EVERY MINUTE As I read the day's news I am often struck by the frequency of deceptions in the events of the day. How could people be so dumb?
At the same time, I am aware that people may be looking at me and having identical thoughts about my actions, lack of them, odd decisions and, at times, some strange ways. I suppose we are all likely candidates for being victims of con schemes...expecially self-induced ones. We can all be conned in a wide variety of ways, I'm sure.
A common area for such willingness to be scammed can been seen today in the medical and health products fields. Any figures you care to come up with will, in all likelihood, be away off base in estimating the amount of money spent on fake medications or diluted substances. Fraud and deceptions are running rampant in the medical field and just about all of us have fallen victim to them at one time or another....unwittingly or knowingly under the guise of curiosity and adventurous experimentation.. The weakness is evident many segments of our society. The victims of deception are to be found educated and affluent are a prime target for such deceptive practices as well. They are a costly target as well, because they have a marked tendency not to tell others how they have been "taken" .
Less than legal business practices are, tempting to the newly rich, in particular. It's part of "Sudden Wealth Syndrome" which we are hearing about in this time of new millionaires being created faster than ever before.
Health fads fool more people than we might imagine. Many such schemes operate -some legally (more or less) - for many years and build large followings. Thousands of people are "taken" daily by so-call vitamin products in pills and capsule form.... all colors, all sizes and shapes, shaped and styled to suit the imagined need of men, women and children. The edge of the medical field is also home to far too many charlatans practice pseudo-doctor careers at great profit - preying on the aged and infirm.
"Man's gambling instincts often rule our lives far more than we admit. The readiness to be conned is evident in just about every field of man's varied occupational interests. No one is totally immune.
Deception leads to intolerance, too. Racial and ethnic differences are turned from mole hills into mountains for monetary reasons and thousands of people "buy into" such tangential thinking, a great cost to all of us.
Few of us escape the common enemy of fraud. "Charity" campaigns often play on our gullible nature to forward other ends. We all need to re-examine our thinking along these lines from time-to-time....especially concerning "self-deceptions."
A.L.M. May 17, 2005 [c474wds]
