An insightful and important essay. At issue is what the eminent Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura called "moral disengagement," which explains how people can persuade themselves they're doing good when in fact their conduct is bad or evil. Your essay thoroughly debunks David Brooks's recent NY Times column "The Epstein Scandal? Count Me Out." Brooks claims we have much more important things to talk about than Epstein. But Brooks overlooks the fact that the Epstein Class is a major contributor to the very problems that Brooks says are more important.
We need a better word for that class of people. “Elite” connotes a class, an upper class and the United States has a foundational document promoting equality. That obviously remains unfulfilled, aspirational but we shouldn’t embed a class structure based on wealth by way of language.
I believe Ruth Ben-Ghiat described oligarchs/authoritarians as “the unaccountable.” And that’s what Anan’s NYT piece describes: people wholly unaccountable to the community, the common good.
Unaccountable to the rest of us, but they have an exclusive club where they are accountable to the maintenance of their specialness. This essay really unveils that club and their motives.
I am so proud of The Ink and the insights it offers. Your essay weaved together many important strands on HOW and WHY these connections, seemingly disparate, are integrated at the core of our current society. Money and power and a desperate attempt to always be relevant. Sunlight/exposure may help to bring “shame” back into our discourse. The survivors are the heroes of this unfolding narrative.
Anand, you've written a clarion call about moral accountability in our time--illuminating and important. For me your piece explained the curious boringness of the Epstein emails that I've seen excerpted, and the human greed that arrays these powerful people around a set of practices that they feel entitled to indulge in at the expense of fellow citizens. It's moral rot at epic scale. @Teresa Baustian is right that we need another label for them--they're a new kind of kleptocracy.
This article puts it all together and serves to answer many of the questions I have had as to what drew the members of the elite to Jeffrey Epstein, a pedophile who is at the nexus of their world.
Anand, you’re both thoughtful and a very fine writer, so needed today. When “Me Too” lifted off, there was immediate pushback, “why are you troubling these important men?” It was a train leaving the station, so slow at first but gathering momentum. And thank God so many women spoke up. And now we have that again. It was the Epstein survivors who turned the tables. As much as there is public interest in the involvement of a few key prominent figures, let us focus on the survivors, the victims, and bring them the transparency and accountability they deserve. And encourage more survivors to come forward. And the chips will fall where they may.
We all play a bit of this game of sharing something we just learned with specific others. The key to the Epstein class is their moral indifference and their disassociation from any community of place. There are no patriots here; or loyalists either. A network of Benedict Arnolds busy, busy advancing their own pitiful interests is a sick game played by hollow men who traffic in morsels of whatever, wherever, whenever.
Brilliant and powerful. Hopefully your impact will add to the momentum of the efforts of “survivors” to catalyze needed transformations for how we share responsibility for all lives on this planet.
I took the time to read the NYT piece and found the reporting and analysis top notch. While the gaggle of people surrounding Epstein don’t qualify as a legal “conspiracy,” their behavior and the consequences of their collective indifference to Epstein’s predation make it a moral conspiracy, and that’s perhaps even more pernicious and dangerous. Throw the rascals out!
An insightful and important essay. At issue is what the eminent Stanford psychologist Albert Bandura called "moral disengagement," which explains how people can persuade themselves they're doing good when in fact their conduct is bad or evil. Your essay thoroughly debunks David Brooks's recent NY Times column "The Epstein Scandal? Count Me Out." Brooks claims we have much more important things to talk about than Epstein. But Brooks overlooks the fact that the Epstein Class is a major contributor to the very problems that Brooks says are more important.
Exactly my first thought: David Brooks should read this and recant last week’s drivel.
This is one of the best pieces ever written by Anand. Clarifies so much about our society and why we feel these impenetrable walls.
We need a better word for that class of people. “Elite” connotes a class, an upper class and the United States has a foundational document promoting equality. That obviously remains unfulfilled, aspirational but we shouldn’t embed a class structure based on wealth by way of language.
I believe Ruth Ben-Ghiat described oligarchs/authoritarians as “the unaccountable.” And that’s what Anan’s NYT piece describes: people wholly unaccountable to the community, the common good.
Unaccountable to the rest of us, but they have an exclusive club where they are accountable to the maintenance of their specialness. This essay really unveils that club and their motives.
I am so proud of The Ink and the insights it offers. Your essay weaved together many important strands on HOW and WHY these connections, seemingly disparate, are integrated at the core of our current society. Money and power and a desperate attempt to always be relevant. Sunlight/exposure may help to bring “shame” back into our discourse. The survivors are the heroes of this unfolding narrative.
Anand, you've written a clarion call about moral accountability in our time--illuminating and important. For me your piece explained the curious boringness of the Epstein emails that I've seen excerpted, and the human greed that arrays these powerful people around a set of practices that they feel entitled to indulge in at the expense of fellow citizens. It's moral rot at epic scale. @Teresa Baustian is right that we need another label for them--they're a new kind of kleptocracy.
This was an absolutely terrific analysis of the workings of the elite and the writing was, as usual, superb.
This article puts it all together and serves to answer many of the questions I have had as to what drew the members of the elite to Jeffrey Epstein, a pedophile who is at the nexus of their world.
Anand, you’re both thoughtful and a very fine writer, so needed today. When “Me Too” lifted off, there was immediate pushback, “why are you troubling these important men?” It was a train leaving the station, so slow at first but gathering momentum. And thank God so many women spoke up. And now we have that again. It was the Epstein survivors who turned the tables. As much as there is public interest in the involvement of a few key prominent figures, let us focus on the survivors, the victims, and bring them the transparency and accountability they deserve. And encourage more survivors to come forward. And the chips will fall where they may.
We all play a bit of this game of sharing something we just learned with specific others. The key to the Epstein class is their moral indifference and their disassociation from any community of place. There are no patriots here; or loyalists either. A network of Benedict Arnolds busy, busy advancing their own pitiful interests is a sick game played by hollow men who traffic in morsels of whatever, wherever, whenever.
Wow, just wow! Brilliant writing explaining the incomprehensible so clearly. Thank you.
Brilliant and powerful. Hopefully your impact will add to the momentum of the efforts of “survivors” to catalyze needed transformations for how we share responsibility for all lives on this planet.
Anand…wow. Thank you for this work.
Wow what we all suspected but never thought we'd actually know. Thank you for putting all together. Please keep doing the good work!
Thank you for this and for your clarity of conversation and thought and writing!
Brilliant and important! Thank you for doing it. These emails are the exact opposite of the new novel by Susan Straight, Sacrament. I recommend it.
I took the time to read the NYT piece and found the reporting and analysis top notch. While the gaggle of people surrounding Epstein don’t qualify as a legal “conspiracy,” their behavior and the consequences of their collective indifference to Epstein’s predation make it a moral conspiracy, and that’s perhaps even more pernicious and dangerous. Throw the rascals out!