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America February 2, 2026 6 mins read

OPINION: The Epstein Files and the Ancient Pattern of Moral Collapse Under Absolute Power

America ı By Rochdi Rais

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“No indeed! Man transgresses—when he sees himself as self-sufficient.”

I know you’re shocked, and perhaps even nauseated. The Epstein list is not merely a political scandal; it is a sewer drain through which you glimpse the human psyche when it possesses absolute power and absolute money and believes itself above law and accountability. What you may have read in detail likely surpasses the imagination of the horror films we watched in the Saw series.

But before I take you deeper into this, come, my friend—let us step back a little in time. Not to Epstein’s island, but to an isolated castle in the Alps, to open the pages of a manuscript written in 1785 and considered the most dangerous novel in history. So, dear human, give me a little patience and focus with me.

The novel is The 120 Days of Sodom, written by the infamous French aristocrat the Marquis de Sade—the man from whose name psychologists derived the term sadism.

The novel tells the story of four men who represent the very peak of the social pyramid in France at the time: a duke, a bishop, a judge, and a banker—power, religion, law, and money—exactly like the patrons of Epstein’s island. These four decide to lock themselves away for 120 days in an inaccessible, isolated castle. They forcibly bring with them a group of adolescent boys and girls.

Civilization collapses.
Law collapses.
Religion collapses.

These “elites” turn into monsters, practicing the most horrific forms of torture, sexual violation, and slow killing—simply because they can.

When de Sade wrote this, he was not writing pure fantasy. He was screaming a terrifying truth:

“When a human being possesses absolute power in a place isolated from the eyes of society, the monster within awakens and devours everything.”

But why, my human friend—why would a man who owns billions and governs the world with his decisions commit acts of such degradation? Why don’t they content themselves with the natural pleasures available to them without limit?

Let me take you briefly to an important book that explains the psychology of these people—how the “human” turns into a “freak.” The book is The Lucifer Effect by the renowned psychologist Philip Zimbardo, author of the famous Stanford Prison Experiment.

In this book, Zimbardo presents a frightening theory: evil is not always an inherent trait in a person. Evil is often the product of environment and power. When you place a human being in an environment that grants absolute authority (like Epstein’s island or de Sade’s castle), strip away accountability, and provide total secrecy, the neural circuits responsible for empathy gradually shut down, and the dark side awakens.

But that’s not all, my dear friend. There is another chapter in the book of the human psyche that explains this sexual and savage frenzy, based on precise neurological mechanisms.

Scientists call it dopamine tolerance—or the boredom of gods.

What does that mean?

In neuropsychology, there is a rule that governs us all: the brain adapts to stimuli. When you buy a new car, you’re ecstatic; a month later, it becomes ordinary. These people—the billionaires and elites—have reached complete saturation. They have eaten the finest food, flown the most expensive planes, owned everything that can be bought. Natural pleasure has died within them.

They suffer from what scientists call anhedonia of power. Dopamine is no longer released by permissible pleasures. And here the catastrophe begins: the search for the ultimate high.

The diseased mind begins to seek the breaking of taboos—of the impossible—of what is internationally and morally forbidden.

But why, my friend… why children? And why violence?

Because quite simply, this is the only remaining red line. Breaking it gives them a rush that tells them they are above humanity, and that the laws governing the herd (us) do not apply to them. They are not seeking sex; they are seeking the ecstasy of violating divine law.

This reminds me, my friend, of a Roman custom related to food—what was it, and how is it connected to these people?

During the age of Roman decadence, nobles would sit at tables laden with food the eye had never seen. They would eat greedily until their stomachs were completely full. Then what? Did they stop? No. They would go to special rooms and deliberately induce vomiting, then return to the table to eat again.

Were they hungry? Of course not. They were searching for the pleasure of continuous consumption. They were trying to conquer the biological limits of satiety. Their problem was that the stomach fills quickly, while desire never fills. Vomiting became the solution so they could keep eating.

Do you see the connection, my friend?

This—exactly and literally—is what these people do in bedrooms and on islands. They are not seeking to satisfy instinct (they are already satiated with the natural). They vomit their humanity so they can devour new innocence. They are trying to fill a black hole in their souls that never fills, resorting to excess, extremity, and brutality in hopes of feeling something.

But don’t think I’m done yet—be patient with me.

In the book The Power of Harm, there is a term called reification: these people do not see victims as human beings—with souls, feelings, and mothers. They see them as objects—like a piece of meat to the Romans, or a luxury car to them. The whole world is a chessboard they move at will. In those closed rooms, they practice the objectification of humans in its ugliest form.

Brutality against a minor or a vulnerable person has nothing to do with sexual desire; it has everything to do with the will to power. He wants to feel like an earthly god (God forbid), possessing the right to inflict pain, to decide fate, and to violate the innocence of another being without anyone daring to stop him.

The Epstein list, the Marquis de Sade’s novel, and the Roman banquets all tell us one terrifying truth: when a human being possesses absolute money and absolute power, and removes the fear of God from his heart, he does not become an angel—he becomes a devil who finds pleasure in the suffering of others.

These are not merely deviants. These are people who stared too long into the abyss of their desires until the abyss swallowed them. As Nietzsche said:

“When you gaze into The abyss, the abyss gazes back.”

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Rochdi Rais

Rochdi Rais is the Fractional Head of Growth and financial and legal writer at USA Herald. He has been writing and editing financial, legal and U.S. news for years with over +4000 articles published during his career.

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