The Wisdom of Maternal Instinct
Mothers of my
generation who happened to be in the UK during the 1960s seemed to acquire a
turn of phrase associated with that exposure, which we, their children,
sometimes had trouble understanding. However, with hindsight, many of their
observations were insightful, intuitive, and prescient.
When your mother
said, "This friend of yours is too good for my liking," whilst
she was not commanding you to break the friendship there and then, she expected
you to find ways of extricating yourself from that relationship.
Usually, this meant
bringing new friends into your orbit and having something aspirational within
those friendships against which she could compare you, urging you to do better.
As our parents cannot essentially make our friends for us, they exercise a kind
of judgement on our decision-making in the best interests of our protection,
even if we cannot see why.
The Mirror of
Association
Another saying of
foreboding is, "Show me your friends, and I will show you who you are."
Association becomes a marker for discernment, character, and principle. Choose
and keep the wrong associations, and watch your own reputation go up in flames,
even if you are neither involved nor culpable in the nefarious activities of
your chosen friends.
Moral judgement, a
good conscience, along with a sense of knowing when something is wrong, are
instincts we should all have. Beyond that, we need to be aware of when we begin
to think that status and means provide immunity for impunity, creating an aura of invincibility
bordering on being untouchable. It is the most dangerous cocoon of existence in
which a man can find himself.
It is in this light
that I have wondered how wise counsel deserted men of wealth and power concerning Jeffrey Epstein. Firstly, the evil and wickedness he inflicted on
young, vulnerable women for his pleasure and that of those he corralled into
his circle of influence is unforgivable. Lives were ruined and damaged beyond
any form of redemption. The most public of them, Virginia Giuffre, took her own
life last year.
The Voiceless Victims
For those still
living, I can only hope that they find the love and care to give them not
merely the will to live, but a purpose that can help them craft a better story
regardless of their past. They remain the voiceless in this atrocity, in which
he gave himself the easy exit of suicide rather than be held accountable for
his actions.
His accomplice,
Ghislaine Maxwell, is in prison but hardly languishing in a gulag. She probably
holds a bargaining chip of influence and blackmail that could ease the severity
of the punishment she truly deserves. However, apart from these two principals
in this influential harem of inordinate abuse, almost rivalling the court of
Caligula, no one else has faced the remote prospect of indictment, let alone
prosecution.
A Global Web of
Complicity
The names on Jeffrey
Epstein's Rolodex and roll of shame reach into a global Who's Who of money,
power, royalty, politics, and academia, touching the once respected, revered,
or adored. We have begun to question our own sanity, yet one can only be in awe
of how he networked to create a veneer of respectability over his disreputable
and criminal enterprise. Those involved became inadvertent enablers, and within
that bubble, they were mesmerised into the suspension of disbelief.
The taint of
association has claimed scalps and led to disgrace in many spheres. It started
with a CEO of a global bank losing his job, the marriage of the richest man in
the world for over a decade collapsing, a prince losing his titles and honours,
an ambassador sacked with the prospect of losing his peerage, and today, the
chief of staff to the Prime Minister resigning for just being a friend of a
friend.
That list is not
exhaustive, but it is indicative of how a mother's observation could have saved
the reputations and honour of some who have now become part of Epstein's story.
Heeding the Warning
Signs
It is obvious that we
need to regularly review the kinds of friendships we keep, no matter how
influential, rich, and connected that person might be. I know those people my
mother took exception to; there are two who never became good friends. One of
them became involved in criminality in the UK, such that his history stood
against his ability to practise law there.
Sometimes, I hear my
mother's voice in my head. There are times I hear her in my own speaking, too.
In both cases, I am glad there is that premonition to avoid some people.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are accepted if in context to the blog, polite and hopefully without the use of expletives.
Please, show your name instead of defaulting to Anonymous, it helps to know who is commenting.
Links should only refer to the commenter's profile, not to businesses or promotions, as they will NOT be published.
Thank you for commenting on my blog.