2月7日，英國(guó)《衛(wèi)報(bào)》刊文稱，美國(guó)司法部公布的最新一批杰弗里·愛(ài)潑斯坦相關(guān)文件，再次將西方社會(huì)長(zhǎng)期存在的深層問(wèn)題推到臺(tái)前。

文章認(rèn)為，一方面，在權(quán)力和財(cái)富高度集中的頂層社會(huì)，法律和規(guī)則并不是對(duì)所有人一視同仁。另一方面，愛(ài)潑斯坦并未擔(dān)任任何公職，卻頻繁介入政治、商業(yè)甚至外交事務(wù)的幕后運(yùn)作，這本身就是對(duì)西方現(xiàn)代民主制度的一種諷刺。

The millions of Jeffrey Epstein files dumped by the US Department of Justice will provide journalists, conspiracy theorists and interested members of the public with months of reading. And what they will read is enraging.

The files are an unflattering glimpse into the real ways that wealth is accumulated and power is brokered. Epstein, a private individual accountable to no voters, government authorities, or shareholders, was engaged in a near-constant stream of back-channel interventions in the political or business spheres.

If anything, the files make a mockery of public political commitments of all kinds.

文章指出，引發(fā)公眾憤怒的，并不只是愛(ài)潑斯坦本人的性犯罪行為——這些早已不是秘密——而是文件呈現(xiàn)出的精英階層日常運(yùn)作方式。文件顯示，一個(gè)由政商權(quán)勢(shì)人物構(gòu)成的非正式關(guān)系網(wǎng)絡(luò)長(zhǎng)期存在，在其中，身份、財(cái)富和人脈本身就成了“護(hù)身符”。

What makes these files so infuriating, however, is not just Epstein's horrific predatory behavior, which is well-known, but the more mundane examples of elite conduct that the documents continue to expose. They vividly illustrate a world whose existence many everyday people, whether fevered with visions of the Illuminati or just jaundiced by banal anti-establishment cynicism, already suspected exists: an informal global club of powerful, ultra-rich people who all seemingly know each other, help one another out, and protect each other from the consequences of their depravity.

Illuminati /??lu?m??nɑ?ti?/ 社會(huì)精英

jaundice /?d???nd?s/ 偏見(jiàn)

《衛(wèi)報(bào)》認(rèn)為，這批文件未必能解答所有關(guān)鍵疑問(wèn)，比如愛(ài)潑斯坦的部分知名交往對(duì)象是否直接參與違法行為，或他2019年在獄中死亡是否另有隱情。但即便如此，它們?nèi)詮膫?cè)面印證了公眾多年來(lái)的直覺(jué)：精英群體確實(shí)享有普通人難以獲得的制度寬容。

文章援引學(xué)者觀點(diǎn)稱，這并不意味著存在一個(gè)嚴(yán)密運(yùn)作、暗中操控世界的陰謀組織，而是一種更普遍、更現(xiàn)實(shí)的情況——權(quán)力與財(cái)富之間形成了默契，讓某些人可以長(zhǎng)期游走在法律和道德邊緣，而不必付出相應(yīng)代價(jià)。

Although the documents may not expose an actual criminal conspiracy, Matthew Dallek, a political historian at George Washington University, said, they confirm the belief behind most conspiracy theories: that elites "get special treatment, that they're shielded from the rules that are supposed to apply to everyone equally, and that there is a kind of corruption in the broadest sense of the word".

《衛(wèi)報(bào)》還注意到，最新披露的文件進(jìn)一步勾勒出愛(ài)潑斯坦與全球精英之間復(fù)雜而交織的關(guān)系網(wǎng)絡(luò)，涉及政界、商界、學(xué)界，甚至王室成員。文章同時(shí)強(qiáng)調(diào)，被文件提及并不等同于違法，但這些高度封閉、彼此熟識(shí)的關(guān)系本身，已經(jīng)反映出精英社會(huì)的排他性。

《衛(wèi)報(bào)》評(píng)論稱，這些文件的意義不在于制造新的陰謀論，而在于揭示權(quán)力是如何在正式制度之外被交換和鞏固的。文件暴露了意識(shí)形態(tài)在精英階層中的相對(duì)虛偽性。無(wú)論政治立場(chǎng)如何分化，在超越某一財(cái)富和權(quán)力門(mén)檻后，所謂價(jià)值分歧往往讓位于階層自利與彼此庇護(hù)。

Above a certain stratosphere of wealth or fame, it would seem, ideological and other differences are subsumed by far more motivating forms of elite self-interest.

文章最后指出，圍繞愛(ài)潑斯坦的爭(zhēng)議，問(wèn)題并不只在于某個(gè)個(gè)人的墮落，而在于一種被長(zhǎng)期默許的結(jié)構(gòu)性現(xiàn)實(shí)：部分人習(xí)慣于在一個(gè)對(duì)自己格外寬松的規(guī)則體系中運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)，并且理所當(dāng)然地認(rèn)為，自己的行為不需要向外界交代。

Whatever the motivations of that ire, it focused briefly on a world that deserves more scrutiny. Yet the men at its center turned out not to be cunning New World Order ideologues but elite gladhanders, con artists, back-scratchers, and hedonists, in a world whose special rules they assumed, quite rationally, that they would never need to explain to the outside.

gladhander /?ɡl?d?h?nd?r/ 交際高手（貶義）

con artist /?k?n ?ɑ?t?st/ 騙子

back-scratcher /?b?k ?skr?t??r/ 互相包庇的人

hedonist /?hi?d?n?st/ 享樂(lè)主義者

來(lái)源：衛(wèi)報(bào)

跟著China Daily

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