Moyse: Epstein, Dartmouth and Banal Immorality

There’s an allure to the Epstein files that I just can’t let go of, and I’m clearly not alone. They’re special because they finally give millions of Americans a concrete stack of papers they can point to that confirms all of their suspicions. The papers provide a dramatic, horrifying narrative and a one-dimensionally evil individual who proves that the elite culture and “the system” is completely rotten, and also that this rot is routinely and purposefully hidden from the public eye. 

Although I’ve certainly read and been entertained by online speculation, I’m wary of buying into any of the conspiracy theories about what else has been hidden from us. I come down in the middle. Is the government’s story and supposed “transparency” 100% legitimate? Almost certainly not. But was Jeffery Epstein a Mossad agent, or a baby cannibal? Almost definitely not either. In fact, I’m almost positive that the story here is far more mundane than the majority of us wish. I know this because the social system and goings on at Dartmouth are simply another microcosm of what allowed Epstein to stay powerful for so long.

When you’re at Dartmouth, you’re shielded from the outside world and mountains of potential liability for your actions. Safety and Security walks through Dartmouth parties so the actual police don’t come and get anyone in trouble. The Title IX office frequently handles cases of sexual harassment and assault, while any real authorities remain on the sidelines. In fact, Dartmouth’s Greek system operates as a sort of autonomous lawless zone where crimes such as underage drinking, drug use, hazing and sexual and physical assault are ignored, tolerated or lessened. 

This can often be a positive, allowing young adults to make mistakes without disproportional consequences, but it is also a product of immense institutional privilege. It expands the window of acceptable behavior for legions of young people, while still letting them move on with their lives and pursue elite careers as leaders of our country and the world. Very few people are given this much leeway, and I’d confidently argue that much of the behavior tolerated on this campus would get its perpetrators in serious legal trouble elsewhere.

I’m not arguing that young people shouldn’t be young. I’m an active participant in this system, and I enjoy it very much. I’m simply pointing out that the privileges afforded to Epstein because of his wealth and status are not completely foreign to us as students at elite institutions. In fact, Epstein’s financial success story is a uniquely Dartmouth one, minus the education. Landing a job at an elite Wall Street firm and then leveraging connections to attain fantastic levels of wealth. A conspiracy theory might explain this pattern with something more nefarious, but Occam’s razor reminds us that his story is far more mundane. Far more familiar. 

I’m not suggesting that we are surrounded by future sexual predators. But it’s easy to imagine that the lessons we learn at Dartmouth about turning a blind eye to legally and morally questionable things could translate into more nefarious future actions. Perhaps the Epstein files teach us that this neglect is the bread and butter of being an elite — that not thinking too hard about the system one operates in and the people one must work with is a prerequisite for amassing immense wealth in our society.

I really wish that we could parse through the Epstein files, prosecute the clearly guilty parties, and proclaim our society even marginally redeemed. But the answer, as more frequently than not, is structural. The core story is not of an evil man who committed evil deeds, but of the thousands and thousands of people who accepted his immense power and money as acceptable absolution for his crimes and stuck by him. 

The ability to accept and neglect these misdeeds is not preternatural, and is in fact antithetical to any normal moral instincts. It is banally and incrementally conditioned into elites, including everyone at Dartmouth, when we face lesser consequences for misdeeds than everyone else. 

The solution, like its problem, is structural and seemingly impossible. Disentangling the reverse correlation between wealth and consequences is fundamentally impossible in a country that prizes wealth so purely and multidimensionally. That much is already clear in the case of the Epstein files, where zero new criminal convictions have been handed down, even as many have been exposed for actively lying about their connection to the pedophile. 

So let this serve as a helpful reminder. The same societal function that kept Epstein safe keeps you safe every day. The difference is that most of us haven’t been caught yet.

Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.