Continuing revelations from the Epstein files released in the US are undermining further the already tainted legitimacy of Western elites, political, business/financial, and even intellectual and artistic. They are exposing the immoral, self-aggrandizing, money-and-power-through-contacts approach to life and success of this assorted group of men, united across borders by their apparent belief that the world is there to please them, including sexually. Focus on this latter side of the scandal by the media and apparently the judicial authorities, horrible as it is especially regarding the exploitation of minors, can no longer conceal the systemic dimensions of the whole affair.

This has recently been brought home beyond any doubt by the criminal investigation launched into former UK ambassador and cabinet minister, British Labour heavyweight and member of the House of Lords, and former EU Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, who apparently shared UK government secrets with the American financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. A savvy politician and master communicator / manipulator, senior member of the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown governments, Mandelson, also known under the nickname “Prince of Darkness”, felt he was talking to an equal in Epstein and had no qualms about sharing top secret information in return for the latter’s friendship, cash advances to himself and his partner, and more that the ongoing investigation may reveal.

Despite the Epstein scandal being in the spotlight for years, Epstein’s motivation and his use of the information he collected through his high-level network of “friends” remain unknown. Moreover, unclear still remain for the average citizen the circumstances and resources that allowed Epstein to have access to and be a privileged interlocutor of UK and Norwegian royalty, US presidents and billionaires, politicians from many countries, university presidents, scholars and artists. Shall we believe that he somehow happened to meet all these influential people one by one and there was a mutual “friendship at first sight” reaction in all of these cases?

Many of these VIPs apparently ended up depending on Epstein and his contacts for their political, economic or other advancement, as well as for the arrangement of sexual encounters in some cases. But what about Epstein? Did he enjoy the interaction with the powerful, the rich and the famous, and wanted to keep them happy, or did he primarily want to make money out of the tips that he got from his VIP friends, who controlled or were privy to imminent state decisions or economic announcements? Or was he a mole of the Russian, Israeli and/or other secret service that made the best use of any information that Epstein collected to advance the goals of their respective state or group?

Unfortunately, these questions may never be answered, not only because Epstein committed suicide in prison in 2019 but also because they are not really being asked. There seems to be a primary focus on the prostitution and sexual abuse aspects of the Epstein scandal, rather than challenging the larger paradigm of entitlement, being above the law and controlling the affairs of small people by virtue of belonging to a cabal of ruthless, self-promoting, utterly disrespectful VIPs (the acronym in this case stands for “Very Immoral Persons”).

Hopefully, the Jini is out of the bottle and revelations will keep coming. The obstacles are clear, though, with numerous documents withheld or published heavily redacted for purported reasons of national security, or parallel investigations, or what have you. The tendency will always be for those holding political power or economic or other privileges to be discreet of their own trespasses or those of others in the same or other similar power-glory-money-and-abuse networks, lest they are brought to light and embarrassment leads to resignations, convictions or other forms of fall from grace. Mafias and other criminal networks are known to operate in very similar ways, only that those are bad by definition…

In conclusion, and remaining focused on the big, systemic picture, what is the main lesson a young, aspiring person gets out of all this? Behave morally to avoid future embarrassment and fall from grace, or behave immorally but make sure that you cover your footprints so that you never get caught? Many a clever and ambitious personalities choose the latter and end up in disrepute, even bankruptcy, but the aspiring gods and demigods seem to ignore that. What stays on the minds or is forced down the throats of those watching is the VIPs’ days of glory, no matter how few and superficial those days they may have been, or how disastrously bad they may have ended. Praise nobody before you see their end, but who has patience for that in the era of instant gratification?…

For every Epstein caught many more may rise or continue to operate in the dark VIP world. Let the remaining independent press, transparency advocates, crime fighters and all of us do our part to shed light on the darkness and ensure that morality and legal rules apply equally to all, including ourselves, of course.

Dr. Georgios Kostakos, a former UN Secretariat official, is Executive Director of the Brussels-based Foundation for Global Governance and Sustainability (FOGGS) and a Research Associate of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP).