THE GREAT SWINDLE

CONTENTS

• Victim as King-Pin
  • Process of Self-Victimization
    • The Swindle's Fuel: Self-Deception
    • Cultural Conditioning
  • The Swindle & Social Institutions Intertwined
• The Atheist
  • Atheist as Swindler
  • Atheist as victim: The Path to Atheism

We have now described the factors which set up the Great Swindle in ourselves as individuals and in society as a whole. We have shown how those factors function in creating and maintaining the Swindle, and how the Swindle operates within us at a personal level and at the societal level within the essential institutions of society.

Throughout this entire writing we have emphasized and re-emphasized the crucial role that the victim plays in the Great Swindle. We have continually stressed that the victims of the Swindle could not be victimized if they did not actively participate in it as victims.

We now re-state this concept of the victim's role in the Great Swindle in the clearest and strongest terms possible.

VICTIM IS 'KING-PIN'

The role of the victim in the Great Swindle is so crucial and so important to the successful operation of the Swindle, that if any human being qualifies as the 'King-Pin' or 'Boss-man' of the Swindle, it is the victim, himself, and no one else.

Even though the Shaman, the Expert, the Lawyer, the Politician and the Big-Businessman are the ones who primarily benefit from the Swindle in terms of Money/Power/Status, their role as Swindler was created by the victim, and they conduct it in a manner dictated by the victim.

And, as we have stressed earlier, two essential qualities about these seeming 'Swindlers' must be clearly recognized.

First, even they, in a broader sense, are as much a victim of the Great Swindle as anyone else. They are as susceptible to the 'Sting' of the Swindle at both its Personal and Institutional levels as are all the rest of us.

And, the majority of the people who play the role of Swindler have no conscious or malicious intent to 'swindle' anyone at all. They become Swindlers more because the victims have created the role (as a result of the Swindle's impact upon them) and insist upon someone fulfilling it than for any other reason.

Such a state of affairs does seem truly incredible, doesn't it!?

A Swindle on a massive scale, in which the supposedly 'innocent' victim, the 'good' guy, turns out to be, in FACT, the King-Pin of the 'bad' guys; and the 'bad' guys, those who appear to be most directly profiting from the Swindle, turn out to be not such 'bad' guys after all, and, indeed, victims themselves.

And, it is this state of affairs that makes the Great Swindle the truly Great  Swindle it is.

The fact that it operates on a massive scale, throughout human society, in and of itself, makes it a Grand Swindle. But the fact that we, the victims, are the basic culprits, and the only  basic culprits, and without even realizing  it, makes it the  truly Great  Swindle - a greater swindle than the most devious of minds could possibly conceive.

(What could possibly be a greater swindle than one in which the victim cheats himself - literally does it to himself - and doesn't even realize - indeed, isn't even suspicious  - that he is doing it? The scale of the deception involved in this Swindle makes the deceptions and illusions of Houdini, and all the great stage magicians combined, look like amateurish bumbling in comparison.)

And the scale of the loss sustained by the victims, loss not only in Money/Power/Status, but in happiness, health, peace of mind and a fulfilled and meaningful life, makes the total loss at the hands of all the bunco artists, manipulators, corporate thieves and political swindlers who have ever preyed upon their fellow men, look like nickel and dime kids games.

How can this be?

How can supposedly intelligent creatures such as ourselves end up in such a ridiculous situation as to be Swindling ourselves?

The process by which we have created this absurd situation for ourselves isn't so difficult to comprehend if we just look at it honestly.

As we said earlier on, we, each of us, bring into this life, as a part of our human make-up, the factors which pre-dispose us to setting ourselves up for the Great Swindle, ie., IGNORANCE and FEAR.

Very early in the societal development of our species, before men ever learned how to write, the factors of our own IGNORANCE and FEAR blended together to create the fuel which started the engine of the Great Swindle running. And, it has been running ever since.

And, we can now give a name to that fuel which is created by the blending of our IGNORANCE and FEAR.

It is Self-Deception .

Self-Deception is a highly appropriate name for the fuel of the Great Swindle, because that term fully describes the very mechanism by which we became, and continue to be, victimized by a Swindle in which we, ourselves, are the King-Pin.

We delude (illude?) ourselves into it.

Our early ancestors created the Great Swindle by way of their own Self-Deception. And we keep it going today by the very same means.

After our earliest ancestors first created the Great Swindle out of their own Self-Deceptions, they passed on both the Swindle itself, and the self-deceptive modes of thinking which underlie it, to their children, generation after generation. (What is impressed upon us as being "factual" or "reality" in our childhood, tends to control our view of "fact" and "reality" for the remainder of our lives).

As the Great Swindle, and its Self-Deceptive modes of thought, were passed on from each generation to the next, they became more and more solidified and entrenched within us with each successive generation.

And, as more and more generations of children have these Self-Deceptive views of "reality" imprinted upon them, these views take on the appearance of even more 'validity,' as a direct result of their being more and more widely accepted, and more and more rooted in tradition and history.

During the same early period that the Swindle and its Self-Deceptions were gaining legitimacy within society, with the passage of more and more time, society itself was also developing, and doing so through the development and growth of social institutions.

Due to this simultaneous development of the Swindle and of social institutions, the Swindle and those institutions became inextricably and intimately intertwined with one another.

Indeed, the social institution of religion likely would not have developed at all were it not for this simultaneous development of the Swindle and of our social institutions during their earliest, formative stages.

With the entrenchment of the Swindle in social institutions comes significant reinforcement for the Swindle, due to the tremendous impact social institutions have on the outlooks and modes of thinking of every person living within them, and every child raised within them.

If our early ancestors' BELIEF in the 'magical' powers of the Shaman was based only upon their own, individual Self-Deceptions, our personal tendency toward such Self-Deception is reinforced a thousand fold with the Shaman becoming firmly institutionalized, and the persuasive force of that institution working directly to encourage such Self-Deception throughout society.

And, in terms of its basic essentials, this pretty much brings us up to date with respect to how the Swindle got started, how it got to be what it is today, and why it is still operating so successfully.

On a personal, individual level, we delude ourselves into thinking we "know" things we don't truly KNOW, and, in the process, we fail to perceive a REALITY we would otherwise perceive were it not for that Self-Deception.

We delude ourselves as to our own TRUE nature and potential as living beings, and as to our place in the overall scheme of existence.

We delude ourselves as to the TRUE nature of God, and as to our own relationship with that Greater and Higher Being of existence.

We Swindle ourselves by literally giving  away to others, and denying to ourselves, the full potential of the Creative Power we are all born with to fully develop ourselves as intellectual/spiritual beings, and the power to create for ourselves a life filled with an abundance of fulfillment, meaning and LOVE.

And on a societal level, we, all of us together, further Swindle ourselves by means of the institutionalization of the Swindle.

Not only does the institutionalization of Self-Deception serve to reinforce our self-Swindle on a personal, individual level, but it also serves to create and maintain a lack of harmony, peace, and mutual support, respect and LOVE between groups of people at local, national and international levels. ('Us' vs. 'Them').

In short, we each set ourselves up for the Swindle through our own, individual and personal Self-Deceptions about "reality"; we reinforce one another in our self set-up and Self-Deception by way of the institutionalization of the Swindle; and we then pass it all on to our children, generation after generation.

Now, before going on to how we can reverse this tragi/comic state of affairs, and actually eliminate the Great Swindle from our personal lives and from society as a whole, there is one final point in this discussion of the responsibility of the victim which needs to be squarely touched upon.

Throughout this entire writing, we have pointed to the Shaman, in particular, and especially in his institutionalized form known as religion, as being the initial and primary beneficiary of the Swindle.

Yet now, we are indicting the victim as being the primary malefactor in the Swindle.

This might seem to let certain ones of us 'off the hook' as being personally responsible, as victims, for the Swindle, in its initial and most basic form - that of the Shaman's 'Sting'.

THE ATHEIST

We are speaking now of those who assert, and genuinely BELIEVE within themselves, that they are atheists - those who deny the existence of God, or any type of Greater or Higher Being, anywhere in the universe or in the totality of existence.

Since he has no BELIEF in a Greater Being, he would seem to be in no way a victim of the Shaman, because all that the Shaman has to sell is his supposed ability to influence that Greater Being which the atheist doesn't believe exists in the first place.

Consequently, the atheist can claim that since he is no victim of the Shaman, he is in no way responsible for the Shaman's share of the 'Sting' of the Swindle, which is the primary form of that 'Sting'. And therefore, he is 'innocent' as to a major, even the  major, aspect of the Swindle.

So far as being innocent of the 'Sting' of the Swindle as the Shaman manifests it in its Institutional form, he is absolutely correct.

However, being free of the Shaman's form of the Institutional 'Sting' really doesn't, in and of itself, free him of responsibility as a Victim/King-Pin in the Great Swindle in the slightest degree. He is still just as fully and completely and personally responsible for the entire Great Swindle as are all the rest of us.

There are two very substantial reasons for this.

The secondary, and less important, of these reasons is that although the atheist may not be involved directly in the Shaman's 'game' in the Swindle, he is still directly involved in all the rest.

He is just as susceptible as anyone else to the Personal 'Sting' of the Swindle. He is just as easily caught up in 'Who? Little Ole Me?', Erroneous "knowing" and the Conceit of Self as is the non-atheist. Indeed, he is even more likely to be caught up in the Conceit of Self as a direct result of his atheism.

As to the Institutional 'Sting', he plays the Expert's 'game'; he plays the 'game' of the Lawyer, Politician and Big-Businessman; and, he helps to maintain most, if not all, of the Grand Distractors.

But the most important reason why he is not in any way 'off the hook' of responsibility for the Swindle, simply because of his atheism, is due to a fundamental factor in the Swindle which this very discussion will help to underline and give fuller clarity to.

The FACT is, the atheist is just as 'guilty' of exactly the same fallacious mode of thinking that causes the Shaman's victim to be the victim he is. They are both equally 'guilty' of the same self-deceptive mode of thought. Only the intermediate results are any different. The final result is precisely the same in both cases.

The Shamanic victim creates the Shaman, and is victimized by him.

The atheist creates his own atheism, and is victimized by that.

They are both 'guilty' of Self-Deception, and on exactly the same point. And, they are both victimized by it.

The only difference is that one sets up an intermediary human agent to participate in his self-victimization, and the other accomplishes his self-victimization without the help of a second party human agent.

Both the Shamanic victim and the atheist are fully engaged in Erroneous "knowing". Both of them think they "know" something which neither of them truly KNOW.

The Shamanic victim presumes to "know" enough about God to be able to "know" that the Shaman can have some type of special "knowledge" of, and ability to influence, that God.

The atheist presumes to "know" enough about "reality", and about the ultimate nature of life and of his own being, to be able to "know" that no such thing as God, or any type of Higher or Greater Being, exists at all.

There is no way either of them, or anyone else, can truly KNOW enough about the ultimate and essential nature of REALITY to be able to KNOW as much about God, or the lack thereof, as either of them think they do.

If there is a God or some type of Higher Being, there is no way the Shaman or his victim can KNOW as much about 'Him' - or It - as they think they "know" - at least not in terms of the Shaman's 'special' ability to manipulate 'Him', or whether 'He' is even subject to such manipulation at all.

They may BELIEVE they "know" these things, but they can't really KNOW them.

By the same token, if there is no God or Higher Being, there is no way any of us can KNOW that either.

The atheist may have what he considers to be good reason to doubt or deny the existence of a Higher or Greater Being [or at least a God as portrayed by the Shaman and many of his religions]. But, as with the Shaman and his victim, all that such doubt can be is a BELIEF. He can't KNOW that there is no Greater Being, because there is no way  he can  KNOW it.

So, both the Shamanic victim and the atheist are 'guilty' of Erroneous "knowing" and upon the same point. And, they are both, in equal measure, victimized by it.

The Shamanic victim is victimized by giving away to the Shaman the better part of his own personal link and direct relationship with his own Higher Creative and Spiritual nature, and paying the Shaman in Money/Power/Status for conducting the theft.

The atheist is victimized by foreclosing to himself that same better part of his personal link and direct relationship with his Higher Creative and Spiritual nature, by denying the existence of the very source of that Higher nature.

And, finally, with respect to the atheist's being a victim of the Shaman, in the most fundamental sense, he is as much a victim of the Shaman's 'Sting' as is the more obvious victim.

His atheism is as much, or more, a direct reaction to, and against, the Shaman's 'Sting', as it is the result of any deep seated, inner light within himself. He has actually arrived at his atheism by way of a process of throwing out the baby with the bath water.

The process which leads to atheism (which begins with a non-Swindlous basis but ends up Swindlous nonetheless) goes something like this:

[1]. There is a possibility that a Higher or Greater Being exists, but I can't be sure one way or the other, and I'm not sure how to go about finding out for sure.

[2]. The Shaman says he "knows' for sure, and that that Higher Being's name is 'God'.

[3]. The Shaman's actions and professed "knowledge" make him highly suspicious in my rational and intellectual mind :

[a]. Each Shaman claims to "know" things about God that I don't BELIEVE he can KNOW at all - they "know" his name (I'm not sure He even has a name, but they "know" what it is); they "know" He's a 'He' (how do they "know" that?); they "know" quite a bit about His likes, dislikes and moods (as though any of these human traits are even applicable to Him); and they "know" all these things as a result of a book they "know" He had a personal hand in writing (actually, several books, all of which disagree with one another in significant points, if they actually say what the Shamans say they say, and the Shamans disagree with one another on that).

[b]. These Shamans exist in a confusing array of dissimilar factions, all of which are in contention with one another, each of them claiming to be the only "true" one, and none of which TRULY practice what they preach in terms of their own Higher ideals.

[4]. To an educated mind, most, if not all, of the Shamans are frauds who traffic in the IGNORANCE and FEAR of their victims, and whose preachings of 'spirituality' and 'love' are nothing more than a cover for their own grasping for Money/Power/Status.

[5]. As a result of all the above, I don't BELIEVE anything the Shaman says about anything .

[6]. Since the Shaman is the only one around making so much noise about there being a God for him to "know"" so much about, and I don't believe anything about anything the Shaman says, and I am suspicious of anything having to do with the Shaman, I don't BELIEVE in such a thing as God at all.

[7]. And, since any type of Greater or Higher Being is a form of that God that I totally discount as a result of the Shaman, I don't BELIEVE in any form of such a Higher or Greater Being either.

In short, the atheist has allowed the Shaman's shortcomings, as gross and obvious as they may be to an educated and rational mind, to answer for him, in the negative, the initial question of whether or not there is a Higher or Greater Being. He has answered that fundamental question out of reaction against the Shaman, rather than out of his own inner search for his own inner lights on the subject.

Such an atheist would be well advised to go back to step #1 in the above process, eliminate all the rest of the steps, and seek out his own answer to that initial question for himself.

If he does so, he might find that he really isn't an atheist at all.

One need not adopt any particular brand of organized religion, or the BELIEF in any particular specifics about the nature of God, or of a Higher or Greater Being, in order to BELIEVE in the existence of such a Higher or Greater Being.

And, if one BELIEVES in the existence of a Higher or Greater Being, in any fashion whatsoever, one is not actually  an atheist.