Anand Giridharadas

They don't.

Epstein was highly unusual.

This elite, particularly in our era, in which it is a kind of what I described in the Times piece as a kind of merito aristocracy, where they have aristocratic powers.

But, you know, for most people, it's not inheriting land or family title that gets you into that world today.

These are highly educated, credentialed people for the most part.

This is one of the most striking facts in modern American life.

And now they work more.

Yes.

And so this is a group of people who, as it is in Washington, I think so it is across a lot of this American elite, they work really hard.

And their life consists in not making mistakes.

It's conservative.

It's safe.

It's the straight and narrow.

And

They're often quite boring lives.

I think a lot of them are in bed by 8.30 p.m.

and they're listening to longevity experts and on like weird diets and don't drink alcohol because they're trying to do this and that.

So when he came along, again, we talked about exploiting vulnerabilities.

He offered, I think as you said so well, he offered to these people a life that maybe at some earlier point they thought would be the end point of making a lot of money in finance.

But in fact, they're just sitting in some house in Connecticut, kind of like alone and scrolling X and like maybe offering like a toxic opinion on something.