Americans Played for Suckers Frank Rich’s column, Tiger Woods, Person of the Year in the New York Times is a brilliant dissection of how  Americans  have been scammed by con artists of every stripe from Bernie Madoff to Ken Lay to real estate agents who brokered bad mortgages.  He draws dots between apparently unconnected social events and ends with President Obama’s current political plight.  Many Americans are disenchanted with him because they have been hyped and spun one too many times. A Con Artist is Nothing Without an Easy Mark How is it that we have been taken in so easily and so often? We need to look more deeply at ourselves, and ask why we have been conned so many times.  There is some connection here, I think, between our ability to be truthful with ourselves and our ability to create a more peaceful nation and world. When someone lies to you, whether it’s your cheating spouse or some flimflam huckster selling gew-gaws, we know deep down in our guts that we are being lied to.   It may be a voice in your head that says, “He/she is lying to me,” or it may be more subtle, a feeling of unease somewhere in your body, but something inside is telling you, “Something is wrong here.” Silencing the Voice of Truth Within This is our inner truth-meter in action.  It’s trying to tell us to listen, to take action. The problem comes when we ignore the promptings of this inner truth teller.  We suppress the message of our inner self because we have some fantasy, need, or old belief that we have been taught about how we ought to behave, which conflicts with the promptings of the truth teller.  And so we betray ourselves, give in and buy the house with the big mortgage we can’t afford or that get-rich quick scheme the investment salesman is touting.

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 The U.S. Election Deteriorates As We Watch Many of us in the U.S. are watching  as the Presidential race deteriorates into a combination of celebrity worship, media bashing, attack ads, sarcasm and fear. Two extraordinary candidates, each one a man of conscience and courage, are being sucked into a maelstrom so strong even they cannot resist its compelling pull.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Thoughtful Discussion and Gravitas is Lost We are paying a terrible price for allowing ourselves to get swept up in this trance. All sense of thoughtful discussion of the issues, and the gravitas of wisely choosing a leader who will have to make critical decisions that may affect the future not just of the U.S., but of the entire world, is being lost.    How Did American Politics Get So Off-Course? American politics has been off-course for years and Americans and the whole world knows it.

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