The banality of Epstein

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Finding nothing there …

The popular image of Jeffrey Epstein as an evil mastermind can’t stand up to prolonged exposure to the facts of the man’s life.

The emails released by the House Democrats last month reveal a man who hunt-and-pecked his way through half-baked responses to some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. Shoddy defenses of Epstein’s alleged wizardry crumble when confronted with the memos Epstein sent to himself, like “skin as part of brain?” and “fear is pain in the future.”

Outside of the whole “running a sex trafficking ring for the global elite” thing, Epstein was an entirely unremarkable man, and newly released photos from his infamous private island merely underscore that fact.

The photo dump from the House Oversight Committee shows that Epstein furnished much of Little St. James like a short-term rental. Oversized furniture floats mid-room on beige rugs. White and blue walls remind visitors that they’re near the ocean while they stare at liquidated hotel lobby armchairs. Nightstands and tables are misplaced, their woods mismatched. To paraphrase Hannah Arendt, anyone hoping to see Epstein’s evil deeds reflected in a suitably villainous lair will be frustrated to find nothing there.

Epstein files obsessives have to accept that the photos that would most interest them will never be published. Releasing snapshots of Epstein associates committing sex crimes, if such photos do exist at all, would likely be criminal in and of itself. Still, there’s one photo in the recent dump that shocks the senses, piercing through the domestic mundanity of Little St. James like the shrieks in “Zone of Interest.”

It shows a yellow dentist’s chair centered in a cream-colored room with old Halloween masks on the wall. Outside of a sink and some storage, there’s little else in the room. But even this odd non-space feels a bit boring, an intentional attempt to create an unsettling area for the enjoyment of visitors who wanted their deviant tastes flattered. It’s Peter Thiel holding a seminar on the Antichrist. It’s Elon Musk posting the cartoonish gun on his nightstand. It’s the work of a remarkably tedious person, trying to convince the world they possess a twisted, interesting interiority.

Epstein was a dullard who flipped his perversions and seeming closeness with intelligence networks into a self-flattering mythos. He let the world think of him as a minor-trafficking Moriarty, because it made him rich while requiring very little in the way of actual thought or hard work. To quote Arendt directly:

Epstein and his associates were running a pedophilic cabal that ingratiated itself with some high-profile celebrities, politicians and thought leaders. That doesn’t mean they weren’t also a bunch of dull schmucks.

What do you think? Does Epstein’s home looking so unremarkable make him more or less frightening? Does his unremarkable nature mean that another Epstein could spring up from anywhere? Sound off in the comments.

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