Home > A RUEFUL LOOK AT GULLIBILITY
A RUEFUL LOOK AT GULLIBILITY
By Peter Fredson
There are many ways by which people learn the ways of the world. Experience is the prime teacher, but we also learn from other people. They can tell us about the hazards of life from fanged animals, smoking, taking drugs, imbibing alcohol, indulging in unprotected sex, speeding automobiles, smooth talking salespeople, scam artists, firearms, pedophiles, telemarketers, overindulging, bar room brawls, credit cards, and a host of other activities and occasions that merit close attention.
Children generally learn from parents and relatives that care for the welfare of children. Children, in turn, learn to rely upon advice of trusted people. The innocent of children may be just a step away from stupidity, depending on the outcome of activities and relationships.
Children are not naturally skeptics, but they soon learn about misplaced trust. They learn when siblings take advantage of their innocence to play pranks on them. They learn when schoolmates take advantage of their stupidity and they realize they have been humiliated. They learn when life activities bring pain, tragedy, some sort of loss, or when they bring joy and fulfillment.
In the normal course of growing up, children learn whom and what to trust. However, due to the propensity for some people to take advantage of trust, other people must be perpetually aware that “trust” is highly variable and sometimes is used to cover up horrendous schemes and activities. Hoaxes, dishonesty, embezzlement, broken promises, sudden savagery, lies, back-stabbing, theft, and similar outrages against normal conduct abound. Every day millions of people are swindled, robbed, and taken advantage of by scoundrels, investment brokers, and scam artists.
Everyone should be aware that there are people lurking everywhere, (in the streets, homes, offices, internet,) to take something away from other people. Reputation, credit, money, homes, income, health, jobs, and lives can all be taken away by unscrupulous people.
People who continually fall prey to false schemes are called “gullible.” Their hopes for a good outcome of some scheme are rarely squelched entirely. They can be fleeced over and over again.
"Many errors result from the human tendency to discover hidden meaning in seemingly random events,” was enunciated by psychologist Hyman. This tendency is responsible for most of the “religious” claims that have enriched and given employment to a million priests over many centuries. It has given rise to a host of “divinatory” schemes like fortune telling, crystal ball reading, palmistry, phrenology, tea leaf reading, and similar pretensions to foretell the future.
Religion and politics are the two areas of human endeavor where deception, lies, misinformation, and broken promises most come to fruition. Yet, gullibility strangely flourishes.
Mistaken beliefs represent entertainment for millions of gullible people who spend hours discussing aliens in space ships, canals on Mars, the Face of Mars, Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, Satanic Messages on recordings, the meaning of Stonehenge, Bible Codes, or the validity of politician’s promises.
Mark Twain was a champion of skepticism, writing about the gullibility of humans who are enchanted by superstition, phrenology, fortune telling, and any kind of fakery. He wrote about the schemes of fortune hunters, evangelists, card sharks, and similar creatures in scathing terms. We would do well to emulate his example in looking behind false scenery for the faker. We might do well in following the example of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz when he discovered that the mighty Wizard was simply an old man running a scam.
Do I believe that the level of gullibility is lowering? Do I believe that the schemes and lies of scam artists are becoming less? Do I believe that we should trust politicians more?
No!
Forum posts
3 June 2005, 18:09
Good work. It is interesting to note how psychologcial motivation factors into trust. In a system where almost everything you posses is had with money, children also learn how and who to get money from. They also learn that if they DO certain things they can get money or influence adults or others to get them things or to give them money. In this way capatilism is indoctrinated into our culture along with the schemes to obtain things and sometimes to LIE to get them, to CHEAT or to STEAL money from others to get them. The psychosocial value system of behaviors emenate from the causual elements of motivation and that in a capitalist system is money and who, where, how, and the whys of GETTING IT. In areas where the perception of possesions is higher as with rich children the expectations are many times also higher as to the availability of money and its influence on the psychological development and perceptions of the child. In this way money is used to teach and instill behaviors including many behaviors that many would consider antisocial including - stealing, conning, working, pandering, begging, and even exploitation of other values of character to obtain the goods or services that can be had through money. In this way greed and domination are taught and these values when developed further in profit schemes of businesses and economic development for profit plans instills the goal systems of valuations of people and commodities which then place social values into the matrix of moneys influence, meaning simple that friendships, personal values, and ethics will be subservient to the gaining of economic power which then leads to the psychological love and dependancy on money and the trust of its ability to influence and control behavior in many situations. As a result as we move closer to PURE CAPITALISM without restraint it can be seen that the PROFIT motives become more pure and dominant and will require the removal of social values systems like democracy, social expression and so forth because these lower the potential profits of any social interaction whose purpose is to extract money from the interaction.
Remember social interactions are no different from a childs game. If you say that the rules are that the one with the most money gets to do whatever they want to whomever they want because they have all the money, then if you continue to play the money game and agree to this AS A VALID MODEL OF SOCIAL INTERACTION AND PRODUCTIVE EXCHANGE then you will have play by the rules that the MOST DOMINANT PLAYERS establish and that may require LIES, WAR, MISINFORMATION, SOCIAL INJUSTICE, and SLAVERY--- for all those are profitable elements in the GAME OF MONEY. Just look outside your window into the world these players have created. Pretty nice huh?
destroy MONEY. create PEACE.
4 June 2005, 20:31
Yes anyone who believes in UFOs are idiots. Except you forget one thing. Some of the blievers in UFOs walked on the moon. Did you? Some of the believers in UFOs orbited the earth. Did you? Some of the believers in UFOs not only wrote but edited for some of the top science journals. Did you.
Yes we are all idots. Thank God there are more of us then you.
Joseph Capp
President Necom Resources
Witness to two dyalight flying disk
Brooklyn, NY Computer Programmer, Network administrator.
5 June 2005, 21:42
JOseph: Yes, I walked on the moon when I was 13 years old in 1938, and was a Heinlein and Azimov fan. I had a stack of science fiction mags over 3 foot high. I read until I spoiled my eyes. I often wondered, when our astronauts did walk on the moon, what took them so long? I fought Karelians in space and multiple-headed monsters a billion miles away. I always left open the question about other forms of intelligent life inhabiting other planets. I still have about 300 books on science fiction on my shelves. I try to distinguish between fact and fancy. I admit that human imagination has led to amazing inventions. I try to distinguish between idiots who wear tinfoil headgear and those who roiled the sand at Kitty Hawk. If you witnessed flying disks, well, good for you!
peter fredsib