THE GREAT SWINDLE

Every successful bunco artist knows that his confidence scheme can't work without the active participation of the victim. The victim must already be predisposed to being a victim as a result of his own avarice, his own gullibility, or his own inner fears.

The same holds true in the greatest swindle of them all.

The Great Swindle could not succeed if we, the victims, did not already have within our inner makeup the predisposing factors it requires.

The Great Swindle requires these predisposing factors in its victims in order to succeed just as surely as an internal combustion engine requires fuel in order to run. If we should ever deprive the Swindle of the fuel which we, ourselves, provide for it, and which it needs in order to operate, the Great Swindle would stop as dead in its tracks as a car which has run out of gas. And, so long as their fuel remains unavailable to them, neither the car nor the Great Swindle would ever be able to start up again.

How can we deprive the Great Swindle of its fuel?

By understanding just what that fuel consists of, and how it serves to keep the Swindle going. With such an understanding, we can break that fuel down into its component parts and redirect those components into directions other than into being fuel for the Great Swindle.

It is the purpose and hope of this writing to provide such an understanding of the Great Swindle itself, and of those factors within us which serve to fuel it. And with that understanding will come the recognition that each of us possess the power within ourself to shut down the Swindle's fuel supply forever. All we need do is exercise our inner power, and the pump will run dry. The Great Swindle will sputter to a halt, never to run again.

With that being said, let's now go into the matter in depth.

Those factors within us, those aspects of our total makeup as human beings which predispose us to being victims of the Great Swindle, are two, and only two :

Before taking each of these predisposing factors individually, there are a couple of fundamental truths about both of them that need to be clearly recognized.

Firstly, these are the only  two factors in our makeup as human beings which provide fuel for the Great Swindle. Whatever other negative characteristics of human nature one might perceive, such other characteristics, if looked at closely, will be seen to be, in actuality, sub-facets of one or the other, or a combination of both, of these two.

Human nature sometimes appears to contain a wide array and variety of negative characteristics by which we victimize ourselves and one another, such as anger, greed, violence, intemperance, dishonesty, laziness, bigotry, cowardice, etc., etc.

However, as this writing will clearly demonstrate, none of such negative qualities are independent human characteristics which only rear their ugly heads as a result of some 'character flaw' in the individual exhibiting them.

Rather, when analyzed carefully, each and every one of these negative characteristics will be seen to be nothing other than simply manifestations of one or both of the two fuel components of the Swindle.

Secondly, neither IGNORANCE nor FEAR are such a part of our nature as to be inherently beyond our ability to control. They may be major factors within us, which they are, and they do have major and damaging impacts upon our lives - if for no other reason than that they are the fuel for the Great Swindle. But, they are not outside our power to control them. We can each overcome them and their effects upon our personal lives as individuals, and, together, we can overcome their damaging effects upon human society as a whole.

Keeping these two basic considerations in mind, let's now take a closer look at these two fuel components of the Swindle.

-IGNORANCE -

The unabridged dictionary defines 'ignorance' as follows:

And that pretty well defines it, at least in general terms.

However, there are two aspects of IGNORANCE which are too often overlooked as being the aspects of IGNORANCE they truly are.

(a). Erroneous "knowing"

With regard to the first such often overlooked aspect of IGNORANCE, the reason it is so often overlooked as being such is that it masquerades itself as just the opposite of IGNORANCE. It dresses itself up as and pretends to be 'wisdom' and "knowledge" - things which it isn't at all. And because it is so deceitful and misleading, it is one of the worst forms of IGNORANCE and one of the most sinister and destructive.

Erroneous "knowing" is operating when we "know" something to be a "fact", which, in actuality, either isn't a FACT at all, or, is something about which we can't truly KNOW factually, one way or the other.

(It has been said, 'It is better that we not know so much than for us to know too many things wrongly'.  There is much wisdom in that statement).

This most sinister aspect of IGNORANCE works its evil in two major ways.

Firstly, it causes us to perceive reality incorrectly, and, therefore, we don't perceive REALITY at all. The "reality" we perceive isn't the REALITY that actually is.

Secondly, thinking we "know" something we don't truly KNOW - "reality" - causes us to switch our minds off to any other way of perceiving reality, and, therefore, forecloses our ability to ever perceive REALITY as it actually is.

To put this another way, since Erroneous "knowing" is indeed erroneous, what this "knowledge" tells us about "reality" very often contradicts other perceptions we have of REALITY. We do  have other perceptions of reality besides those which we supposedly, but erroneously, "know" about it.

But whatever things our "knowledge" about "reality" tells us about reality, we tend to assume must be true. Consequently, if our other perceptions of reality (especially those we have by way of intuitive INSIGHT) contradict what our "knowledge" tells us, we tend to automatically discount those other perceptions as being somehow false or wrong.

In other words, in the name of "reality" we deny the validity of contradictory perceptions which just might disclose REALITY. For the sake of "knowledge", false "knowledge", we shut ourselves off to the chance of finding truth, real TRUTH.

(See further on this in the discussion of FEAR).

We are all guilty of 'jumping to conclusions' sometimes in our lives (perhaps some more than others?). And, we have all no doubt experienced the unhappy and unfortunate results of our, or someone else's, having done so.

Such 'jumping to conclusions' is nothing other than a form of Erroneous "knowing".

We think we "know" the "facts" when, in actuality, we don't KNOW the FACTS.

And, quite often, we act upon our inaccurate "knowledge" to the detriment of ourselves, or others, or both.

Most of us, if we think about it, will probably recognize that 'jumping' to erroneous conclusions is the result of our accepting as "facts" certain assumptions and preconceptions about reality, which turn out to be incorrect and misleading.

Nor are too many of us unaware of the negative consequences which often flow from 'jumping to conclusions', or unmindful of the need to guard against such inappropriate thinking in certain circumstances (such as hastily accusing someone of a misdeed who is in truth innocent).

But, what does appear to be a massively concealed secret, or, at least, what far too few of us seem to be aware of, is that 'jumping to conclusions' doesn't just operate in the more mundane and superficial aspects of our daily lives. It is not, like the possibility of a falling brick hitting us on the head, something so unlikely to happen, or, like the common cold, of such insignificant consequence when it does happen, so as to not be worth concerning ourselves with as we proceed with our day to day activities.

Far too many of us, as individuals, and human cultures as a whole, have already taken a 'jump' (a gigantic leap , actually), and continue 'jumping', every day, to conclusions about the most basic aspects of fundamental reality, which conclusions affect us in our day to day lives in the most intimately personal way possible, and in a way that is both Swindlous and often tragic.

These conclusions we have 'jumped' to are in FACT erroneous, and the extent of the 'jump' we have taken in reaching them is so great that we not only don't realize that we have so jumped, or that the conclusions we have jumped to are so seriously incorrect and injurious, but many of us aren't even vaguely suspicious  that we have done so, or of the consequences.

Far too many of us take our assumptions and preconceptions about the existence and nature of God, about the potential and limitations of human society and the nature of mankind in general, and about the inherent nature of our personal selves as human beings, and treat these assumptions and preconceptions as though they were "facts".

And, unfortunately, far too often these conclusions we have 'jumped' to and accepted as being "facts" about these most fundamental and basic aspects of reality are, quite simply,wrong  ! The "facts" they bespeak about "reality" are not  the FACTS about REALITY. In short, we are ensnared in the trap of the Erroneous "knowing" aspect of IGNORANCE, and at its most debilitating level of operation.

It is Erroneous "knowing" at this level which is its contribution to the 'Shills' of the Grand Distractors by which the Great Swindle is enabled to operate under our very noses.

Now, this is a very sweeping and potentially unsettling statement. And, since it is, let's try to make as certain as we can that the concept it contains is as clearly understood between us as possible.

We human beings, as the total of the entire species that we are, simply don't yet (and may never) possess enough concrete KNOWLEDGE about the fundamental nature of 'God', or about life, or about human society, or about human beings as individuals, to be able to form any FACTUAL conclusions about the fundamental nature of any of them. We can form conclusions, but these conclusions can't genuinely be called FACTS.

The most we can accurately call whatever conclusions we might reach about these fundamental qualities of existence, if we feel the force of them strongly enough within us, is BELIEFS. But we cannot, at least not accurately, call them FACTS.

So long as we recognize these limits on our conclusions, we are okay.

So long as we treat them, and act upon them, as being the unproven (and, as yet, unprovable) BELIEFS that they are, there is no harm done.

But, when we cross over that line, and start treating and acting upon our conclusions and BELIEFS as though they are incontrovertible "facts", we lay ourselves wide open to becoming, and remaining, both victims and perpetrators of the Great Swindle.

Far too many of us have already crossed over that line, without even realizing that we have done so.

And the Swindle is going strong.

This is not to say that any particular conclusion or BELIEF about the fundamental aspects of reality is wrong. It may be right, it may be wrong, or somewhere in between. It is simply to say that no such BELIEF is, or can be made to be, provably  right or accurate (at least not yet, with the current state of our actual KNOWLEDGE). Therefore, no particular BELIEF can be called a FACT. None of us can say for certain, and each of us must decide which BELIEF is right for himself.

And that is the whole point of all this.

We must each decide for ourselves !

And, in so deciding, we would be well advised to form our own  conclusions and BELIEFS, rather than blindly accepting the assumptions and preconceptions others have provided for us.
(See Power of Choice, below).

But, whatever we BELIEVE, and however we came to hold that BELIEF, to treat and act upon it as though it is a "fact" is most assuredly wrong!

It is wrong because it is erroneous, ie., not FACTUAL to do so; and it is wrong because to do so sets us up to be Swindled.

(b). Conceit of Self

The second major aspect of IGNORANCE that we often don't recognize as being the form of IGNORANCE it truly is, is the one we call the Conceit of Self. It is the result of our Sense of Self operating on its lower octave, and becoming Conceited as a result.

The Sense of Self, in and of itself, is neither inherently Swindlous nor otherwise damaging. It is our Intuitive awareness of an essential aspect of the REALITY of our make up, that we are  separate and distinct as individuals at one level of our being. It would be naive (erroneous) to try to deny that FACT.

However, the Sense of Self does become destructive when it becomes Conceitful (and, thus operating primarily on its lower octave). In Conceit, it blinds us to a FACT that is of equal importance to the fact of our uniqueness as individuals:

To the extent we fail to comprehend this FACT (which is to a large extent, indeed), we are suffering from the Conceit of Self aspect of IGNORANCE. And, we are contributing to the successful operation of the Great Swindle in the process.

This aspect of IGNORANCE is the primary causitive factor underlying the Grand Distractors of 'I Am An Island' and 'Us' vs 'Them' as we have already discussed.

(c). 'WHO? LITTLE OLE ME?'

A singularly significant manifestation of not only the IGNORANCE component of the Great Swindle, but of the entire spectrum of The Swindle's operation, is the syndrome we call, 'Who? Little Ole Me?'

Indeed, this particular syndrome is such a singularly significant manifestation of the Swindle, it is given special emphasis throughout this writing by way of being separately set out and dealt with in each relevant discussion.

This syndrome is the result of either the Conceit of Self aspect of IGNORANCE, or of FEAR, or a combination of both.

It manifests itself in the kind of thinking that says, 'Who? Little Ole Me? I have no power. I have no impact. All power and impact reside in forces outside and beyond me. I'm not responsible for the way things are.'

Anyone caught up in this type of thinking (and most, if not all, of us are, to one extent or another), is suffering from a massive dose of IGNORANCE.

As surprising, and even amazing, as it may seem to us at times, we, each of us, are born with and possess our share of the Power in this life to create or change things, for the better or the worse (or to simply leave them just as they are).

To whatever extent anyone in the world, including even the U.S. President and the Catholic Pope, may appear to possess the power to affect us personally, and the world around us, for good or for ill, each of us has an equal amount of power to do exactly the same, and to the same extent.

In short, if any human being is responsible for the way things are, in one's personal life or in the world at large, we are, each of us, equally responsible. If things aren't the way we would like them to be in our personal lives or in our culture or in the world at large, we are each fully equally responsible for the way they are, and for the lack of improvement.

If equating the power of the U.S. President or the Pope with that of the average person seems naive or unrealistic to you, consider:

Whatever power, political or otherwise, these offices and their incumbents might possess, they possess only because we, as individuals acting as a social group, give it to them. They don't take it from us - we give  it to them.

And, this holds true with respect to all  our relationships, from The President and Pope on down to our spouses, employers, neighbors and acquaintances.

A bullying or otherwise intimidating person does not gain power over us to cause us to do or refrain from doing things we don't really like simply by being bullying or intimidating.

Nor does a person who does things which annoy, irritate, anger or hurt us gain any power over us simply by doing the things he does.

What does  create power over us in another person, be he the President, an intimidating employer or spouse, or an annoying neighbor, is our allowing  who he is, or the things he does, to cause us to give  him power over us.

The President cannot preside over us unless we acquiesce  in his power to do so.

The bully cannot intimidate us unless we allow  his threatening manner to cow us.

The spouse or neighbor cannot annoy, anger or hurt us unless we permit  whatever it is they do, to arouse these unpleasant emotions within us.

And this brings us to the Key Point  as to how the 'Who? Little Ole Me?' syndrome operates within us.

Although our acquiescing, allowing and permitting may not be a positive and direct act on our part, it is nonetheless an exercise of the most fundamental and basic creative power we possess.

By doing nothing more than simply acquiescing and allowing, we are, in fact, exercising the one power we were born with which is even more fundamental than whatever power we might give to another, and the one power we always retain and simply can not  give away, no matter how hard we might try to do so.

That power is the POWER of CHOICE.

(d). POWER of CHOICE

In order to even be able to give away to another person any kind of power over us at all, even by way of mere acquiescence, we must first CHOOSE to do so.

If, in acquiescing, we are unaware that we are actually CHOOSING to acquiesce, then we are, indeed, deeply enmired in the bog of IGNORANCE.

Either we are simply unaware  that we are in FACT exercising our POWER of CHOICE when choosing to acquiesce, or, either the Conceit of Self or Erroneous "knowing" has somehow convinced us that we don't have any POWER of CHOICE in the first place.

Whichever aspect of IGNORANCE might be at the root of a particular person's failing to recognize, or tendency to doubt, his own continuing POWER of CHOICE regardless of the circumstances, it is IGNORANCE and only IGNORANCE, which is the root cause of such failure of recognition or tendency to doubt.

The POWER of CHOICE is REAL, it is always ours, we cannot give it away, and we are constantly exercising it, whether we are consciously aware   of any of this or not (and no matter how hard we might try not  to KNOW it).

Even when we indulge in 'Who? Little Ole Me?' we must first CHOOSE to do so, and we continue so CHOOSING, from moment to moment, so long as we allow ourselves to remain in the snare of 'Who? Little Ole Me?'.

We will pick up this discussion on 'Who? Little Ole Me?' with respect to the FEAR element in it, in our next section on that subject.

But first, let's complete our discussion on IGNORANCE.

(e). SIMPLE UNAWARENESS

Now that we have looked at how Erroneous "knowing" and the Conceit of Self are the two critical aspects of the overall component of IGNORANCE in the Great Swindle, it is important to keep in mind that IGNORANCE, at base, is still just what the dictionary defined it as being, ie., 'lack of knowledge' and 'unawareness.'

The Conceit of Self is an aspect of IGNORANCE in that it is the result of our failure to fully and consciously recognize (our un awareness) that we are all far more the same as and interdependent upon one another, than we are different, separate and distinct from one another.

Erroneous "knowing" is a part of IGNORANCE in that we do it only out of our un awareness that we are doing it. Once we recognize we are doing it, we will stop.

Yet, these two aspects are not the whole story of human IGNORANCE. As broad as these two aspects are, overall IGNORANCE is broader yet. There still remains all the things in life and existence that we simply don't know at all, and which we KNOW we don't know.

As explosively as our fields of knowledge have expanded over the past century, they are still only a drop in the bucket of the total areas of reality about which we are totally lacking in knowledge, and, in many cases, totally lacking even a suspicion that such areas of potential knowledge exist at all.

And how we CHOOSE to deal with this vast area of IGNORANCE, both as individuals and as a species, will determine whether it will result in our continuing in the Great Swindle, or escaping it. More on this later.