DISCERN

The Most Disturbing Truth Isn’t What Happened: It’s That It Worked

What disturbs me most about the releasing of files isn’t just the allegations themselves, though they are among the most harrowing and unsettling stories a human mind can encounter.

It’s this:

Whatever that system was, it worked.

Whether he functioned as part of an international intelligence operation, a blackmail network, a financial trap, or simply as an individual who discovered how easily power can activate latent moral decay, whatever the truth turns out to be, the structure succeeded. It created a web so vast, so interconnected, that real accountability now feels almost impossible.

That’s the part that chills me.

Because to fully hold everyone responsible, to pull on every thread, we wouldn’t just be talking about a few bad actors. We’d be talking about the unraveling of institutions we’ve been taught to believe are foundational and necessary. Political dynasties. Financial empires. Cultural gatekeepers. Tech leaders. Royals. Presidents. The very scaffolding of “respectability.”

And if all of that were truly brought into the light, the world as we currently know it wouldn’t simply reform.

It would collapse.

The System Was Designed to Survive Exposure

That’s the final, devastating insight: the system appears to have been designed so that it could never be fully confronted. Any attempt at total accountability threatens the legitimacy of the entire structure, which means the structure will always protect itself.

So what happens instead?

• A few trials on the margins.

• A handful of sacrificial figures.

• Enough theater to suggest justice.

• Not enough to threaten the core.

And the deeper rot, the cultural, institutional, and moral corruption that allowed exploitation to flourish, remains untouched. That realization can leave a person feeling hopeless. Angry. Disoriented. Like the only honest conclusion is that this whole thing has to end. This Was Never About Politics, One of the most revealing aspects of all this is how quickly people want to reduce it to partisan talking points. Blue tie versus red tie. Left versus right. But that framing was always a distraction. Politics, as sold to the public, was a story, a simplified morality play designed for people peering through a keyhole. Behind the door, the powerful attend the same gatherings, protect the same interests, and benefit from the same silence.

The myth was that one side would save us from the other. The reality appears to be that the party never stopped, regardless of who was in office. And when children are harmed, when the dignity of life is violated, when abuse is hidden behind money, influence, and “respectability,” no political identity absolves anyone.

None.

The Lie We Were Told About Ourselves

But here’s where something unexpected emerges, something almost hopeful.

We were always told that we couldn’t be trusted. That ordinary people couldn’t handle power. That we couldn’t be trusted with information, responsibility, or self-governance. That without elites managing the world for us, everything would descend into chaos. And yet, what these revelations suggest is the opposite. It wasn’t the many who abused power. It was the few. The people closest to the levers. The ones who claimed moral authority. The ones who insisted they knew better. And that inversion matters. Because it reframes where responsibility actually lives.

Power Starts Where You Are

You may not control governments or global institutions. But you do shape the world you inhabit. You shape it in how you treat your children, your family, your friends. In how you show up for your neighbors. In how you conduct your business. In what you refuse to tolerate. In what you refuse to normalize. In how you tell the truth, quietly, consistently, without spectacle.

If there is a way forward, it doesn’t begin with waiting for saviors or trusting systems that have proven unworthy of blind faith.

• It begins locally.

• Relationally.

• Humanly.

And that’s where the hope is.

• Not in denial.

• Not in rage.

• But in the sober recognition that while large systems may fail, individual integrity still matters, and always has.

We were never as powerless as we were told. And maybe that’s the most important truth rising to the surface now.