The death of magician/historian/actor Ricky Jay prompted a repeat of his interviews on Fresh Air. Jay, in remarks on trust from an 1998 show, anticipates the tenor of American life twenty years in the future.
Terry Gross mentions that David Mamet, in House of Games (where Jay appears in a cameo), suggests that “a confidence game starts when the con man gives you his trust. Is that true?”
Jay’s response reveals much about the malaise currently infecting America: he agrees, adding that
You want to be able to trust someone [ . . . .] I don’t think any of us would want to live in an atmosphere where we couldn’t be conned because we would be so skeptical of everything in life that it would be a horrible way to live. So on some level, we have to do that [trust]. And the confidence man, you know, is able to inspire that by acting in cons [. . .].
Trust.
Imagine living in a world where the idea of long established news outlets is represented as a con, and where the tweets and utterances of a New York real estate developer are taken as gospel truth. Where legal confessions and convictions concerning interactions between high level campaign advisors and hostile governments are dismissed as “fake news.” When immigrant caravans can go from invading a country to radio silence after an election. Where “alternate facts” are embraced and videos are doctored. Where a confidence man, who happens to be the leader of a democratic country, is prevented by his lawyers from giving a deposition in person for fear he would perjure himself.
That would, indeed, be a “horrible [place] to live.”
It is ironically fitting that it takes a person with intimate familiarity of cons to point out both how they play on people’s trust, and what it would be like to live in a world where cons couldn’t exist: where there was no swamp to drain.
Now the question is when will the shills see the swamp is growing instead of drying up?
Anybody wanna’ buy some prime Florida real estate? . . . .
Make America Think Again 