Down the Rabbit Hole

Louder Screams and the Great Con Game - December 11th

Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise
DAY 644 December 11, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/opinion/sunday/born-to-be-conned.html?_r=0
I read an interesting article this weekend and would like your opinion. "Honesty and greed are beside the point. We get ourselves into trouble because we're suckers for belief. What matters instead is greed of a different sort: a deep need to believe in a version of the world where everything really is for the best-- at least when it comes to us.." Do you agree or disagree? Are we born to be conned!

I completely agree with the ideas the author has presented here. I believe that we crave the world to be one way, respective of our personal beliefs and desires, and that we are prone to accept anything as true that supports our version of that world. I have experienced this same tendency myself, countless times. I am most vulnerable to gullibility the more I want something to be true. I think that may be one of the most insidious trappings of human nature, our ability to con and manipulate each other so expertly. I found the part about "no one joins a cult" particularly insightful. No one starts out on a path without believing something about the journey and the end destination, believing someone about it being intrinsically important to them. I believe however that the majority of us do things out of our nature to be better, to believe in a better world for ourselves and our children. The fact that we fall prey to deceit because of our nature to seek out and believe a better truth, gives me hope.


Blogging Circle of Friends
DAY 1122 December 11, 2015
Hi,
Two articles this past weekend struck a chord with me, I saved them to use for my turn with the prompts. Here is the link
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/opinion/the-arithmetic-of-compassion.html
"We can all relate to the saying ' One death is a tragedy: a million deaths is a statistic.'" "Why do we struggle to sympathize with large numbers of victims?" Are we psychologically numb? Simply desensitized? Or is simply people cannot relate to large numbers of deaths?

Another really insightful article that leaves one feeling less than happy about some of our ingrained human tendencies. I do think that it is easy to become overwhelmed in face of a crisis or event that effects millions. I believe we like to know our acts of charity and generosity matter, that they go to the good and that's easier to manage when its more localized, more personal. I still believe we experience tragedy in a very relative and personal space in our lives though. I think of Newtown for example, when I spent that morning watching the new footage and thinking of my own daughter, so close in age to those little ones who were taken away. For me it was less about the number of casualties that make it so very horrific but rather the young age of the majority of the victims and the fact that they were so helpless in their exposure. I would like to think the nation would have been appalled with those events if it had been only two or three children but I know it would never had garnered the media coverage either. That fact says ugly things about our society. I would like to believe we are not desensitized but we are bombarded with so much bad news, so much violence and unrest each day with social media and the news that things don't register on our radar's until they have reach a level of sensation that allow it to rise above the rest of the tide - until it comes a louder scream in a room full of ambient noise.