BERNIE Madoff, we hardly knew ye.
True, we know of your deeds well enough, and of the economic and personal devastation you visited upon so many, so expertly, like a blandly smiling Angel of Financial Death.
We still don’t know who assisted you — the Justice Department reportedly remains in active investigation mode on that — but we do know at least something of your methods. Although your techniques were not really original, inspired as they were by an until-recently obscure con-man by the name of Ponzi, they certainly achieved new levels of audacity, ambition and scope.
We extrapolate from that that you must be a very intelligent man, or at least an exceptionally cunning one, for how else but by sheer smarts could you have hoodwinked such an imposing array of knowledgeable and successful people, for such staggering and unprecedented sums?
We know a little about some of your many victims, for we have heard their stories of trust betrayed, of grand fortunes forever lost, of modest nest eggs plundered, of reducing some of your hapless victims to supplementing diets by rummaging in alley dumpsters.
We know of the awesome grief and anger of these victims and of the profound hatred of you they harbor, perhaps unwillingly, in the wake of your act of robbing them. Read the related news story
We know how your actions worked as a potent corrosive on the whole idea of trust, not just among your direct victims, but among all of us who heard of your deeds and learned from your example that even highly-recommended experts such as yourself — indeed, even our close friends, a cameo role you played effectively — cannot be trusted.
Still, for all that, Bernie, we hardly know you.
We remain puzzled by your motives, by what you hoped to achieve, by what was lurking in — or perhaps missing from — your heart and soul that would allow you to act as you did.
Was it nothing more than simple greed?
If so, then why steal at such an astonishing level, a level that virtually assured you would one day be discovered and brought to justice?
Would you not have been satisfied with a few million, even a billion? Did you become so addicted to the lucre rushing into your hands that you were intoxicated by it, so that you lost your bearings and good judgment?
Did your ego grow so inflated, your narcissism so consuming, that you came to believe yourself invincible?
Did that same narcissistic egotism and self-absorption make you blind to the plight of your victims? Did it somehow justify in your own mind your gratification at the dire expense of so many others?
Had you no sense of empathy, no ability to feel sympathy for those you hurt?
Did you forget the basic difference between right and wrong? Or did you, perhaps, never know it?
Yes, we heard your words at the sentencing hearing this week. You said that you were sorry, that you know that what you did was wrong, that you wish you could make amends.
Forgive us, Bernie. We have a serious credibility issue when it comes to con artists like you. Your words sounded like an attorney advised you to say them. They didn’t sound like they came from your heart, as if you really meant it.
For that matter, it didn’t even sound like you really get it, meaning that maybe you’re as confused about yourself and what you did as we are.
That’s sad for you, but infinitely sadder for those who were unfortunate enough to find themselves in your path.
In the end, we will save all our pity for them, and absolutely none for you.
As you embark on a prison sentence that will not be officially complete until the science fiction year of 2159, the only thing we can grant you is this: May you search your own soul to find the source of your wickedness, and when (and if) you find it, may your plea of forgiveness to your creator be heard and considered, knowing, of course, that even G-d Himself cannot forgive your crimes against other human beings.
Beyond that — and we say it without shedding a single tear — so long, Bernie. After all, we never really knew you.
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