The Very Rich Are Different
They get second chances: 99.9% of the rest of us don’t get any chance at all
Armie Hammer’s talking to the rich people’s PR agency (“Air Mail” edited by Graydon Carter) and asking for a “second chance.”
When I saw the initial text messages Armie Hammer was sending to much-younger extra-marital girlfriends, referencing rape and cannibalism, a chill ran down my spine.
The man who raped me talked that way. Detectives suspected him of responsibility for unknown female bodies that had been discovered in the California desert (I believe some of these crimes are still unsolved). My rapist came from a wealthy family. Not Hammer-class, but rich enough to evade any type of serious consequences for his actions for two decades.
Two years before, I’d been pulled over by killer CHP officer Craig Peyer. There is no woman who came up during my time (80s) who did not have at least a small brush with a man potentially as dangerous as Armie Hammer.
This situation has not changed. If anything, it has gotten worse.
What is The Message For Wellness?
There are two wellness messages. First, young women and girls are not safe in our society. One out of every five girls or young women will be raped or sexually assaulted in some serious way. Young women, girls, and their loved ones/families must take direct, personal action to protect themselves from harm. The law will not protect them (or you) or administer justice unless you feel like it’s a good chance your case will be one of the five out of every 1,000 that is ultimately successfully prosecuted, with the rapist serving time.
Second, many people in our society look up to “rich” and famous people. We shouldn’t. We have little in common with them. Especially in the areas of personal ethics, values, and pro-social behavior.
Armie Hammer is both “rich” and “famous.” He comes from a very wealthy family: his grandfather is Armand Hammer, the scion of Occidental Petroleum.
Most people do not know — especially not well, like Graydon Carter — the very rich. The very rich isolate themselves in physically protected and isolated enclaves. Gated communities, very high walls, security guards. This is true worldwide, and especially true in my former home, Southern California. I’ve written real estate profiles and prospectuses for nearly every exclusive gated estate and development in Orange and Los Angeles Counties.
The second wellness tip? Do not “look up” to, or seek to emulate the very rich. Their multi-million-dollar communities aren’t gated to keep “the rabble” out. They are gated with high walls to keep prying eyes from seeing what goes on inside.
This level of “rich” easily affords their own cops because even as corrupt as most public police and Sheriff’s departments are, they still can’t be counted on to do necessary work to cover up for Class 1 felonies.
My second fiance was from a very wealthy family, also involved in the oil industry — like Armie Hammer’s. Flash forward 20 years: John died alone of liver failure in a hospital room, abandoned by his family. He never recovered from youth and young adult sexual molestation and assault. Like so many of us, he self-medicated to cope with the pain.
Armie Hammer states he was sexually molested by a youth pastor at age 13. I have no doubt this is true. Armie says this is why he became a twisted raping monster threatening to eat, and maybe even murdering and cannibalizing young women — crimes of which he is seriously suspected. A former partner has said he raped her; charges have not been pressed.
As I have written before and any of us with a remote awareness of what really goes on should know: these are not isolated instances.
The richer someone is, the greater the likelihood they will not just accumulate far too much cash due to hoarding behaviors, their wealth and privilege will also support the conduct of behavior that is not permitted among less-wealthy people. Class 1 felonies like rape and murder. Advanced property crimes like insurance fraud. I just saw social media mentions of the Alex Murdaugh case in South Carolina. Most people are stunned by how evil Murdaugh is, murdering his own wife and son, and potentially murdering his housekeeper to fraudulently take over $4 million in insurance money.
Murdaugh seems to have been aspiring rich. Who would like to be related to him?
Many people from rich families can tell stories of blood-chilling physical, mental, and emotional abuse: at the hands of those who were supposed to love and care for them. The story of John DuPont should indicate one potential path; Armie Hammer’s another. Still another: Robert Durst.
Think about how hard it is for “regular,” non-wealthy authorities — Sheriffs, police, District Attorneys — to chase down, gather evidence, and successfully prosecute rich, powerful people. The real world is not Colombo or Law & Order: SVU.
Example? Over 50 women had come forward to accuse Bill Cosby of very similar crimes: drug-aided rape. Cosby slipped any younger, attractive woman a roofie and then molested their unconscious bodies. Over and over again. Decades of it. Finally, he was caught. Finally, he was tried. And the old criminal is walking around scot-free right now as I type.
I just received a “form rejection” for a pitch to the Chronicle of Higher Education about the Bystander Initiative. It’s not in their editorial interest. Despite the fact that Penn State, Ohio State, UCLA, and MSU have all had extremely high profile sex molester cases on their campuses that have totals of thousands of victims: this “publication” doesn’t want to cover an academic effort to document and craft legislation to make even a small impact in the problem.
None of these people are people to “look up to” no matter how good their public reputation may seem.
It is all Graydon Carter. Nearly everything we read: paid for by the richest in the world. Investment advice — ends up enriching billionaires, not you. Worship of “lifestyles of the rich and famous,” ensures that young people will have stars in their eyes and talk to twisted creeps like Armie Hammer. Trusting Armie Hammer harmed countless young women and may have even cost some, their very lives.
The greater body of humanity: the overwhelming majority of us: do not rape. We do not gun down elite athletes in our driveway like John DuPont. We don’t dress up as women and murder our roommates or lifelong “best friends,” like Robert Durst.
The biggest tip of all that I can give others is: if they’re rich? Be more cautious than if they were the poorest homeless person living in a tent on a street corner. Take any and all steps you can to protect yourself. Don’t believe them if they tell you they have your best interests at heart. They don’t “love you.” They are raised in environments crueler than anything the majority of us could possibly imagine.
They are raised and nurtured in families rife with things that would turn the stomachs of the overwhelming majority of humanity.
They have created the entertainment you have traditionally consumed, that sells you a false image that there is such a thing as crime-and-punishment in the majority of cases, as opposed to little change from Javert in Les Miserables.
Rich people are predators, for the most part. That is how they became and stay rich. They teach each other methods of predatory behavior.
All this is, indeed, changing. The more information ordinary people have, the better they are able to protect themselves, survive, and thrive.
No, the very rich cannot be trusted. Nor should anyone aspire to “work for” them. These people’s day should be ending, as surely as there are no longer Roman emperors like Caligula to harm (what did he do, please remind me?) and devastate the lives of any and all around them.
Unlike others, I doubt Armie Hammer did himself much good with his interview. And it should chill everyone’s heart that he is seriously suspected of serial rape, murder, and dismemberments. And may or may not be stopped and brought to justice.
Money should not buy absolution. It should not buy endless “get out of jail free” cards. The day we stop worshipping money is the day we can see these people for what they are and put a stop to their crimes.
In the meantime, the best any of us can do is: protect our selves.
Substack note: these criminals and cases remind me of a “brush” I had when young, at age 13, when my grandmother (whose brain must have already been altered by Alzheimers) took me to the house on the “Hill” of Jimmy Sloan, the famous rich and never-employed ‘Photographer’ for the Boy Scouts. Sloan liked taking pictures of young women and girls in saucy poses. And this is what happened to Jimmy Sloan’s girlfriend when she was 17 years old. Flash forward many years later and old Jimmy Sloan wanted me to get naked at his house on the “Hill” in Redlands. Fun times.
Good post Amy.
I have not considered the ultra-wealthy from the angle of sex crimes but I have no doubts about the accuracy of what you state. I certainly have been considering them to be narcissists however. Completely fits the diagnosis. Power for the sake of power - even though it will never get them to a level of satisfaction that they seek.
Consider a person with $200-billion. All they can do is pursue $200,000,000,001. It is never enough because they never get what they want.
They seem to want to be loved but I have no idea what it is. They continue to pursue it endlessly because they will never find it. And they hold zero regard for others in their pursuit. Everything and everyone can be sacrificed for their unattainable goal. They are monsters. And we let them run the show. Unseating them from authority over us is my number mission. Thanks for the post.