MoshangUSA X
@MoshangUsa· Feb.2, 2026
@MoshangUsa· Feb.2, 2026
编者按：电报频道1/30日文及对应讨论区，已汇总并梳理了大量与文件曝光相关的事实与讨论。本文翻译一篇评论，其对爱泼斯坦文档迄今为止所揭示的深层意义作出了极具代表性的总结。之所以强调“迄今为止”，是因为相关文件仍未完全公开——尽管国会已通过立法，要求全面披露；而已公布的部分内容中，也存在大量过度涂黑的情况。
他们究竟在隐瞒什么？阴谋论中关于爱泼斯坦具有“外国情报背景”的传言，是否真的只能被归为阴谋论？在所有文件彻底公开之前，这些问题仍然无法给出最终结论。
x.com/matthewstoller
译文：
杰弗里·爱泼斯坦事件并非仅仅是一桩关于恋童癖的丑闻，它关乎一个俄语词汇“blat”，这个苏联时代的词语意为“利用人脉关系获取稀缺商品和服务，并规避正式程序”。它关乎一种特殊的治理方式。
正如苏联时代大量“blatnik”（利用人脉关系的人）确保他们的工厂能够在正式的国家采购流程之外获得所需物资一样，爱泼斯坦也为新自由主义国家运作提供了便利。他的工作就是参与治理。
这意味着什么？很明显，爱泼斯坦是横跨多个公共和私人官僚机构的企业家掮客，他帮助法律界、商界、情报界和政界精英组织“幕后交易”，使他们能够逃避法律约束和传统的利益冲突限制。这是一种治国之道，允许超级精英阶层系统性地规避正式规则。
恋童癖和卖淫是其中的一部分——这显然违反了法律——但爱泼斯坦提供的各种随机帮助也是如此。例如，爱泼斯坦将参议员乔·曼钦（Joe Manchin）提出的游艇请求（该请求来自维尔京群岛第一夫人）转给了纽约的一位可能拥有游艇的金融家。又例如，他与麻省理工学院的伊藤穰一（Joi Ito）和亿万富翁里德·霍夫曼（Reid Hoffman）合作重组比特币基金会。这一切都与在普通人受到的限制之外，匹配资本、人才和资源有关。
这种治理方式在苏联式的国家尤为重要，在这些国家，每个人都知道规则是虚假的，规避制度本身就是制度的一部分。爱泼斯坦及其同伙之所以能够蓬勃发展，正是因为美国制度的衰弱，而这些制度在很多情况下正是被他的人脉网络中的成员（例如拉里·萨默斯）所削弱的。这些人身兼多职——顾问、商人、学者、董事会成员、监管者——并根据当时最能最大化自身利益和其狭窄人脉网络利益的情况，选择扮演不同的角色。
旧世界，即递出名片就代表你代表某个机构的时代，在20世纪80年代消失了。在20世纪90年代，新保守主义者、新自由主义者、银行家——最终是爱泼斯坦的人脉网络——构建了这种新的社会秩序。这是一个无法通过正式规则取得成功的世界，但如果你被那些有权有势的人拉入他们的信任网络，你就能为所欲为。
虽然爱泼斯坦人脉网络的具体细节尚不完全清楚，而且阴谋论者也常常持有荒谬的观点，但他们正确地指出，以精英制度和正式体系为基础的世界越来越像一场骗局。而真正的权力掌握在别处。
简而言之，当国会等正式民主机构停止履行其治理职能时，像爱泼斯坦这样的人所建立的人脉网络就会填补权力真空。爱泼斯坦建立起了罗伊·科恩一直梦寐以求却从未实现的权力网络，因为当时的制度体系过于强大，他无法撼动。
以下摘自社会学家珍妮·韦德尔的著作《影子精英》，阐述了这种治理模式的运作方式：“制度与人际网络的作用，往往比官方意识形态所承认的要广泛得多。在苏联，这一非正式体系被称为blat，指的是利用私人关系网络来获取商品和服务的一种做法，尤其是在短缺条件下，用以绕过正式程序。
为了让生活稍微过得去，几乎每个人都参与过某种“台面下”的交易——这种行为在西方人看来可能会被视为腐败。正因为这种活动具有风险性，信任变得不可或缺，而对官僚体系进行“人格化”也就成为必需。人们会将自己必须接触的那一小部分国家机器“人性化”，与官员、官僚和办事员建立个人关系。这意味着要么通过交换礼节建立关系，要么通过家庭、朋友、邻居和工作同事所构成的非正式社会网络，动员可信的熟人来疏通关系。
最重要的资产是口口相传的信息——这种信息如果没有可靠的来源，几乎不可能获得；而这些来源能够告诉你该找谁、怎么找、去哪里找。母亲（Mama）凭借她敏锐的洞察力，能够判断别人能提供什么，打探并保存信息，并为他人从秘书或办事员那里、从神父或党内负责人那里打点关系、牵线搭桥。她不仅是一个名副其实的信息库，更是一个“私有化信息”的中介——这一点正是blat体系的核心所在。
人们的生活质量，在很大程度上取决于是否认识对的人，而不是去找对的机构或组织来解决问题。“找谁”远比“需要什么帮助”更重要。在我波兰的朋友中，一份典型的跑腿清单往往由一串名字组成，每个人都对应着特定事务：修房子找Pan（先生）Jan；加汽油找Pan Piotr；办驾照找Pan Grzegorz；想尽快预约看病找Pani（女士）Jadwiga；给孩子在幼儿园或大学留名额找 Pani Antonina.”
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The Jeff Epstein saga isn't a scandal about pedophilia, it's about a Russian word called 'blat,' a Soviet-era word meaning 'the use of personal networks for obtaining goods and services in short supply and for circumventing formal procedures.' It's about a kind of government.
As with the large number of 'blatniks' in the Soviet era who made sure their factories got what they needed outside the formal state procurement process, Epstein greased the wheels for the neoliberal state. His job was governance.
What does that mean? Well it's clear that Epstein was an entrepreneurial broker across multiple public and private bureaucracies, helping organize 'under-the-table' deals among the legal, business, intelligence, and political elites to allow them to escape the rule of law and traditional conflict of interest restrictions. It's statecraft to allow a superclass to systemically escape the formalized rules.
The pedophilia and prostitution were part of it - that is obviously violating the rule of law - but so are the random favors Epstein bestowed. Like Epstein sending Senator Joe Manchin's request for a yacht, a request which came from the First lady of the Virginia Islands, to a random NY financier who might have one. Or working with Joi Ito at MIT and billionaire Reid Hoffman to restructure the Bitcoin Foundation. It's all about matching capital and talent and inputs outside of the restrictions ordinary people are subject to.
This kind of governance is particularly important in Soviet-style states, where everyone knows the rules are fake, where skirting the system IS the system. Epstein and his affiliates thrived because of the weakened institutions of the United States, institutions enfeebled in many cases by the men in his network, like Larry Summers. These men adopted multiple roles - advisor, businessman, academic, board member, regulator - and put on the hat that best maximized their self-interest and the self-interest of their narrow network at that moment.
The old world, where handing someone your business card meant you represented that institution, disappeared in the 1980s. Over the course of the 1990s, neoconservatives, neoliberals, bankers - ultimately Epstein's network - built this new social order. It was one where you couldn't succeed through the formal rules, but if you were let into the networks of trust by blatniks, you could do anything you wanted.
While all the specifics of Epstein's network are not known, and while conspiracy theorists often have crazy views, they have correctly fingered that the world of meritocracy and formalized systems is increasingly a fraud. And that the real government lies elsewhere.
In short, when formal democratic institutions like Congress stop governing, the networks of men like Epstein fill the power vacuum. Epstein built what Roy Cohn always wanted to have, but never achieved, because the then-institutions were too strong for him to break.
Here's a passage from sociologist Janine Wedel's Shadow Elite on how this form of governance works.
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