This week the news has been filled with headlines such as these: “Trump’s Connection to Epstein much worse than we knew”; “Colombian President Petro Calls US Leaders ‘Clan of Pedophiles”; “White House In Panic Mode As New ‘Smoking Gun’ Emails Link Trump to Epstein”; “Trump Summons Boebert to Situation Room over Epstein”; “New Epstein Files Dump Incriminates Andrew While Epstein says Palace Wanted Giuffre Silenced”; “Statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Returns to D.C. After Newly Launched Emails”; “The Epstein Affair Has Moved from Sleaze to a Crisis for American Democracy Itself”.
It is no wonder. The revelation that a pedophile ring has been alive and well for decades that involved an English prince and an English “madam” who has sucked up to the second in charge at the DOJ and whom the American president has called a “good friend” and apparently ordered moved from a prison to a cushy jail with preferential treatment. And whose star character was a “very good friend” of the president for at least 15 years—why wouldn’t that be headline fodder?
In recent DMs I have shared some of the insights from Chuck Collins’ important book, Burned By Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and Planet. The Epstein news adds a whole chapter to that book: how concentrated wealth and power can get away for years with covering up pedophilia committed by some of the richest and most powerful men in the world.
How powerful men from around the world ruin the lives of girls and young women, driving some to suicide. How they fight like hell from the White House itself (and the situation room there) to see that the truth does not get out. And how their supporters from the power places of Congress and the Republican Party do the same (though that block seems to be splitting over this one issue).
The truth of how many victims, how many girls and young women, were raped by the powerful billionaires of our day is emerging. And how the American president, in Epstein’s words, was “the dog who did not bark” and who surely “knew about the girls.”
And how the truth at hand brought down a prince of England and his ex-wife, and is rattling the very existence of the British monarchy.
These same billionaires are among those who own over 85% of the media in our country. They have bought the Supreme Court and 60% of the politicians in the country. They are the ones who feel they should not have to pay any income taxes, and so manipulate the laws that many do not do so.
They are among those who set the agenda for a dying democracy. They whip up fervor against immigrants and fuel racial strife and class warfare, and cheer the sending of American troops into America’s cities.
And, apparently, they (not all, but too many) consider underage women and girls to be nothing but objects for their sexual satisfaction. And they fight like hell to prevent the facts from being told to the American public.
Do we really want men like these to set the agenda for our media? For our politics? For our schools and children? For our companies and businesses and government and Supreme Court? And make decisions about the future of our planet? About war and peace? About relations with other countries?
Banner Image: Protest sign outside US District Courthouse, Washington DC, October 24th: “Which Pedophiles Would Jesus Protect, Mike?” Photo by Mike Licht on Flickr.
Queries for Contemplation
What lessons are you drawing from these latest revelations about powerful people in very high places involved with and/or covering up a pedophilia ring in America?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
Trump & The MAGA Movement as Anti-Christ
Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul & Society
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
Creation Spirituality: Liberating Gifts for the Peoples of the Earth
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision For a New Generation by Adam Bucko and Matthew Fox
7 thoughts on “Billionaires Behaving Badly & Other Lessons from the Epstein Story”
In his 1927 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Henri Bergson summed up nicely what can be read as the lesson to be drawn from such a pathetic display of moral turpitude in high places: “If the nineteenth century made tremendous progress in mechanical inventions, it too often assumed that these inventions, by the sheer accumulation of their material effects, would raise the moral level of mankind. Increasing experience has proved, on the contrary, that the technological development of a society does not automatically result in the moral perfection of the men living in it, and that an increase in the material means at the disposal of humanity may even present dangers unless it is accompanied by a corresponding spiritual effort. The machines we build, being artificial organs that are added to our natural organs, extend their scope, and thus enlarge the body of humanity. If that body is to be kept entire and its movements regulated, the soul must expand in turn; otherwise its equilibrium will be threatened and grave difficulties will arise, social as well as political, which will reflect on another level the disproportion between the soul of mankind, hardly changed from its original state, and its enormously enlarged body.” https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1927/bergson/speech/
Thank you, Daniel for another link to meaningful reading.
It’s amazing, it has been less than a year.
Great article.
We have to continue having Faith that the Spirit of LOVE WISDOM Truth Peace Justice Healing Transformation Creativity Beauty Joy Compassion… continues growing in the hearts and lives of most of humanity as we evolve together Eternally with Sacred Mother Earth and All spiritual beings of all spiritual dimensions in Our Loving Diverse ONENESS….
The age old problem of powerful men requiring and arranging free access to females purely for sex – i.e. ancient harems, brothels – is now a global front burner issue. Women now have the vote and can go to college and have top positions in every sphere. It is about time that female victims of an outdated patriarchal system are now a major stumbling block for the government of the United States of America…………
Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Utter depravity knows no limits. The spin will be endless. Only Congress can take the appropriate action, and I doubt their will to do so for a number of reasons, including the possibility that some were themselves complicit in some way with the pedophile ring. We shall see what more desperate attempts to cover up will ensure, and a declaration of war both on another country and on our own journalists and other resisters is likely, in my opinion.