When Trump made this boast in the now infamous video he was just revealing a sad truth. Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13-year-old girl, escaped prosecution, and went on to win an Academy Award “to a standing ovation”. Basketball star Kobe Bryant suffered only a brief hit to his reputation after he paid off a civil suit by a hotel employee who said he’d raped her. Bill Cosby, facing claims of sexual assaults spanning decades, dismissed his accusers as unstable women after his money. “The list goes on and on.” Recently, another basketball star, Derrick Rose, was embroiled in a civil suit for his alleged part in gang-raping an unconscious ex-girlfriend: the main concern of his team and fans seemed to be “how this will affect Rose’s play”. In our culture, charges of sexual assault against a male celebrity are viewed as “an inconvenient obstacle” to be overcome, “rather than the gravest of accusations”. Trump’s boast “is a reflection of who we are”. (Lovia Gyarkye, New Republic)

Leave me and my Epicurean friends out of that scenario, please! American culture has become wholly un-Epicurean, if you accept that it means respect for others, inclusivity, courtesy moderation and a wish to see society get on together in cooperative amity. There seems to be a massive deficit of orality and decency, something shared by all too many of the American religious community, especially those who support the current “government” (or grabitocracy). And now we learn that a senior member of the Russian government has been funnelling huge amounts of money to the NRA in order to further fire up the dangerous social divisions of the country. Justify that! Be my guest! How can one stand back and view the present situation with equanimity? Assault and rape are absolute no-no’s. So what can you say about complicity in unpatriotic treachery?

If I seem to have temporarily lost my ataraxiait is only owing to despair!