Welcome to the Third Degree: Tough, Brief, Weekly  Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. This Sunday we target:  Marks

  • With suckers supposedly born every minute, are we aware of the Big Cons out there and know about marks?
  • Are the biggest cons financial, scientific and political (FS&P)?
  • Are  marks so gullible to believe, in FS&P order, Something for Nothing, Nothing for Something, and Lies, Big and Little?
  • Would you ever elect to be a mark?
  • Are the con ropers and the steerers constantly identifying and cultivating marks,  often aided by an adulatory and unquestioning media?
  • Do you trust what you want to hear versus what you should hear?
  • Does repetition matter with deception obscured by expectation of gain, fear or promise?
  • How can we identify  the  con Insiders that subtly, or not, push the insider promise?  What do they represent?
  • What creates desire to be like them—on the inside and privileged, by wealth, cause or power?
  • To persuade, is it  the telling of tales (selective narratives), flashing some cash,  creating a drumbeat  of irrefutable  evidence, like climate change theology, or preaching what will happen if you do, or don’t, support  a particular policy or person?
  • Is the day carried by using a Convincer (more promise of things to come) and creating vulnerability via the Breakdown as cash, conviction or politics eliminate resistance?
  • Is the mark then “put on the send” to go do bidding:  Get money to invest, advocate fervently for a future of salvation versus extinction  and champion champions however cheap, cheesy and conniving?
  • Is the art and heart of the con a big payoff “taking off the touch”?
  • Does the now,  fully invested and excited mark think “winner”,  with results now so real, so right, and just over that next little hill or near  horizon?
  • Is the endgame termed  “cooling off the mark” or, less elegantly. “blowing him off”?
  • Done well,  is the cooling process  peaceful, even joyful, bureaucratically  elongated so that the con continues even though, at length,  loss is the outcome?
  • Does  the now abashed, even abased,  mark go into cover up mode from family, friends and even self (blame bad luck)?
  • Do addiction or forlorn hope often drive the mark back for more?   Happy Days are Here Again?  For whom?
  • Mark this perhaps, better to watch tracks than heed words and beware the big cons?

Socrates reminds:  “The unexamined life is not worth living. “ The answers and actions are yours.