Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
If integrity means more than any of these baubles, then prepare to fail.
The theme this week is The Rot Within.
The sordid story of Harvey Weinstein is being presented as an aberration. It is not an aberration; it is merely a high-profile example of how the status quo functions in the USA, a.k.a. The United States of Weinstein, in which complicity, greed and corruption reign supreme in every sector and in every nook and cranny of power.
The dirty secret of America’s status quo is that power and wealth are both extremely concentrated, which means there are gatekeepers who must be bribed, sated or serviced if you want to claw your way up the wealth-power pyramid. Mr. Weinstein’s alleged conduct and payoffs of those he exploited is par for the course in the corridors of power in the USA.
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As a gatekeeper in Hollywood, Mr. W. could make or break careers with absurd ease.
Gatekeepers are the key functionaries in a rentier economy in which the few at the top skim the wealth of the many. Want to play in the big leagues of Hollywood, Washington D.C., the Pentagon, or the various HQs of Global Corporate America? You have to pay the Gatekeepers what they demand.
It might be the casting couch or a slice of the profits, or a vote in committee, but the price of admission will always include complicity–silence about the crimes committed and the endemic corruption, and a sacrifice of moral standards. This is the minimal price of “success” in the elite circles of wealth and power in America.
If you doubt this, dig deep into any concentration of power in America and see what you find. Outsiders won’t find anyone willing to talk, of course; that’s how complicity works.
The overheated engine of complicity is greed. Hollywood kept quiet about Mr. Weinstein because insiders and wannabes alike hoped to score a plum role in Mr. W.’s next hitmaking production, or secure a couple of points of the gross. (1 point = 1%.)
This is the evil fruit of a system that ruthlessly concentrates power and wealth, not just in Hollywood and Washington D.C. but in the judiciary, in higher education, in Big Pharma, the National Security State, Corporate America and yes, the Deep State, which is comprised not of the bureaucratic functionaries (sorry to pop your balloon) of the state but those one level above the gatekeepers.
Every American has a simple but profound choice. Either place your integrity above all else, and refuse to climb the putrid pyramid of wealth and power, or succumb to greed and become complicit in an empire of greed, complicity and corruption.
If “success” means a fat salary, points of gross, invitations to A-list parties, access to the inner circle, being the right-hand boy/girl of someone powerful, a seat on the private jet, etc., then you will be required to service the gatekeepers and sacrifice whatever integrity you once possessed.
If integrity means more than any of these baubles, then prepare to fail. You won’t clamber up the putrid pyramid, you won’t get past the gatekeepers, and you won’t be invited to join the elite skimming the nation’s wealth for its own gratification and greed.
But you will still have yourself, your pride, and your integrity.
It’s not an easy choice. Choose wisely. As Orwell observed about a totalitarian oligarchy, some are more equal than others. But the sacrifices required to become more equal than than the bottom 99.5% are irrevocable–you will have to sacrifice everything but your greed, your appetite for corruption and your willingness to hide the truth from the outside world.
True success lies outside the empire of greed, complicity and corruption.
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Does anybody doubt the financial backers of the films were also getting to screw the talent?
Weinstein probably wasn’t just collecting a toll, he was likely the pervy HR interviewer, screening actresses for their willingness and capacity to perform their real job: screwing their way through the entire line of financial backers, with a smile.
Watch Hollywood and the left do anything and everything possible to keep thes contained to Weinstein.
But the problem goes far, far deeper than just him and extends to some very sensitive leftists and leftist organizations.
They attacked Trump with phony sexual pervert claims, now it comes back on them in the form of very real and true exposure of their elite.
What you cast into the world is what returns to you.
I can say I am nowhere near any so called ” gatekeepers ” .I guess it could be considered a blessing from God .
If you like your Gatekeeper you can keep your Gatekeeper.
Now THAT is hilarious
Okay… am looking at these sleezy women on ET (which I NEVER watch, but special for this purpose) who are complaining about how AWFUL it has been to be raped, harassed and forced to do humiliating things for acting jobs. Reese Witherspoon almost cried when talking about being raped at 16.
Guess what? SHE WON’T NAME HIM. Hypocrite.
The article nails the common denominator of every tragedy about to befall America. Sports, financial, entertainment, government and the list goes on. In every instance, an enterprising individual learns how to game the department he is responsible for and viola’, another pay to play enterprise is begun.
Are you old enough to remember laughing at the USSR and its corruption? We should have been laughing at ourselves.
“But you will still have yourself, your pride, and your integrity.”
Being that “Pride” is rightfully one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” – and perhaps the most subtly insidious, those Men/wo[mb]Men understanding their very special and unique manifestation in the image of the almighty “Author” ” IN to this “world’, but not OF it ” may rather CHOOSE say the word “dignity” and/or “humility”. Otherwise, CHS has hit another “grand slam”. Time for the [still-productive] GROUNDed, GROUPed, GUNned, GARDENed rurally-located “fly-over ‘ deplorables’ ” – to understand that “standing up TOGETHER” is perhaps the only solution to avoid being eventually “hanged separately” by a SWAT team of cowardly, knuckle-dragging, semi-functional, political party-directed, gov-agent thugs.
It is funny how all these women allowed all this to happen, and never fought back for all those years/decades. But its the same for everyone. We all get raped by banksters, wall street, big pharma, military industrial complex, war on drugs, etc. As Denninger says, just big pharma alone is stealing an entire mortgage payment from each of us. And we do nothing. Bunch of scared little bitches…
Perhaps we`re missing the boat by miles. We should all be doing as the corporations do to themselves. STOP PAYMENT and then bargain for a more just one. Credit rating? Who needs it? We could have bought in cash with what we could have saved, if prudent enough a purchase.