The Epstein files are only the latest instance. The names may be new, but the pattern is ancient: powerful and rich men caught using their power and money for exploitation and gratification. The scandals will continue. New files will get leaked. The cycle of shock and forgetting will repeat itself faithfully. But none of it will repair the species. The species is defective. That is the honest starting point. Whether you remain so is no longer the species' question. It is yours alone.
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Originally published in The Pioneer on 14 feb '26
Every few years, a similar pattern keeps repeating. A set of names tumbles into public view, and the world performs its ritual of shock. Court records are unsealed, testimonies surface, networks are exposed, photographs emerge, and for a few weeks, it seems as though something that nobody knew has been shockingly revealed. Media commentators express disbelief, the public gasps, social media fills with denunciation, and there are demonstrations on the streets.
And then, quietly, the cycle completes itself: the names are absorbed into the archives, the outrage fades, and many of those condemned reappear on public stages within months, sometimes even welcomed back with applause. Harvey Weinstein's conviction was partially overturned on procedural grounds; the system that punishes also provides the escape routes.
