Lefsetz: Sex, Power, Rock ‘n’ Roll & Harvey Weinstein

Don’t you get it, he wanted to be a rock star…

They suck up to the high school football stars, all the untouchable cheerleaders. You tread the halls feeling like a nobody, scoring well in math and science but absolutely invisible on the social scene.

Then you go to college. You smoke a little dope. You drink a bit of alcohol, maybe even get laid. Not that you reveal your insecurities to anyone. College is all about image – you want to look like a big, swinging dick, even if you’re not.

And then you find someone who loves you, who cares for you, and you get married, while you play your role at the corporation, while you’re a cog in the system.

Or, you’ve got bigger dreams – you want to triumph. You gain money, and power…

Then you want to get laid. You want all the perks you missed out on for decades.

I’m not talking about serial abusers. They exist. According to statistics they commit the lion’s share of rapes. They need to be dealt with. But they’re a different species.

No, I’m talking about nerds.

People who flew straight forever and then wanted the payoff.

And the thing is if you’re a rock star, the women throw themselves at you.

Not necessarily the ones you want, but the parade is endless. That’s not exactly why musicians enter the field, but they’re socially awkward, certainly the greats. And they believe if they get this music thing right their whole lives will work.

And when they find out it doesn’t, that they achieve success and still have the same problems, they can’t write another hit tune – they’re done. They’re lucky if they’ve got enough hits to ply the boards until they die. But even late in their days, they can get laid.

You see a rock star speaks through his music, and when done right music is life itself. And we’re all drawn to it, men and women, we want to feel the buzz. And I’m not apologizing for the sometimes crude and over the line behavior of rock stars. Hell, just Google “Led Zeppelin mud shark.”

But the truth is the women come to you, they don’t come to businessmen.

Oh, some do. But some are transparent, and the businessmen are sophisticated. They’re wary of getting involved with a gold digger. And they believe they’ve earned the best and the brightest.

A rock star is satisfied with getting his dick sucked by any woman. A businessman needs a supermodel, someone elite and beautiful. Because this is the currency in their world, all the trappings of wealth and success, a fancy car, a fancy house and if you’re truly rich a private jet, and a beautiful woman on your arm.

True, rock stars marry gorgeous women too, but they’re compromised. Whereas the businessmen are fully-formed. They know what they’re getting into. They need it even more, to show off.

So there you have the culture of the executive suite.

I’m not condoning it, just detailing it.

What did Harvey Weinstein possess, other than power?

He was far from beautiful. He didn’t create art, he was just a powerbroker.  And never underestimate power. It’s more important than money, although oftentimes they go hand in hand.

Money will pay your bills. But power will get you noticed, will allow you to pull levers and get respect, be feared, and will deliver the trappings.

Come on, Harvey Weinstein invented the modern day Oscar campaign. Before him it was civilized, you didn’t want to lobby too hard.

And Harvey didn’t only do his business, he socialized, he wanted the accolades. He had a need deep inside, as most successful businessmen have, one that usually cannot be filled. But businessmen are at their peak longer than rock stars, and they’ve got more money.

And the conundrum is women are attracted to power.

Women say they want a soft, sensitive guy, but this is untrue.

They prefer someone rough around the edges, someone different from them, evidencing testosterone. And you can argue with me all you want, but the relationship expert Esther Perel agrees with me. It’s hard to say the politically incorrect thing.

But now the businessmen complain there’s been an overcorrection.

You cannot read the New York Times without finding a woman complaining the system has kept her down. And I don’t doubt the veracity of these claims, it’s just that men feel beaten down by this, and impotent. I’m referring to the rank and file. The ones doing good. And the right wing wingnuts, who have contempt for females and successful people.

But the elite… they cannot be contained, just like rock stars.

Rock stars don’t stop trashing hotel rooms, their road manager just continues to whip off hundreds. Just as Harvey Weinstein continued to whip off settlements. They believe they’re untouchable, and to a certain degree they are. They’ve got PR teams to spin the truth and high-priced lawyers to aid them in escaping liability. They don’t read the news, THEY MAKE THE NEWS! That’s their perspective.

And the weird thing is we oftentimes like their work.

We love Miramax films; we swear by Uber. That’s the culture we live in. We venerate the successes until the truth is revealed, that personally these people are scumbags making immoral choices.

Kinda like that politician who is pro-life but urged his mistress to get an abortion. When it comes to them, the rules don’t apply.

Politics is show business for ugly people.

But still, Judith Miller helped get us into a war, being dazzled with access to the Bush team.

We all want access, we all want to get backstage, we all want more.

We’re just not prepared for the cost.

I’m not saying those women abused by Harvey were asking for it. I’m just saying there’s a dichotomy between the powerful and the powerless. And if you sit on the sidelines, hewing to your morality, you get nowhere. And if you take a risk, you may get bit.

But that’s America, a contradiction.

We love our guns and look the other way when they’re used in crimes. And there’s a code, you protect your family and the elite powerbrokers protect each other, until the gotcha event occurs.

But the weirdest thing is Donald Trump was caught again and again and won anyway, and then turned on his accusers, calling them fake news.

Rehab ain’t gonna fix Harvey Weinstein.

This is why he’s competing, it’s baked into his DNA. He wants the rich and famous perks, otherwise why do it? Like all the wanker financiers who trade in their first spouse for a trophy wife, they feel they’re entitled to it!

What are we entitled to in America? A job, a roof over our head, food on the table?

Actually, none of that. More and more it’s every man for himself.

So you’re surprised when Harvey Weinstein climbs the ladder and takes liberties?

I’m not.