The Epstein Rosetta Stone

It turns out the Epstein files may be the Rosetta Stone of depravity and corruption among the global ruling class.

You probably know what the Rosetta Stone is: a slab of rock dating from 196 BC, inscribed in three scripts—ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, Demotic, and Ancient Greek. Because the text was essentially identical in three languages, it became the key that allowed scholars to decipher hieroglyphs and, in doing so, unlock Egyptian civilization.

What we are now beginning to understand about Jeffrey Epstein is that his story is not merely about a wealthy sex trafficker, serial pedophile, and probable extortionist. It is something far larger.

The Epstein files function as a legend—a map—of global networks of power, personal connection, and influence.

Networks of wealth, power, and privilege are nothing new. In pre-industrial societies they were organized around monarchy, hereditary nobility, land-owning aristocracy, and religious institutions such as the Church. Power was usually exercised within relatively limited geographic boundaries—local or regional, if not national.

The political, social, and economic revolutions of the post-Enlightenment, post-industrial world challenged those rigid and well-defined systems. One measure of modernity’s success was that societies became less formally stratified and access to wealth and power was, at least in theory, open to far more people. Social classes persisted, but mobility became possible.

What we are now realizing—perhaps belatedly—is two things. First, that the modern aristocracy is far wealthier and more powerful than any ruling class in history. And second, that in the age of global capital, the reach and depth of their influence is vastly greater.

The Epstein scandal exposes that, at bottom, they remain much what they always were: entitled, debauched, privileged, selfish, grandiose and above-the-law. Only now they travel by private jet instead of by ship and are more globally interconnected than any elite before it. 

Another unsettling implication of the Epstein material is the degree to which global-interconnectedness of elites fostered national security risks—not only in the United States, but across the world, including the UK, France, Norway, Russia, and farflung geopolitically marginal places like Djibouti.

It is therefore unsurprising that a substantial portion of the roughly six million files remains unreleased—almost certainly the most damaging portion.

Yes, these revelations will inevitably fuel dangerous conspiracy theories about world order, particularly antisemitic ones, and that is deeply regrettable.

More troubling still, for those of us who are not inclined toward conspiratorial thinking, is the further erosion of already-fragile public trust in institutional democracy.

Now that we have the Epstein Rosetta Stone, we can better decipher the networks of transnational elites. What remains unclear is what societies can realistically do about them. In the US, the political impact so far appears quite muted. In the UK, it is more volatile, threatening even the survival of a fragile Labour government. Yet even that would not guarantee meaningful change.

The recent past offers little reassurance. After the 2008 financial crisis, systemic failure was exposed in full view, yet high-level accountability amounted to precisely nothing. Elites have long proven adept at absorbing scandal while preserving the structures that protect their privilege.

The urgency cannot be overstated. Mechanisms of democratic accountability were designed for national institutions, not for transnational elites whose wealth, influence, and loyalties operate beyond borders. Exposure does not equal reform, and transparency does not reliably produce action. The Epstein files may clarify the architecture of power, but clarity alone does not tell us how—or whether—that power can be constrained.