Jeffrey Epstein’s files and their release – even if truncated and late – will go down in history as the revelation of the role of elites in the decadence of contemporary society. In one of the most consulted dictionaries of the Portuguese language, the word “elite” has the following meaning: “social minority that considers itself prestigious and, therefore, holds some power and influence.” But in fact they are often the opposite.
This elite, made up of politicians, business tycoons and large technology companies, artists and academics, encompasses people of all partisan and ideological positions, nationalities and religions. What they have in common is power. Political, financial, social, academic power. Elites, instead of representing what is best in society, are, in fact, agents of moral and ethical decadence and the exploitation of the weakest by the strongest.
For the construction of a decent, fair and cohesive society, it would be very important for these revelations to have the consequences due to their seriousness, at the judicial, political, social level and in public and published opinion. In the USA, firstly, but not only. Unfortunately, I have little hope that this will happen. The main consequence of privilege is, precisely, impunity and never being held responsible for one’s actions.
Amid all the thousands of perverse and abject facts disclosed, the women raped and abused as girls and teenagers began to be diluted among the merchandise exchanged. Epstein trafficked money, influence, information, favors… and underage, socially vulnerable girls from disadvantaged families. But these women are not merchandise. They are people, with names, with feelings and with a life that will never again be the one they were entitled to and that was stolen from them in a criminal way.
Since the 2000s, the first allegations emerged, but only much later, in 2019, did they have criminal consequences for Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, but it is necessary to continue investigating everyone else involved. And it is necessary to compensate the victims, even if what was done to them is completely impossible to erase or even mitigate. If today we begin to know what happened, it is because dozens of women, so many times revictimized by the system that agreed with the abuse they were subjected to, had the courage to speak out.
The arrest of Andrew Windsor, even though the reason is the alleged sharing of official documents and not the alleged rape of Virginia Giuffre (who stated in an interview with Guardian that he thought he had the “birth right” to have sex with her) is a start.
The involvement and tolerance that many – including people we all admired, like Noam Chomsky – demonstrated in the face of the “pyramid molestation scheme” (as the victims’ lawyer called it) set up by Epstein is symptomatic of the fact that violence against women, especially the most disadvantaged, is still not taken seriously enough in our society.
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