THE GREAT SWINDLE

CONTENTS

• Free Market Economy
• Goal Is Wealth - Not Production
• Manipulation & Monopoly
• Economic 'Phenomena'
• Machiavelli

This Grand Distractor is an adjunct to the Grand Distractor of the value of money and wealth.

The Distractor of Money/Power/Status causes us to misconceive the value of wealth.

Then this Distractor takes that misconception as a "reality", and tells us the 'best' way for going about creating and distributing that overvalued wealth.

And, that 'best' way is by way of unfettered economic competition in the 'free' market place.

Actually, there is merit in this idea. And, in isolated circumstances in which such competition is TRULY unfettered and fair , and with some compassion and 'heart' in it, it can produce some very good results.

However, in the more usual circumstance, in which the attitudes and BELIEFS underlying the Great Swindle in general, and the Distractor of Money/Power/Status in particular, are in operation, the competition that results is often neither fair nor compassionate, and is not  TRULY free, open and unfettered.

The idea of 'free' market competition, when attempted in a Swindlous context (ie., in a setting in which the Swindle's Distractors are in operation) results in the creation of a self-fulfilling prophecy of a truly 'dog eat dog' world.

So, the difficulty with this Distractor is more the milieu of the Distractors within which it operates than this Distractor itself, even though the direct linkage between the two isn't generally and sufficiently recognized.

Nonetheless, by being painted as almost sacrosanct in the minds of many people, this Distractor throws up an additional cloud of dust to add to the already fogged situation regarding wealth.

And in this way, this Distractor is, itself, pernicious.

If we truly BELIEVE that economic life is a'dog eat dog' world, we help to make it so, by way of ourselves acting on that BELIEF.

And when we do that, our concerns about fairness and compassion go right out the window, in an effort to avoid being the dog who gets 'eaten'.

Remove fairness and compassion from economic competition, and it becomes vicious, 'cut-throat' and 'Do unto others before  they do unto you'.

And when this becomes the REALITY , two consequences follow.

First, the primary goal of this type of 'heartless' competition becomes, not the improved production and distribution of wealth that is the only avowed justification for the whole concept of competition in the first place, but, rather, the accumulation of money/power/status.

The focus is no longer on doing a good job and producing a better product, and everyone benefiting as a result. The focus is now upon, not  producing and distributing wealth, but upon accumulating  it.

This, in and of itself, tends to defeat the underlying purpose of the whole idea of economic competition as being the best way to create  wealth.

Secondly, once the focus is upon the accumulation  of wealth, and of money/power/status so as to enhance that accumulation, rather than its production , one's energies are more logically directed toward that end.

And one of the better ways to accomplish the accumulation of wealth is to manipulate the economic system itself, in general, and to create monopolies in particular.

And, that, in many instances, is exactly what has happened.

Once manipulation and monopolization set in, the market place is no longer TRULY free  and unfettered. It becomes skewed and out of balance, often seriously so.

And if it isn't actually free and unfettered, the underlying purpose of the whole concept of economic competition is defeated.

One highly instructive aspect of this Distractor is the tendency to look upon the workings of our economic system as though it were some type of 'natural phenomenon'; to view the economic system as though it is as subject to natural, scientifically discoverable 'laws', and otherwise as mysterious and beyond our control, as hurricanes, the tides, the sun, and the atom.

Indeed, this concept of the economic system as being a 'natural phenomenon' is the whole basis for the existence of the expert known as the 'economist', who studies the workings of these 'phenomena'.

And while there is some validity to this concept, it is far too often used as a blind to hide the obvious.

Is the national debt totally out of control? It's a 'natural phenomenon' the economists need to study for us.

Is there a recession or a depression? It's a 'naturally' occurring 'business cycle', like the cycles of the seasons and the tides.

Are the prices of oil and the costs of health care going through the ceiling?

Are housing costs getting so high that some people can no longer afford a roof over their head, while high rise office buildings are going up alongside vacant office buildings next door?

Is the stock market into some erratic phase?

It's all 'naturally' occurring phenomena that only economic analysts have any hope of figuring out.

Well, this just simply isn't TRUE.

It is all  a result of the Grand Distractors of the Great Swindle in operation.

Every  economic 'dislocation' and problem is a result of one thing, and one thing only.

It is the result of an economic system which places more emphasis on the accumulation of wealth, and thus on manipulation and monopolization, than on fairness and compassion.

And this misplaced emphasis would not be taking place were it not for the Grand Distractor of the Value of Money/Power/Status operating.

And we would all clearly see this FACT, if the Distractor of Economic Competition as being somehow a 'natural' and sacrosanct concept, was not blinding us to it.

If some human being is paying exorbitant costs, some other human being is receiving those payments.

If some human being is under crushing debt, some other human being is his creditor.

If some human being is losing on the stock market, some other human being is winning.

What we are doing here, of course, is pointing out the obvious.

And, that is precisely why we are doing it.

It is obvious  !

Economic suffering and 'dislocation', to the point of even homelessness and starvation, are not the result of some 'natural' phenomena seriously beyond our ability to understand or control.

They are the result of what human beings are actively doing, or allowing to happen, to other human beings.

It is just that simple!

And, quite often, we KNOW this.

Yet, even more often, we act  as if we don't  KNOW it.

Why do we do this?

The Great Swindle, and in particular the Grand Distractors we are discussing here, give us reason to blind ourselves to the REALITY of what is happening.

Erroneous 'knowing' and the Conceit of 'Self' create these Grand Distractors, and the Distractors themselves blind and cow 'Who? Little Ole Me?' into going along with them, rather than recognizing them for what they are and correcting for them.

A 'free' and 'open' market place is a good idea, if what we mean by this is one free of artificial restraints.

But when a 'free' market place results in manipulation and monopolization, it is no longer free. Manipulation and monopolization are significant forms of artificial restraints on the freedom of the market place.

And it is only the Distractors of the Swindle which justify and allow for the emergence of manipulation and monopolization.

The BELIEF that it's a 'dog eat dog' world causes the concept of a free market place to degenerate into a deceptive and tragic caricature of itself.

The idea of 'it's a dog eat dog world' does to the free market place what Gen. Sherman's homily of 'War is Hell' does for warfare, and what Machiavelli did for international politics.

They each allege to recite "reality", in its most negative expression, as being the fundamental "reality", and in doing so, reinforce and sustain that most negative view of "reality" as being the fundamental, and therefore most important, "reality".

They reinforce and sustain self-fulfilling 'prophecies' of the most negative sort.

If the "reality" they have put into such cogent words is truly REALITY, it is due as much, or more, to the fact that by putting it into such clear and easy words they have significantly reinforced BELIEF in the negative "reality" they speak.

We shall go into this concept of not only reinforcing REALITY, but actually creating  it, by way of our BELIEFS about it, in The 'Arrest'.