Don't let Epstein and his accomplices distract us from the real threats we face

That we have had four years of the Ukraine war and are told by leading soldiers that World War III is possible, and we are in the front line, has been knocked by Epstein, Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor off the front page and from many pages inside. Because news is such a powerful commodity, it has the power to squash wars and our possible annihilation into second place.

The vile human Epstein and his accomplices in crime and exploitation are more important, it would seem, than the military manoeuvres that other countries get up to.  

Epstein’s cohorts definitely need the strong arm of the law to be embraced and punished by. No question about that. But let’s remember the big issues that are in the background and threaten to become foreground. The problem is that when Epstein and these cohorts are yesterday’s chip paper, we will still be suffering from the powerful moves that are being played out behind closed doors.

The alliances, the weaponry, the ambitions of becoming more powerful will make us realise how asinine we were all made to look over our outrageous interest in Epstein; when more life-threatening issues were at stake.  

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It is, kind of, history repeating itself. In the years before the Second World War, who was shagging who was of major importance. Was King Edward VIII shagging an American divorcee? And was he determined to marry her, and could he do this and still be king? 

Hitler was having a field day as he watched the population get lost in shagging considerations whilst he could get on with consolidating the building blocks of a new world war. Likewise those not seeking a peaceful future for us all are probably guffawing all the way to the strategic military bunker to plan our decapitation. 

The world is changing, and changing in an unsavoury fashion. Our security is a thing of the past. Back then we could rely on one bombastic American president or other to include us in the perimeter fence they patrolled to keep enemies away. Now the man with the big stick seems to suggest that our security is of little interest to him and many fellow Americans. Arse-licking has been downgraded as a reliable means of keeping our security foremost in the top American’s mind. 

Read more:

• Prime minister is a job for the odd fishes
• Where JMW Turner wears me out, John Constable restores me
• Why has Hitler taken so long to die? 

So we are largely on our own in this new world disorder, as a new order is worked out. Threats to wipe us off the face of the Earth are something we should think seriously about; dare I say, more seriously than the perverted paedophile antics of Jeffrey Epstein, banker and encourager of wealth as degeneracy. 

But news is a commodity as much as cars or clothes. It needs the insatiable appetites of people to get drawn into what’s been happening in the land of the wealthy. Their perversities and corruptions are the meat and potatoes of our everyday life. They occupy our time while oppression and murder and death in Ukraine, Gaza and various other parts of the world continue unabated – while rulers and leaders reconfigure the future, with us outside the perimeter fence of US protection for the first time since the end of the Second World War.  

The human ability to strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, in other words to get our priorities wrong, is as old as the hills. One of the greatest examples to me in art is Poussin’s painting called The Adoration of the Golden Calf. If you get the chance, go to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square and take a good look at it.

All human foolishness is there. Whilst Moses, who led the Jews out of the Land of Egypt and the House of Bondage, is up the mountain getting the Ten Commandments, his rescued people are melting down their gold jewellery and making a golden calf, which they dutifully worship.

Lost in some revelry they forget the big picture. You don’t have to be a believer in the realness of Moses to understand that this picture sums up how lost we can become when not sticking to the main story. Which is, we are living an unprotected life and there are threats that are real to our future. 

The exposure of Epstein’s perversities, and those of his cohorts, could lead to a morally cleaned-up world, a more honest place to bring up children, but it is very unlikely to do so. The energies and outrage around him obscure the biggest threats to our future in the here and now. We are potentially fiddling while Frome burns; along with Barnstaple, Bristol, Manchester, Chester-le-Street, Edinburgh, London, Cardiff and Basildon. 

But remember also that as the West washes its dirty linen in public, to the enjoyment of the many, other parts of the world do not go through such public displays. The oppression of women and girls, of the poor, goes on; murder and death stalks the world and occurs in places that do not have a devotion to our public cleansing industries. 

Just before the Second World War, Edward VIII gave up the ghost and threw in the towel so that he could marry the twice-divorced Mrs Simpson. The world did not fall to pieces. But the acres of newsprint utilised to provide the stories of the kerfuffle would have been better used to put into the minds of the people that preparation for war was what was necessary.

That more arms needed manufacturing. And that the defence of our way of life was more important than ever-recurring stories of degeneracy that seep out of the land of the wealthy.

John Bird is the founder and Editor in Chief of Big Issue

This article appears in Big Issue magazine number 1707 and was written before the conflict in Iran began

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