Epstein, the price of power
It is highly recommended that you read journalistic work What Albert Llimós and Cesc Maideu have done in this newspaper with Epstein's files: they have immersed themselves in the magma of power, pimping, sexual obsessions, money, and international connections and brought order to it. This allows us to grasp not only the magnitude but also the significance of an empire of filth like the one Jeffrey Epstein ruled with an iron fist in a velvet glove. Epstein and his grateful subjects, rich and powerful people on both sides of the Atlantic, never tired of praising and thanking Epstein for everything he gave them. "I miss you," "We love you very much," "You are a very important part of my life," and other similar expressions are common in the emails Epstein received from them. VIPs from all over the world who had grown accustomed to her services. From banking and fashion magnates to princesses of European monarchies, as well as the wives of Woody Allen and the linguist and intellectual Noam Chomsky.
Chomsky is a leading figure on the global left, someone almost everyone has cited at some point in their lives as an authority. Intellectual authority (as a linguist, he's a pillar of generative grammar) but also moral authority. The idea of Chomsky associating with a rat like Epstein, readily accepting his flattery and gifts, and even thanking him for them, is objectively distasteful. Something similar happens with Woody Allen, a filmmaker who has directed a multitude of excellent films ("masterpiece" is an absurd expression, but some of Allen's films come very close to what it means) and who, moreover, has been a saint of progressive devotion. Although his appearance in Epstein's files isn't so surprising, because Allen has long challenged the notion of separating the artist from the person.
The Epstein files, as Llimós and Maideu point out, don't just reveal the story of a pimp who sold sex with underage girls to wealthy men around the world. It is also, as they write, "a story of money and politics, and, above all, of power." They continue: "Epstein used sex to obtain favors and influence. But also to obtain information and increase his fortune." It was a disgusting pact: in exchange for eternal youth (that of the victims), Epstein acquired the souls of his clients, whom he treated as friends. Everyone knew this was a deception, but they readily agreed. The fantasy of forbidden pleasure, of gazing into evil, or even of staying for a good while, and doing so with complete impunity, outweighed all the precautions and safeguards that could be applied to these powerful figures. If we cross-reference the reading of the Epstein files with the Decline and fall of the Roman EmpireGibbon's work reveals the evidence that, as far as the human condition is concerned, progress does not exist. The Roman patricians and caesars, and their depravities, warn us of more than one thing: the decline of empires, besides being grotesque and deadly, is a long process.