Fantastic scenario: a pious 31-year-old bartender from Crete, a fan of fitness and nutrition, a «man hunter», as he says, signs up for a reality show. There, he is locked up with a few other humanoids and the saviour saves himself until mutual humiliation and self-deprecation reveal the winner of €100,000. The young man, at one point, declares: «I go with one of the chicks every day to empty the packet or it's rape.» His removal is announced by the invisible voice of a Big Brother. The young man is now living somewhere, probably undisturbed. This could be a Black Mirror episode scenario. It is, of course, the true Greek story of Big Brother.
What has dumbed down these lowly beasts? What exactly is it about these mercenaries of vulgarity that makes these mercenaries of vulgarity feel that they can publicly confess their criminal mindset without suffering the slightest consequence? Until recently, the discussion revolved exclusively around a «argumentative» patriarchal lifestyle that dominated the media, politics («the straight, male school» of Samaras), and many aspects of public communication in general. The diffusion of a «rape culture», as it came to be called, had been established and documented. But not its deeper and specific causes. For many cultures around the world remain or evolve into even more patriarchal than ours, but we do not see a similar spike in sexual crimes everywhere, and especially at such a density of time. What is happening?;
Robert Merton, one of the founders of the above disciplines, noted in his cosmogonical writings that on the basis of the «Theory of Lawlessness», i.e. a situation of a generalized rupture of social norms and disruption of social cohesion, success is socially valued as superior to virtue. Thus, society, instead of endorsing individual moral attitudes, tends to judge the individual on the basis of his or her success. In this context, success means wealth (or expectation of wealth), good work and popularity. The criminal deviation of such a person is downplayed in the face of the affirmation of the social, now, priority of success. So far, we may not be hearing anything for the first time.
However, in a study of serial rapists, Merton states that it is precisely the «Theory of Iniquity» that explains that those who belong to the elite are more likely to escape conviction or even prosecution. Some of them and for many years. Merton explains that, since these individuals - the elite rapists - are treated as respected members of society, their virtue and lack thereof are not evaluated with the same rigour.
I think of the case of Lignadis, who had been committing crimes with the knowledge of the systemic establishment, apparently for decades, and the Minister of Culture who ’didn't know him«. I think of the heinous acts against minors by Nikos Georgiadis, a former MP and even now a close associate of Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The neo-democrat and friend of the former ASOEE professor who taught young people while accused of sexual abuse of children. The prominent systemic businessmen, the pimps and rapists of Thessaloniki who spread their nets over an entire city, with the knowledge of the local society. People who not only lived but fulfilled the social model of the »‘successful’’, the status that, according to Merton, rescues elite sex offenders from legal adventures.
The pre-trial detention of Lignadis after so many years of criminal activity, the 2.5 years to which Georgiades was sentenced on paper, the undisturbed professor who led a normal academic life, the non-trial detention of one of the accused for the gang rape of the 24-year-old girl are all signs that we are not just talking about patriarchy but about a situation where the basic rules of coexistence are being distorted. And this is the responsibility of the elite, the power system and their political protectors.
By Vangelis Gettos
