If you follow the news, you will know it is impossible to avoid hearing about the dead multimillionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. I know I am a little old fashioned but I have a level of zero tolerance to paedophiles, something that does not appear to be shared by some of the folk we might call rich and famous. in 2005, Epstein was being investigated for sexually abusing a 14 year old girl. Investigators identified 36 girls, some as young as 14 years old, whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused. In 2008, he pleaded guilty of procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. A controversial plea deal saw Epstein convicted of just the two crimes but the damage was done. He served 13 months in prison, his friends all forgave him and life went on. I can’t get my head around that.
In my world, paedophiles have by their perverted actions ruled themselves out of normal society. Near where I live – very near, actually – lives a man who long before we arrived in the village committed sexual acts with a minor, or minors. The very sight of him makes me sick and while to the best of my knowledge he has never committed a similar act in the 34 years we have been living here, I have never once spoken to him or even acknowledged his existence. In more recent times, a local man who filmed by vigilantes after attempting to make contact with a child for sexual purposes. No one has seen him since the videos were shared on social media. He is now a pariah and always will be. Normal rules, or normal as I see them, do not seem to apply to the rich and famous.
Despite being a predatory paedophile, Epstein’s company, and more relevant his money, were still in demand by his friends. Discredited royals like the artist known as Prince Andrew and his ghastly ex wife Sarah Ferguson, the disgraced politician Peter Mandelson, the filmmaker Woody Allen, the billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk, Donald Trump, conspiracy theorist Steve Bannon and Ghislaine Maxwell were among the many celebrities who stayed with him. To me, it beggars belief. But by no means could you include me in the category of the rich and famous.
Seemingly, the only ‘ordinary people’ people who were allowed near Epstein were his victims, those young girls and women who were so appallingly exploited by him and his associates. Oddly, it seems there were no poor people, immigrants or trans people living the high life with Epstein. Just the rich and powerful establishment figures who were clearly prepared to overlook his paedophilic preferences in order to benefit their self-aggrandisement. For the very rich, they can never have enough money. And, it appears, their moral compass disintegrates when the opportunity of more self-enrichment comes along.
Clearly, as I have already indicated, there are paedophiles in all levels of life. A paedophile is what he or she is: a filthy pervert attracted to children for sex. We have heard about individuals and so called paedophile rings who have carried out terrible acts. But when we, the Great British Public, get to hear about it, our automatic reaction is not to see how much money we can make out of them. Quite the opposite, in fact.
These are the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Not all of them, obviously, but a considerable number of them, including US presidents, were attracted by Epstein’s and were not repulsed by it.
The establishment and their compliant media like to blame the lower orders, as they regard them, for all the problems of modern society. But the truth is that Epstein, and all his friends and hangers-on, who may be the same people, was a product of a society created by the establishment where, they believed, they could do, and get away with, anything.
The slow drip of the Epstein papers is more than some kind of soap opera, as we might be forgiven for thinking. It’s about incredibly privileged people who have always believed that laws and indeed moral standards apply to someone else, but never them. You, dear reader, might decide to stand by your man, even if he was a predatory paedophile, but I rather doubt you would have read this far if you did.
Lifestyles of the rich and famous, indeed.
