Are Deceit and Duplicity Necessary to Success?
The impulse to smile in secret admiration when someone gets one over on the system is essentially condoning cheating. The secret thrill stems from a repressed injustice that surfaces as "rooting for the underdog." Caravaggio captures that moment in The Cardsharps when we come face to face with our conscience and sense of justice.
We all know that "life is not fair" and that "cheating is a fact of life." Getting ahead of the competition is not always done with hard work. If that were the case, the rich would not get other people to do it for them. We also know that the accumulation of wealth is not possible by being transparent and trusting.
Architects who try to improve the quality of life and make the world a better place will always be hard pressed to collaborate with those that are motivated by maximum profits. Lemoyne personifies this dilemma in Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy. The problem with that picture is that Time is always too late to reverse the clock.
Yes, Falsehood and Envy will eventually be banished by Time, but by then the damage has been done. Over and over again Falsehood and Envy demonstrate that crime does pay. We see it in senators who, with impunity, cheat and lie their way to retirement and are allowed to keep the spoils that paid for their deep tans, manicured nails and hair helmets, even after being caught red-handed and red faced (that explains the tan.)
The Ponzi schemers on Wall Street gained the trust of their victims by surrounding themselves with the trappings of wealth, influence and exclusivity. Exercising due diligence would have been prudent but in the club questions are considered rude. The con artist always plays to the victim’s vanity and false pride. The lucrative cosmetics industry is well aware of this; that they can get feminists to paint their faces and balance precariously on high heels attest to their great power.
PBS, that bastion of sober thoughts, has succumbed to the business model of commercial media by hyping Mitzy Gaynor, queen of razzle-dazzle, ahead of Albert Einstein during their fundraising drive. Colleges, by following suit, have made it explicitly clear to students that money is the great enabler. It is unfortunate that the message spells doom for endeavors that may not yield immediate profits, but hold promise for the distant future.
Thinking is something associated with the devil and idle hands, so is it any wonder that the wearing of diamond encrusted gold crucifixes as an ostentatious display of wealth is an irony that escapes the underclass who see no sacrilege in using the symbol of suffering and self-sacrifice as a status symbol. Deceit and duplicity are often self-inflicted, as in the loyalty we must at times pretend in order to gain acceptance or to get approval. The resentment of harboring that phony strain is what I believe makes us root for the underdog.
Swimmers cry foul when the competition invents a faster suit, and in the same breath they denounce others who seek an edge with steroids. It's who crosses the finish line first that counts. Those not willing to go the extra mile should compete in categories such as "Vegan" and "Omnivore" and leave the steroid freaks to their own devices.
Deceit and duplicity are necessary to success. The object is to admit it.