I’ve avoided mention of the Epstein uproar because I dislike bathing in raw sewage. I’m a priss in that respect. The vision of overripe self-pleased rich guys sweettalking and then slobbering over underaged girl coats me with a disgust not easily rinsed off. Neither do I step in dogshit if I can avoid it. (“If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to,” zinged Dorothy Parker.)

That said, Homo sum humani nihil a me alienum puto, as Terrence put it – “I’m human so I consider nothing human alien to me” – however alienating! – so here goes.

The flaunting, gloating, sneering, condescending swagger of today’s conspicuously rich (Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, the Trumps, many of the Silicon Valley bros) suffuses me with confusion and despair for our species. If this is what good fortune makes of humans, spare me! Shouldn’t our conduct be mollified by good luck? Shouldn’t winners be moved to succor those in need and not sucker-punch them? Shouldn’t those with extra seek to share?

Mind you, there are gracious, generous plutocrats, who live modestly, do right, and give back. All are not vile. But so many are, the conspicuous especially, who grab headlines as well as pussies. (I’m just quoting our supreme leader – don’t blame me!) What sickening examples to young folks straining upward!

I’m all in favor of any weapon that lames the Nameless One. He is raping my beloved nation, not just pretty pubescents. I pray daily for God to arrest Him, but God is evidently on break. May the suppressed Epstein files be the gift that keeps giving.

My deeper, more haunting horror is, What’s wrong with us? Are there no human values obvious to anyone with eyes? Oughtn’t we strive toward Truth, Justice, Fairness, Decency, Civility, Beauty, Grace? Oughtn’t we yearn to be better neighbors, kinder kin? We might legitimately engage in certain moral debates – about abortion, say, or capital punishment, or pacifism, or vegetarianism – but about the core definition of Goodness can there be any doubt? Is the Golden Rule optional, the Sermon on the Mount a joke?

Can anyone argue that enticing and embracing underage girls is morally permissible? All the jolly gents on Epstein’s list knew better. What’s their excuse? They were just being naughty? Everybody does it? The girls were eager? Their success entitled them? I’m no ranting Puritan here. I’m all for pleasure. But isn’t decency a prerequisite for community? Abuse and amuse aren’t synonyms, are they?

Epstein is a posterchild for America’s moral meltdown. So’s his pal, the Nameless One. They mock the conventional norms of millennia, and their gleeful supporters give them a pass. Lying? Theft? Child abuse? Incivility? Boasting? Thuggery? No problem! Only wimps abstain. Only suckers die for a cause.

I can theorize what precipitated our moral collapse – capitalism, prosperity, peace, arrogance, misleadership, consumerism, the Internet, popular entertainment, and overconfidence all played a part – but truly I’m flummoxed. How came we here! I fumble in modernity dazed and blind. Can it be we’ve forgotten what it means to be good?

My innocence embarrasses me. I feel like a relic of a saner hour, Rip van Winkle awakening from his long nap. I see what we must do now – fight and win this civil war – but not how to repair our souls. Perhaps humanity must be annihilated before we’re reborn. Maybe only terror will drive us to reform.

Of this I’m sure: we must speak our minds – loudly – as long as we’re permitted. We must rage – and commiserate – and encourage – that we are not alone.