bernie, the archetype

Ok, so I am totally intrigued by Bernie Madoff.  Not by the scandal as a whole, but by WHO he is, like Bernie Madoff: the person.   I don't see him as evil, I see him more as the supreme embodied modern archetype of 'in it for me at the expense of others'.   I think in some way, at some level I relate to him and that is why I wonder about him so much.  The fundamental question I have about him is if he actually has the ability to have the awareness that what he did was play out the collective greed of our society through his personal life.  Could he get that? I don't think he's a bad person.  I think he's a HUGE person who opened himself up and became a channel for something much much bigger than himself and he let go and immersed himself in that.  I think he justified getting for himself at everyone else's expense, but its so not about him--he LIVED out society's dark wantings.  Its so interesting to me that he supposedly knew and was expecting to get caught by the early 2000's, and at that point he was just in WAY too deep to turn back.  He realized he didn't have any choice but to keep on going....I find that concept and all of its implications horrifying and completely fascinating.

I grew up watching people totally self destruct.  Its so familiar.