Our new series, the Epstein Class, unmasks how power works now
This is not about naming names. It’s about understanding an operating system
With great power comes great obscurity.
In an age of historic inequality and democratic erosion, the wealthy and powerful present the public with highly curated images of themselves while arduously concealing their actual machinations. Their weddings and watches and podcast interviews are readily available to us; their working of the levers of power is not. Downstream of these elites, millions simply sense that something is amiss, wonder how decisions are made, and grow alienated from the system. Life feels hard, but it’s even harder to see upstream through the fog and understand why.
This is why the release of millions of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein has become such a global moment. Rarely do we gain access to such an unfiltered view into the private workings of a powerful elite.
But access does not equal understanding.
A data dump is not an explanation. A scandal is not a theory. Meaning does not make itself. And as reporters, influencers, and the endlessly scrolling public sift through the documents, there has been more of the heat of gotcha revelation than the light of genuine understanding.
My new series in The Ink, the Epstein Class, aims to add more light.
This is not just about the naming of names. It’s about making sense of an operating system — one that enabled gross barbarism against so many women and girls, one that influences our lives in so many ways still.
Our goal is not a posthumous trial of one man. It’s explaining a structure — a modern power elite still very much with us — and how it operates here and now. In our first chapter, next week, we will ask what a networked age did to bravery. We will also examine the hidden link between the private transgressions of many powerful men and their policy views. We will see how philanthropy is used as a reputational laundromat. And more.
This project began with my New York Times essay last fall. It gained steam after my recent appearance on “The Ezra Klein Show,” and the flood of responses that followed from all around the world. I have learned to trust that when people hunger to understand something, they are often pointing you in the right way. (And credit to Congressman Ro Khanna for coining the once very, now less controversial term “Epstein Class.”)
Recently, the Hollywood writer-director Judd Apatow said I was wasting my time. In an Instagram reply to me, he wrote:
What is troubling is we are spending all of this time dissecting an old network. The one happening right now between world powers, elites, technocrats, Middle Eastern countries, oil companies, white supremacists and Christian Nationalists and others is in full effect right now.
But, with all due respect to Judd, this is not “an old network.” The same names, institutions, incentives, and relationship architectures remain in place. The party in power may change; the network persists.
To understand the present, we must understand the machinery that produced it.
Our Epstein Class series is here to help.
And now: three small requests.
If you want to read along, sign up to get The Ink delivered to your inbox. And if you believe in this kind of independent journalism, support us as a subscriber today.
And tell us what you want us to dig into by leaving us a comment.
And spread the word by inviting a few other people.
Click on the links below for some background reading and viewing:
The rich data from emails between Epstein and members of this disgraceful network of the very rich provide a unique and rare opportunity to examine their culture and practices in their own words; I found that your NYT OpEd and your interview with EK filled in some gaps in our understanding of this group and am pleased you’re going to continuing your analysis of them; these data are simply not available to social scientists. And while the emails are short, so much can be gleaned from them. Although my own research does not focus on the power elite, as a sociologist Ive long known that the difficulty of obtaining indepth interview as well as micro-level data on the social interactions of the very rich has resulted in a dearth of understanding on what makes them tick, what they value, and what they devalue. As a gender scholar, I’m horrified (though sadly not surprised) at the misogyny echoed in these emails as well as the racism and disregard for kids. I will closely follow your series and applaud your continued examination of these creeps. It takes a certain degree of heartless (and lack of empathy) to get to the top of the class hierarchy and I suppose it’s not surprising how they talk about folks who fall outside their group with so much disdain. Thank you for shedding more light on them.
Keep on keeping on, I thank you and am grateful for your work.