Startling: A high school math teacher without a degree could so corrupt the most powerful men in the world.

[NNadir]

That is where Epstein began, as a high school math teacher lacking a degree.

I fully concede that many men are run by their goals, but really...

Really?

Really?!?!?

It is the primitive aspect that leaves me speechless, the cruelty.

How?

How?

How?

[artemisia1]

1. They were already corrupt. He provided an opportunity for them to indulge that corruption.

[NNadir]

2. Your point is well taken. Yet he was able to channel that corruption so successfully.

So much for the claim that the titans are actually titans, brought down by a kid from Brooklyn.

[ProfessorGAC]

3. What State Allows Math Teachers With No Degree

Here in Illinois you have to have a degree just to substitute.
In districts where that is super difficult to find, the district can file for a waiver, but the number of days said non-degreed person can sub is severely limited.
My license is limited by district only. 105 days but PER DISTRICT. Living near several districts, I am effectively unlimited.
But, Epstein was a teacher without a college degree?

[senseandsensibility]

5. Private schools are allowed to set their own standards

or lack thereof.

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Ah! That Makes Sense

Though I attended private schools and every teacher was college educated, even the nuns in grade school.

[senseandsensibility]

8. Agree

Most teachers at private schools are qualified, I presume, but it is voluntary unlike public schools.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. Get This

The schools in this diocese won't let me sub unless I sign some document saying I'm a practicing catholic.
A guy married to the sane woman for 46 years with never so much as a traffic citation is not morally responsible enough unless I go to church on Sundays. And, I've got 5 separate degrees!
I know I could sign the silly paper, but why lie? There are schools that want me there with no such ridiculous requirements.

[tanyev]

4. I have to wonder if he already had dirt on Headmaster Barr which got him the job.

In a school full of girls just the age he liked, from wealthy families.

The springboard on which he built everything that followed.

[harumph]

7. That's an aspect that hasn't been investigated.

Probably will never be looked at - but a great question. Wonder if that time so long ago can be sniffed out.

[canetoad]

10. Yes. Either that

Or the two men 'bonded' over a common interest; teenage girls.

[haele]

11. He was smart enough that he could qualify, he was charismatic.

He was a calculating, charming chameleon who could read weaknesses, and always seemed calm and reasonable.
He had a knack for collecting people across a wide range of interests. He cynically appeared to be attentive and sympathetic
He could turn himself into "that guy" if you needed a plausible opinion or access to others who also used him, without even knowing why he was being used by them. He got wealthy being "that guy".

Since he started out as also being a charming pimp for bored young middle class girls wanting access to a glittering world above them, he could go even farther than if he just played the financial games like other mathematically clever young men who got access to the private school system.

He didn't care how he got what other people wanted. He just made himself indispensable to them. He made it okay for them to consider asking him for any secret desires they had.

And that is exactly what a Devil does when it walks amongst us mere humans.

[NNadir]

12. Nevertheless, one would think that the men implicated, with all their power...

...would be sophisticated enough to see through it.

I am not necessarily talking about those born into wealth like the orange pedophile in the White House, or for that matter, the former Prince, brother of the current King. (It's not like the Windsors are famous for having vast intellects.)

On the other hand, we have Gates, Summers, Dershowitz, etc. men who for all their flaws were allegedly sophisticated, intellectually powerful individuals.

It all calls into question the origins of power and the worth of power. It is a cheap and sleazy thing apparently, revealed through sybaritic excess. The hands of power are such fragile things as to allow themselves to be compromised by a manipulative pimp from Brooklyn exploiting young girls to rape?

Is there no such thing as decency left in the world?

I really don't get it. It is so damned disappointing.