Strauss-Kahn and The Secret Culture of Aggressive Sexuality In The High Pressure World Of Bankers and Banksters
By Danny Schechter, Author of The Crime of Our Time
My colleague Mike Whitney asks: "So, what are the chances that Strauss-Kahn will get a fair trial now that he's been blasted as a serial sex offender in about 3,000 articles and in all the televised news reports?
Do you remember any Wall Street bankers being dragged off in handcuffs when they blew up the financial system and bilked people out of trillions of dollars?"
The answer to both questions is certainly Non in French or English, but there's more to the connection between Sex and Wall Street. Without commenting on the evidence in this case--which has been asserted, not proven-- there is a deeper context that is being ignored.
I call it the Testosterone Factor in The Crime of Our Time, my book about how Wall Street criminally engineered the financial crisis.
Interesting isn't it that have been so few references to the link between pervasiveness of salacious sex and the high charged life of a class of "entitled" wealthy bankers who live off of others with few rules or restraints.
There is often no news about that or the practices of the IMF which is often accused of "f*cking/bullying over poor and vulnerable countries with unfair structural adjustment programs. The IMF chief is now experiencing what many in France feel is an unfair "personal adjustment program" at the hands of the New York cops and courts.
Odd isn't it that there have been so few references in the coverarge also to Eliot Spitzer, the one time "Sheriff" of Wall Street who was denouncing criminal financial practices by the Bush Administration when he was brought down in a sex scandal.
Strauss-Kahn had also been in the news lately as a possible Socialist presidential candidate to topple our pal Sarkosy in France and a critic of US banking practices. He recently outraged official Washington by asserting that the Chinese economy was surpassing ours.
In both cases, powerful forces have motives to bring down powerful potential reformers, but, it is also true, that in each case, these men themselves were, on the surface anyway, sexually obsessed and prone to illegal behavior that put them--and others--at risk.
Both are Alpha Males known for pushing envelopes of personal responsibility. Both were widely considered arrogant. Both lived in highly sexualized but secretive personal cultures. Writer Tristan Banon claimed she had to fight DSK off in an earlier incident, calling him a "strutting chimpanzee."
Bear in mind also that part of what intelligence agencies do these days in targeting people is to prepare sophisticated psychological profiles before they intervene. They know that the knowledge of the secret lives--and kinks -- of public figures can easily discredit them. They specialize in foraging for dirt which they then leak or use in covert ways.
Remember Richard Nixon's authorized break in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist persuing highly personal information?
Nothing is off-limits as people like former weapons inspector Scott Ritter learned as well when he became embroiled in a mini-sex caper.
When people are highly stressed, they are prone to making mistakes. The agencies shadowing them know that, and from time to time encourage it or just wait for the opportunity to help them bring themselves down.
