Humans love exposès and they enjoy being conned, with one exception. Even when it has cost them money, or more, men relish learning that the leading companies in a particular industry have conspired to keep prices higher than they would have been otherwise, or that a governmental agency’s information department consistently gives laughably erroneous answers to citizens’ serious questions, or that a certain hospital has a continuing record of performing the wrong operations on patients in their care.
The list is as long and varied as history itself, and includes every facet of the human experience, from science, religion, and academia to politics, finance and the building trades. Scandal sheets are always best sellers, and muckrakers are welcome wherever they go – with one exception.
No non-thinking part of any person’s body likes to be fooled; it is too dangerous and can even be deadly. But the thinking thing truly enjoys being conned – IF the con gets exposed. (You can’t enjoy being snookered if you never realize that you have been!).
Humans, in their minds, like to be conned – AND to have it exposed to them. Although, as be the norm with sapien type homos, they may say otherwise. A man can speak condemnably about a politician’s uncovered shenanigans at taxpayer’s expense, while furiously grinning like an envious hyena, or shaking his head in favorable bemusement, even as his words disparagingly detail the overnight fortune made by some stockbroker’s illegal activities.
Humans enjoy hearing about a good con job. They will unwittingly nod their appreciation of a well-executed swindle. (The cruder the better, it might be noted) – with one exception.
J.