What’s The World’s Biggest Fraud?
Friends, upon reflection I consider myself to have been a victim of many frauds during my life and I’m sure they’re not over yet. Perhaps you’ve had similar experiences.
I’ve listed most of mine in chronological order but I’m unsure how to rank them in order of degree of fraudulence. Perhaps you can help me!
1. The fraud that my family was special and that my mother and father and siblings would love me forever and surround me with continuous support and comfort.
2. The fraud in the fairy tales that suggested that living happily-ever-after was the way of the world and, if you were good, it would happen to you.
3. The fraud that there was Santa and that magic existed and a benevolent old man and elves and reindeers who, once per year, would pop down the chimney and leave you some modest gifts if you were especially well-behaved and ate all your veggies.
4. The fraud that there existed a God who made everything and who looked down from the sky everyday to see if you were good and if you weren’t he wrote it in a Big Book and one day, after you died, he would open the book and send you to heaven to sing hymns and fly about or, more likely, to hell where you would burn forever in inconceivable agony.
5. The fraud that war was a normal part of the world and that it solved problems and to be killed fighting for your country was a wonderful thing and was everyone’s patriotic duty and that, if you were killed, people would march once a year and give you lots of praise even if you couldn’t hear it or they didn’t mean it.
6. The fraud that if you lived in a democracy you were lucky because it was government ‘By the people, for the people,’ when in fact it was government by the politicians for the benefit of politicians and large corporations and lobby groups.
7. The fraud that engaging in marriage would open the door to endless bliss and hugs and kisses and kind words and loyalty as well as clever, loving, loyal children and grandchildren.
8. The fraud that, if all else failed, money and possessions was the key to happiness and the more you had the happier you’d be and if you were very clever and a tad unscrupulous you could end up a multi-billionaire and live a lifestyle that everyone would envy!
Well, that’s my list. The major frauds anyway, all of which occurred to a greater rather than lesser degree. What makes us humans so susceptible to fraud generation by generation? Were we born with a low fraud sensor given that evidence about each fraud was everywhere? Did the problem begin in childhood? Was it initiated by parents who themselves were defrauded? Did it come from tales like Cinderella. Did it come from our teachers or clerics or our Government or the Media? Was it all of the above? Or some? How would you rank the frauds?
I await your comments with crossed-fingers!
fraud – my definition
fomenting
religious
allegories
under
delusion
what would freud have to say about fraud?
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Bobo Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Freud was himself a fraud. ( I think he broke with Wilhelm Reich because Freud found Reich’s honesty and genius too threatening.) The entire psychology profession, when not defrauding innocents with high priced and basically worthless psychoanalysis, is devoted to corporate (advertising and marketing)or governmental (MK Ultra, Tavistock) mind control. So I don’t think Freud would give you a straight answer, and may well have been controlled in some manner himself. A good case was made that Obama uses Ericksonian Hypnotic Induction in his speeches, to the extent that it’s their main constituent.
I believe virtually every institution of Western society is covertly controlled through secret societies and/or the banking system, and directly infiltrated to the extent deemed useful. That is to say, the list of things that aren’t fraudulent in some way would be much shorter, and with the level of suspicion created by this situation, a list that couldn’t be confidently created at all. No one can say with certainty that they themselves are not directly controlled in ways they’re unaware of. It is now possibly to covertly hypnotize people to the extent that they’re Manchurian candidates, so the Satanic Ritual abuse only continues to facilitate other dark and ignorant agendas.
Needless to say, I dropped the Psych major after a year and the engineering one in the same interval. I simply cannot cooperate with corrupt power structures.
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Had it all just been so well David! – that I could’ve kept my personly loss, caused by fraud, down to the list of disappointments you’ve created – unfortunately not.
Although, I’ve often thought about how much time the ‘number 4′ of your list has taken (stolen) from my life (to no use, at all.)
My list of defrauds ( in concrete cash) look like this:
bank guarantee y1978 Hammond X5 ………. 15.000
Coin-operated launderette………………………..50.000
bank guarantee Else Jensen kaution 1986… 30.000
Internetfraud Asmina, Africa 2007 ……… 40.000
————————————————————-
Total amount of fraud in cash —Danish-kroner.135.000 / 5,5 = US$ app. 26.5oo
Though some of those money is partly refunded . I do hope I’ve learnt the lesson , but who knows?.
On the other hand there are people among us who aren’t given many other choices than to cheat, those many ‘poor people’ without ‘god given’ faculties / abilities to earn their own money in an honorable way.
Perhaps I was a little too stupid and as long there’ money left over for my own living expenses anyhow, it’s ok with me – never mind.- but yet – confounded.
Anyhow / however it all my be, I don’t see any hope (in the near future) that fraud ever can or will be eliminted.
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LOLOLLL great David!!
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Coco, Freud was a fraud himself!
John, fortunately with money, it can be replaced. The damage caused by other frauds is permanent.
Catauro, an interesting reaction.
Cheers.
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Interesting list which I would agree with. The root cause possibly is that we are indoctrinated from childhood about the fanatsies in which life will give. Maybe these fruads were born out of a time when people didn’t have much and hoped for a better day and dreamt of what could be and then just passed down these frauds through the generations even though they new they were false like religion, love and war. Maybe it is hope that makes us susceptible to frauds eg Obama’s and Rudd’s election wins, so theres another for your list….HOPE.
As for madoff…..150 years jail for harnessing peoples greed for his own greed, but no one was killed, no buildings collapsed, no terrorist attacks, just another example of why the law is an ass and a fraud itself.
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I am guilty. I dressed like Minnie-Mouse when we visited The Magic Kingdom last year. Halloween is a big holiday around here for us. Magical thinking however, is not. It is ok to have your dreams, but, until they are a reality , they are just a dream.
We used Santa Claus. We have maybe a year left on this one. Santa is a tool for parents. Yes, folks, Santa is a tool. A tool to get your kids to act good, be patient, write letters and not be too greedy and think of all the other kids in the world Santa has to visit in one night.
Apart from my personal interpretation, we are a society in general of magical thinkers. It is encouraged throughout chilhood and I think it is a big setup for cynical disappointment into adulthood. Interstingly, the Catholic church is opposed to magical thinking of the Harry Potter variety, but of course offer their own array of beliefs. Fortunately we are not interested in Harry Potter so that was not a bone of contention.
Your list is quite thorough. The only vacancy I found was the expectation of education and all it will do for a person. I am opposed to this movement of where only certain elite people are educated. This, amazingly enough, is how the American Education System is being divvied up. Impossible for poor people. Extremely competitive for the ones who do well on tests.
The big question in the final question of: why? Parents are tired and lazy. It is also what was taught to them so it is like being on auto-pilot. Kids really push and push for answers and having a solid-pat answer is highly convenient. This whole thing of needing approval from other humans is our huge downfall. The need to fit into the pack and be “normal.” Even if normal is a toxic, war-filled, competitive, stress kills kind of world that we are asked to embrace without too much question.
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You forgot the fraud of being “productive” for society ie – studying hard to get a good education, then a good job and then working your butt off for peanuts, for the major part of your adult life.
At for Madoff- he mostly cheated his greedy jewish friends who trusted him..haha.
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Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard.
Practive wellness.
Play with abandon.
Laugh.
Choose with no regret.
Continue to learn.
Appreciate your friends.
Do what you love.
Live as if this is all there is.
- Mary Anne Radmacher
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Kemosobi, it’s interesting that you would seek to soften the impact of ‘white-collar’ crime. Perhaps that’s why there are so many ‘white-collar’ criminals. The impact they have on their victims however is dramatic with lives ruined!
Grace, your response is very comprehensive. Seems that we humans are imitators, just like all other animals. But we are supposed to be intelligent yet imitation seems to take precedence over thinking for most. Stopping people imitating is a big ask!
JanSan, you are correct. Education in the main is a fraud. Education is too imitative. We become clones of our teachers who are clones of theirs!
‘Live as if this is all there is,’ is wise counsel because there is nothing else!
Cheers.
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Kemosobi Reply:
July 2nd, 2009 at 10:27 am
MY point is murderers get 25 years jail if that, murder one of the most heinous crimes along with paedophilia yet the prison term doesn’t reflect the crime, if Madoff is anything to go by. Surely you don’t mean that fraud is worse than the above. Sure there were more people involved in the madoff affair but like I said no one died, sure their lives may be ruined but they still have life don’t they, they are not screwed up in the head like some one affected by a paedophil? So stealing someones money because they see an oppurtunity to make more money is more heinous than murder.
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David G Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:25 am
I misinterpreted your comment, Kemosobi. My apologies. Of course I agree that murder and pedophilia are much worse crimes but I also think that fraud has been punished rather lightly in the past. Bond springs to mind and Adler!
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Dear David & Friends,
every year on Dec.31, my Grandmother & I would put pennies on our windowsills (in case the “little people” needed them) I don’t think anyone ever claimed them.
When my youngest daughter was in first grade I thought it was the heighth of hilarity to solemnly inform her that the moon was made of green cream cheese. Poor kid was ridiculed severely over my inane need for giffles.
The government is fraudulent to the nth degree, and I’m beyond anger at my own naivity.
Right, OBama in his black, stretch limo motorcade works for me riding the bus.
Religion, people want to believe so bad, but how they deceive themsellves is beyond my comprehension.
Imagine the hypocracy involved in the US Govt’s Food & Drug Administration…..they take care of the food & drug industries not the US citizens. Mind Boggggling.
Luke Ravenstahl is the mayor of Pittsburgh PA, my hometown …. he went on Jay Leno’s National tonite show & bragged how the Pittsburgh authorities covered up a car/motorcycle wreck caused by Ben Rothlesberger (Pgh.Steeler Quarter Back). Unbelieveable, no shame, no remorse & no repercussions – except of course for the old woman he ran into who subsequently started receiving death threats because “Big Ben” might not be able to play football.
I have to believe this is akin to the fall of the Roman Empire.
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Fraud may be the only way a lot of us get through life. Reality is too hard to face so it is easier to beleive in whatever version of Santa Clause makes someone happy than face reality and deal with the truth.
For some people it is god, for some education or maybe the “american dream” that keep them going.
Only problem it keeps them from seeing reality and being able to do work to make their lives really worthwhile.
The rich and powerful keep feeding us more and more fraud. The latest seems to be that the recession is over even though unemployment is continueing to rise and home values continue to go down.
One of the biggest frauds is that Obama is a liberal and will bring “change we can beleive in”.
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coco Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:19 am
jeannie,
i like that one about the recession being over…………….
are we all going to get compensated???????? LOL…………….
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Sadly, many so-called atheists also have a god, namely money and/or power. It certainly is why Minister Farrakhan has referred to the Jewish Religion, as garbage.
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Sadly, many so-called atheists also have a god, namely money and/or power. It certainly is why Minister Farrakhan has referred to the Jewish Religion, as garbage.
To answer David’s question about the frauds I’ve been brought up with, I would need to look back over my life, and face some traumas I have learned to forget, and overcome. You are sweetheart for being willling to remember back over your life, and all the deceptions you once held sacred. It is a little frightening to look back, and remember how much validity we once gave these lies. Have a great weekend.
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P.S. I feel very privileged, though, to have this opportunity to read all the stories written above, and to Mr. G’s replies. Very interesting and educational. Thanks, all. Exceptional people read here, if I may say.
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Kate, the implosion of the U.S. will make what happened in Rome look like a picnic!
Jeannie, fraud is everywhere. Obama may prove to be just another smooth practitioner!
Coco, only the rich get compensation!
Therese, reviewing our own histories may be difficult but it can also be informative and help us to survive what our future might hold.
Cheers.
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