“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

NB: To fully comprehend my own “indignant rant” below, you should read this NY Times Opinion piece along with its Comments.

If you can’t read it, you may watch Anand’s interview on Democracy Now! for free.

Or read two money quotes that I have quoted here:

“What his correspondents tended to share was membership in a distinctly modern elite: a ruling class in which 40,000-foot nomadism, world citizenship and having just landed back from Dubai lend the glow that deep roots once provided.”

“The status games belie a truth, though: These people are on the same team. On air, they might clash. They tout opposite policies. Some in the network profess anguish over what others in the network are doing. But the emails depict a group whose highest commitment is to their own permanence in the class that decides things. When principles conflict with staying in the network, the network wins.

“These are permanent survivors who will profit when things are going this way and then profit again when they turn.”

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In the comment section of the NY Times article, How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails by Anand Giridharadas, I read this comment: “And in the end, Trump may strangely end up being just a bit player in all this, with a far larger problem being exposed”.

That “far larger problem” has finally received it’s name. It is called “the Epstein Class”. That is who and, more importantly, what will be put on trial over the next few weeks.

Perhaps not in a court of law, but certainly in the court of public opinion, where the moniker “the Epstein class“, is enough to separate, classify, and identify these people as the social and cultural pariahs they are. Psychologists will tell you that putting a name to an illness is a crucial step in the treatment of that illness. And let us be clear: There is no doubt that we are plagued by a systemic mental illness, an illness some would call “incentivized narcissism”.

Through their relentless self-interest, their insatiable greed, their bottomless cravings, the Epstein Class is destroying our world. You don’t need a conspiracy theory to explain this. This is what financial crashes are about. This is what climate change is about. This is what immigration is about. All of these issues have logical, realistic solutions that would benefit everyone. Except the Epstein Class.

I have hopes that humans are reaching an evolutionary stage in our cultural development in which we are able, for the first time, to identify the warped psychological types that have been benefiting from the blindness inherent in our system since the beginning of civilization, namely, to identify those sociopaths and narcissists who manipulate the rules of civilization to their personal goals. Let’s call them the Epstein Class. We have a name, now let’s begin to treat it. Let us start by mindfully, collectively, ceasing to reward them.

We must stop rewarding the Epstein Class. Elon Musk is not your friend. Joe Rogan is not your friend. Bill Maher is not your friend. They are manipulating you with “rage bait”, because your indignant click pays their bills. They are merchants of discord. They do not represent you, they do not truly speak for you. They do not have your interests at heart. They are people with psychological disorders rewarded by a system built on a history of ignorance and violence. Stop rewarding them. Don’t Buy It. Don’t click. Unsubscribe. Go outside and play.

But that’s where we always get stuck, isn’t it? What do we do then? How do we replace the Epstein Class with another class worthy to rule us with genuine virtue and wisdom? As history has repeatedly shown us, there is the rub, full stop.

I feel like a Merchant of Discord now, myself. Basta. This is the last angry post of an angry series. Let’s go outside, take some pretty pictures and sing.