The Epstein Files Are Yet Another Me-Too Moment

According to the NYTimes, just over 200 powerful men had their lives disrupted or totally ruined by the Me-Too movement.

Similarly, very near the same number are said to have visited Epstein’s underage, groomed young girls on his private island. They were certainly powerful men, because the hoi-polloi were not invited. In case you were wondering, that means you and me.

Which brings up an interesting question.

Suppose you and I were invitees?

Suppose Epstein’s personal jet showed up at an airport convenient to us, and lowered the ramp. There was no cost involved (as if that was even a question of the morality), because this was about building Epstein’s international access to men of power, from actors to presidents and royals, with a businessman thrown in here and there.

There was no extortion involved, at least so far as we know, but his access was guaranteed, if only by the implication. Something that heavy-handed would have quickly become known and ruined the game.

Would you or I have walked up that ramp?

I often consider my own morality.

When I read of someone caught with their moral pants around their ankles, I question myself. It’s quite easy to take a knee-jerk response to such revelations. “Can you believe that? The dirty bastard,” slips quickly from the lips.

But, then the ultimate question arises, what is my tipping point? Turning away from money, personal advancement, or sexual favors is a snap decision when they are not on offer.

I’m a writer, with a small audience, and consider myself somewhat of a liberal-leaning centrist on political and societal matters. But suppose greed came-a-calling. What would my price be to write speeches for a demagogue, or promotional materials for a grooming gang? A thousand dollars? Surely not. Ten thousand? Nope. A million?

Hmmm.

Would I be exposed as the author? Are prison sentences or life-threatening circumstances involved? In other words, is any personal risk of exposure or bodily harm involved? If the answer is ‘no,’ I blush to say I might give it some serious thought.

But, getting back to Epstein’s island, would I write promotional material for his business interests in exchange for a chance to walk up that ramp?

Not really. Hob-nobbing with people I don’t respect doesn’t happen to be my thing, and I can’t quite see myself striking up a conversation with the rich and famous around the pool.

Yet, exactly like those caught up in the Me-Too aftermath, a lot of personal, business and political lives are going to be absolutely destroyed by their participation. And I applaud that, but it partly misses the point.

What I believe we are really trying (or tried) to do in both Me-Too and Epstein is to change behavior.

Unfortunately, in both cases, specific men’s behavior.

And much to the point, the carrot in each case was sexual. The male species seems to be (and apparently is) a sexual predator, often caught with his pants around his ankles. The male species of most mammals of the world don’t have pants to drop around their ankles. But they are sexual predators as well, it’s Darwinian, and only social pressures control it in humans, too often not very well.

So, how do we most effectively solve a species thing by social methods?

It seems to me that shaming probably works best, and is less costly than crushing reputations. When I say ‘less costly,’ if Einstein and his like were in the crosshairs, would we eagerly give them up? But, with the rich and famous, we take some delight in tearingup their reputations and watching them float away in the breeze.

A case can be made that there are probably many exposed Me-Too criminals who would have changed their ways had they known that exposure was on the table and about to be administered.

I make the case. I do not particularly defend it, but I make the case.

With Epstein, the case of exposure would have had to be made personally. “Get those underage girls off the island, and keep them off, or you will be exposed.” As we seek equality between the sexes, the Hugh Heffner Playboy days are well behind us.

The first apple has already fallen from the Epstein tree.

Larry Summers, the former US Treasury Secretary, and onetime Harvard President, has publicly confessed his personal shame, and will stop teaching, and is stepping back as well as Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School.

He’s a pretty big apple, and there will be more. Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, as well as our current president, along with dozens (if not hundreds) of prominent businessmen are said to be involved.

Politically, we have apparently, and finally, achieved true bi-partisanship.

Me-Too was mostly media.

The Epstein emails expose a far wider and more powerful variety of miscreants.

The rich and powerful that Epstein targeted so easily, may survive, but less rich and far less powerful. That’s okay with me.