ONE of the most bizarre revelations from the Epstein files is the recording of an interview that the strategist Steve Bannon conducted with the disgraced financier, apparently in an attempt to redeem Epstein’s reputation. Mr Bannon asked him, “Do you think you are the devil himself?” to which Epstein gave the enigmatic reply, “No, but I have a good mirror.”
Whatever Epstein meant by that, it suggests that he had a degree of self-knowledge. He had, as many have testified, an uncanny ability to read and exploit others. He wreaked havoc on politicians, entrepreneurs, and public figures, not to mention the innocent girls whom he trafficked and handed on with the help of his willing accomplice and partner, Ghislaine Maxwell. Lord Mandelson, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, and Sarah Ferguson are only three of the many now ruined beneficiaries of his largesse and contact book.
While Epstein worked his corruption by phone and email, the public figures who pursued introductions to him and continued contact with him even after his initial conviction were hardly blameless. Most were driven by their own need and greed, whether for immediate cash, success, fame, others’ admiration, long-term wealth and a glamorous lifestyle, sex without inhibition or restraint, or, above all, perhaps, a sense of invincibility.
As we approach Lent, it is worth reminding ourselves of how devious our desires can be. The Christian tradition of the “deadly sins” usually include pride as the primal and generative sin, followed by vainglory, anger, avarice, gluttony, lust, and envy, with some lists adding sloth.
The Epstein revelations remind me more of the insights of the French philosopher and anthropologist René Girard. He proposed that the root of our moral disorder was not pride, but envy. We want what others have, not so much for the things themselves, but simply because others have them.
This makes sense to me. Epstein understood the darker cravings of the human heart. Introductions to the powerful, the paying off of unmanageable debts, seductive “massages”, the thrill of forbidden sex, glamour, and fame — Epstein provided it all. Faust-like, his moral compass was “what you will”.
Nothing speaks more of the retreat of Christian values from public life in the Western world than what is revealed by the Epstein files. I have sometimes spent Lent reflecting on the deadly sins — I own up in particular to gluttony, sloth, and anger — while wondering a bit about avarice and whether I am past it (probably not) for serious lust.
But, if envy is the first and primal sin, it explains why the fruit of the tree was so irresistible to Adam: it conveyed the godlike power of the knowledge of good and evil. If envy is indeed the primal sin, it is time to remember our baptism and how we once renounced the world, the flesh, and the devil himself, however attractive his offer.
