One of the weirdest things about the Epstein files - and maybe this is just how the ultra-wealthy work - is how much of it consists of him engaging in elaborate back-and-forth email chains with underlings who are arranging things that normal people have no trouble doing themselves with little effort.
Like there are pages and pages of him trying to score tickets to DEFCON, which anyone can get simply by showing up and waiting in a short line.
@mattblaze That's how they earn the big bucks. "60 hour weeks!" - if you include gym time, paid lunches, "networking" while golfing, etc.
I'm worth so much more than you I shan't be waiting in any line sir.
- Epstein, probably
In fact I shan't be waiting around in prison, either.
- Epstein, probably, probably
@mattblaze Signals a kind of atrophying of mind, of agency, making me wonder if they want this decline or even notice it.
@mattblaze I worked for multiple SES's and generals. They are just as bad. They need entire staffs to literally plan and coordinate their entire days, every day. Rule of thumb, the higher their rank the more helpless they are because they do literally nothing for themselves.
@mattblaze in the excellent book "The Status Game", by Wil Stor, I learned how some people are *highly* motivated by status. Much moreso than others (the higher the narcissistic personality trait, the higher the reward juices delivered for scored status in the proximity to others observing, who don't have said status). It's a mark of status, simply *that* one has underlings doing things, even trivial things. It's all an elaborate play at things *to be seen as having*, that others do not.
Doordash, Uber Eats, etc, etc....
@darwinwoodka But using those actually does save time and effort (problems with the gig economy notwithstanding)
@mattblaze
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eh, if you enjoy cold food I guess
@darwinwoodka Every pizza place and Chinese restaurant in NYC used to have its own delivery back in the day. People like prepared food at home, whatever the tradeoffs
@mattblaze Probably why these pampered billionaires expect there to be a mass market for humanoid robots (mechanised slaves). They simply can't conceive that ordinary folks mostly prefer to do things for themselves, and retain their independence and self-sufficiency. 🤷🏻♂️
@mattblaze ...in a line??? WITH THE POORS????
@mattblaze I had a window into how this particular sense of entitlement rolls among privileged white males when the COO of a software company I worked for circa '97 got the heave-ho.
It seems that he knew the CEO had a relative (brother, cousin, I forget) who was high up in a ticketing service provider that shall remain nameless for the purposes of this tale. Our hapless dude tried to use this happenstance connection by emailing the relative and asking for some choice seats at the NBA finals.
Word of this got back to our head honcho and the swipe lanyard was deactivated within the hour. Much rejoicing among the rank and file was the order of the day, which just happened to be Cinco de Mayo.
This was the same guy who wanted to design the new office with a big open plan area where all the female staff would be placed. He called it a "bullpen" and talked about how an exec should be able to walk out of His Office into this space holding a memo, and eager hands would clamor to grab it for typing and circulation.
I should look and see if his name is in the #epsteinFiles
@mattblaze So I have knows some obscenely wealthy people (heck one was a relative) and there are a few things at play here
The biggest is time. They have all the money they need but they cannot make more time so they spend their money to for a lack of a better word "create time" by pawning off everything to underlings. 15 minutes here 10 minutes there and it adds up
I am not excusing it but that is what they are doing
@mattblaze Standing in line & waiting for tickets is only for poor people
that "arrested development" quote that turned into a meme "how much can a banana cost? $10" is a very accurate depiction of the disconnection from everyday life of the ultra rich...
@mattblaze
Not just ultra-wealthy. I’ve seen a similar effect here in Silicon Valley when managers moved from large company to startup/much smaller co with far less supporting infrastructure.
Like, I expected to see lots of stuff with him being evil (and there definitely is), but I wasn't prepared for how utterly *helpless* these people seem to be.
@mattblaze I have found that it's intentional. It creates hierarchy, requires a class of servants, and it's a display that the helpless right people still have power. You have to wipe their butts while they stare at you.
I remember all these people I met back in the day, performatively helpless, often humiliating the people who hold their lives together.
So part of the point of the "old boys network" is to create a system of favors, and to have people perform work for you as a way to indicate their continuing interest in the relationship.
It's a kink thing, sort of. Very d/s coded.
He doesn't want the ticket to defcon itself, even - he wants -that guy- to perform the favor for him, as a way to exert his social leverage; if he didn't have a guy -to- go to defcon to get the ticket on his behalf, he wouldn't have his staff get the ticket either, because the transaction with the social connection is more important.
Of course, a side effect of this is that every crime he committed ended up as a conspiracy with witnesses because he depended on help for everything.
lazy evil does seem to self-document really well. the nazis, nixon, epstein.
i'm not really sure how much is lazy and how much is the feeling of invincibility or entitlement, but whatever. if it winds up making the evidentiary chain more solid when they're finally brought to trial, i'll take it.
Anyway, it reminded me of people I'd see in Manhattan endlessly waiting for a taxi in the driving rain when the subway is RIGHT THERE.
@mattblaze In fairness, my wife doesn't like using the NY subway (but is fine with Tokyo subway). And the stairs in NY give me trouble - they're badly designed and filthy.
But, yeah
I certainly understand using money to save time and effort (I do it myself when I can), but I think it should actually save time and effort.
@mattblaze but what if they're putting effort into feeling powerful? Then ordering people around immediately solves their problem in a temporary hollow fashion...
@mattblaze From personal experience, I can concur. Utterly. Helpless.
@mattblaze There is a level of power and richness where people think they can just say and ask for things and other people will just figure out the details to give it to them. Then it becomes a crutch as they get further and further disconnected from normal life
@virtualbri @mattblaze Ricky Jay was like a petit bourgeoise version of that. When he performed at the theater I worked at, he was like a giant baby. Couldn’t do anything for himself. It was pathetic.
@mattblaze On a side note god help me I love the subway. The people watching is fantastic and the photography possibilities are endless
@mattblaze @ai6yr I think this also speaks to why this class of folks are so drawn to AI -- people are just tools to them, and the AI never says no.
@Unlikelylass @mattblaze @ai6yr I still don't understand how Epstein made hundreds of millions of dollars. He seemed to never work.
@mattblaze The helplessness of the massively over-privileged is something I've heard other people remark on. (I saw a clip from one guy who used to be King Charles' butler, who said he'd once been called in to Charles' office because a letter had fallen off his desk into the trash can and he needed someone to get it out -- not even a "I am beneath this" but rather "I have no idea how to do this": https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLX5-wpzcKE/)
@mattblaze I imagine him feeling "above" waiting in lines, though it is weird he would expend so much time emailing about it.
@mattblaze "I want to delegate and focus on high-value stuff" can easily become "I am helpless without delegation", and suspect sometimes that can be hard to distinguish from the outside-a dozen emails can take less than two minutes total to write if they're curt enough.
I suspect from the inside also hard to know if your delegation is actually saving you as much time as you think it is, since of course the person being delegated to has no incentive to say "I'm pretty sure it would be faster if you just did this yourself".
@mattblaze Epstein was alpha testing AI agent over-reliance using meatspace analogs.
