesse. Any of them named, regardless of the letter behind their name, should be exorcised from public life.
We the People do not care how many degrees you hold, how many companies you took public, what social media networks you control, or that you sit in the Oval Office. Jeffrey Epstein was more than just a child trafficker. He was the canary in the coal mine for an out-of-touch and morally failed elite. If they liked islands so much, they should all go live on one together, and leave the rest of us to pick up the pieces of their transgressions.
I’ll close with this, courtesy of Malte.
Amen. Truer words never written.
Wow RG - One of your best, which is a very high bar.