THE GREAT SWINDLE

CONTENTS

• Overview / Caveat
• Basic Social Institutions Involved
• 'Victims' Aren't 'Innocent'
• Both 'Good' and 'Bad' Apples
• Swindlers Are Also Victims
• Pointing Finger of 'Guilt'

As we mentioned at the outset of this writing, the Great Swindle has been going on for a long time. There is no question but what it was already in operation by the time men learned to write and began recording history.

Consequently, we know that it began before historical times, and, it doesn't require too much of a stretch of logic to presume that it actually began to take root concurrently with the time men first began to band together into social groups.

This section will trace the development and history of the Great Swindle as it came to be a part of, and solidified within, the social institutions of men. We will trace the Swindle, in its institutional form, from its roots in pre-history right up to its current forms in modern times.

The Great Swindle operates most directly at the level of the Personal 'Sting' as we have previously discussed. However, by having become entrenched in the institutions of society, its operation is significantly reinforced, and takes on an entirely different and broader dimension than it has at just the personalized level.

OVERVIEW / CAVEAT

But, before going into the Institutional 'Sting' of the Great Swindle in depth, it is important to emphasize a crucial aspect of the overall Swindle itself, to which we have already alluded, and which runs throughout this writing about it.

The Great Swindle is not just a simple black and white drama of the 'good' guys vs. the 'bad' guys. As we have continually stressed, the Swindle could not operate if the victims, we, ourselves, did not set ourselves up for it, and actively participate in its perpetration.

And, being a Swindle that permeates the entire spectrum of human society, it is impossible to accurately and fairly point to any individual or group of individuals as being pure victim or pure perpetrator.

The TRUTH of the matter is that each and every one of us is, to a greater or lesser degree, both a victim and a perpetrator of the Swindle.

This section is going to focus on certain segments of society and seemingly single them out for special disapprobation as perpetrators. And, it is true that these particular segments of society, as groups, do seem to profit, at least in terms of Money/Power/Status, more directly from the Swindle than does the general population.

But, in singling them out, in the interests of fairness and accuracy, a few considerations must be kept ever in mind as being basic to, and running through, this entire discussion.

Firstly, the segments of society we will focus on here are the basic institutions of society. We will be focusing on these institutions for the very reason that they are  the basic social institutions they are. If the Swindle has become institutionalized, which it has, it had to do it within these basic institutions. And, since this section deals with the institutionalization of the Great Swindle, it must necessarily focus on these basic institutions.

Secondly, although those who function directly within these institutions are in a position to profit (at least in terms of Money/Power/Status) from the Swindle more than others, they couldn't do it if society as a whole didn't help them to do it. IGNORANCE and FEAR have been so extensive in society, that society as a whole has almost literally begged for, and even insisted upon, social institutions which would provide the illusion of "knowledge", regardless of how illusory that "knowledge" might be.

Thirdly, the individuals who make up the complement of these institutions cannot all be fairly tarred with a single brush of 'guilt'. As with all groupings of individuals, some are going to be exceptionally 'good' and decent human beings, and some are going to be exceptionally 'bad' and 'vile'.

But for the most part, most are going to be thoroughly average people, more or less, made up of a mixture of both 'good' and 'bad', who are doing the best they know how to do, with what they have to work with, under the circumstances in which they find themselves.

In other words, in each institution, there will be some genuine philanthropists, and there will be some genuine 'jerks' and outright, intentional swindlers. But, the vast majority will be somewhere in between these two extremes.

The vast majority will not have an abidingly conscious and malicious intent to swindle anyone.

Nonetheless, they all , from philanthropist to 'jerk', and every stage in between, fall into the role of Swindler within the context of the Great Swindle.

That such a seemingly paradoxical state of affairs can exist, is a major part of why the Great Swindle is so 'Great'. It is Great in that it operates on the massive scale it does. But, it is Great  in that it is so devious, so hidden, and so perverse in its operation, that, with the unwitting help of its victims, it makes Swindlers out of people who have no consciously formed intent to be such, and who, were it not for the Great Swindle, wouldn't be Swindlers at all.

(What could be a Greater  Swindle than one which continues to operate successfully, when even the vast majority who seem to benefit from it, the Swindlers themselves, don't have any genuine, conscious intent to Swindle anyone, and are as unwittingly caught up in their role as Swindlers as are the victims in their role as victims? As we have said from the outset of this writing, the Great Swindle can continue to operate only with the active participation of the victims. The fact that the victims continue to be Swindled, even though the vast majority of the seeming Swindlers have no intent to swindle  them, indicates, as clearly as anything can, just how potent, and essential, the role of the victim is in the operation of the Great Swindle).

Finally, the members of one institution who profit from their particular brand of the Swindle can, just as easily as the rest of us, be victim to the brand of the Swindle operated by the other institutions, and, all  of them, as with all of us in general, are, to one degree or another, victimized by the Swindle at the level of the Personal 'Sting'.

So, while this section does intend to indict the institutionalization of the Great Swindle, that is all it intends to do. It does not intend to indict the basic institutions themselves, nor the particular members of those institutions. (If we are going to look for individuals or groups of individuals to 'blame' for the Great Swindle in any fashion whatsoever, we must, first, each point the finger of 'guilt' at ourselves, before we can fairly, or accurately, point it in any other direction).