By Nathan Barton

As we’ve discussed before, the sudden explosion of reports, action, and admission of sexual predation against children and women is notable. It is also continuing. Indeed, it can be characterized as being a matter of hysteria. Is it really hunting down and “eliminating” predators? Or is it a witch hunt? And/or a distraction from other things? That question is still unanswered.

But it does indeed seem that many of the accusations ARE true – and have been admitted by the predators themselves, or documented (by video, especially) sufficiently to be considered valid.

There seem to be several general types of incidents:

• A single, witnessed or documented incident of various kinds of harassment/abuse by a predator
• Unwanted advance, including asking for a date, requesting (or suggesting or hinting at) a sexual interaction, directly to the prey
• Actual physical contact (or near contact) with prey, ranging from “inappropriate touching” to actual sexual actions (intercourse or oral sex) to actual rape or contact with suspicions of bogus “consent”
• Inappropriate remarks made about prey to a third party (where the statements made might also be predation on the third party), ranging from expressions of interest in dating or sexual contact to accusations regarding prey’s actions, desires, or availability.
• A series of actions by a predator on a single victim or multiple prey, usually “covered up” by few or many associates, employees, and/or media:
  Sometimes dating back decades
  Sometimes a recent series
• A single incident followed up by “me too” claims from various prey, some more credible than others, including some easily demonstrated to be fake

There are several types of prey, or victims:

• Women – usually younger than the predator, and often in some type of subordination to the predator
• Children – both male and female:
• Prepubescent (up to age 12-15 or so, based on physical maturity)
• Pubescent but minors (age 18 or below), based on calendar age

I am not aware of any adult males who are part of this current hysteria (when the incidents happened), nor of any claims that any of the adult prey are mentally deficient – in this current spat. (There are, of course, constant reports of mentally-deficient male victims of physical and sexual abuse by gangs, including gangs in blue uniforms, but that is not part of this current dustup.)

There seem to be several major categories of these predator pieces of garbage. See if you can add to this list:

• Media: actors and producers (including “news media”)
• Sports celebrities, including coaches
• Politicians
• Religious leaders
• Academicians (teachers, faculty, administration)

What do these types of people have in common? Here are some ideas:

• They hold positions of power or influence
• They often enjoy high levels of trust
• They are usually “well-spoken” (smooth tongues)
• They are “people” persons
• They usually have very high “self-esteem” (strong egos)
• They ignore common standards of morality

In other words, they are (by their own definition) typical of the elite – people who have fame, wealth, and power.

When we get right down to it, we see the same sort of thing that the nobility (both secular and religious) imposed on the people of medieval Europe. (I include the actual royalty in the nobility: the upper 3% or so of feudal society in the Middle Ages.) Today, in the Fifty States (and really, around the world), our “nobility” or “elite” not just by their own definition, but of far too many of the population. They are the people that sell magazines and consumer goods and help sell advertising (for the media), and yes, sell politics as well. And they cling to one another, as well.

It is not only in sexual abuse and psychological harm that these elite are preeminent. We see how they abuse the power, the prestige, and the wealth they have in many other ways. The corruption of politicians and the wealthy is legendary. The backroom deals and skimming of profits from their customers (including those of banks and manufacturers and service providers like cable companies) are well known. The physical abuse perpetrated and encouraged/authorized by these elites on the homeless, the poor, the workers, and often on the middle class range from killing and torture to denial of basic human rights.

I am not saying that this sort of sexual, physical, and mental abuse is done ONLY by the elite; the powerful, the wealthy, and the famous. Far from it. The underclass, as well as the “working class” (including both government/public employees and private employees) and the general upper class all include the same sort of predators. I’m not ignoring the man who cuts off his daughter’s head in an “honor killing” or the piece of garbage who rapes and murders a six-month old baby girl or the “mother” who drowns her children.

However, even THOSE predators share some of the same characteristics as the current crop of elite predators. At least relative to their prey, they have power over them, they have opportunity, and they have a lack of morality of even the most basic sort.

Nor is this anything that is new under the sun. I mentioned the nobility of Europe – we could add that of Asia and Africa, and throw in the ruling and upper classes of the New World. Going back centuries. Archaeologists find evidence of such abuse – at least the physical if not psychological or mental part – in their digs, from the mountains of Anatolia to the mounds of the Mississippi valley. And we find the same common characteristics.

Give people power over others, give people wealth (especially wealth not earned by honest work), give people fame, and predators have more opportunity to prey on people. In many ways.

So what can we do about this? Let’s talk about that in part 2.