In times of bliss, one is afforded rational license to study legerdemain.

In times of trouble, the rational response is to ignore legerdemain ... not study it. For studying it in the crunch of time and the munch of monsters still leaves insufficiency in time and resources to effect a counter (based on the results of the study). To wit, it's hard swinging the sword from inside the dragon's stomach.

Indeed, studying legerdemain offered by the monster ... is buying time for the monster; and buying into the controlled information that the monster wants disseminated. Not unlike the sundry false flag agitations and ceasefires associated with nascent Zionist Rothschild state of Israel, e.g. when the IDF soldiers of fortune fired bullets into agricultural fields, blamed it on the Syrian army on the Heights, confiscated those lands in the name of Israel's security; calmed tensions down in the aftermath with negotiated ceasefire; then repeated the pattern anew a little while after calm had been restored.

Research the history of the Golan Heights, good folks, and you'll have a practical demonstration of legerdemain and what happens when you study it in the immediacy of its execution.

To wit, you give the bank robber the opportunity to cut the alarm, pick the safe, load the bounty, effect the escape ... and still have enough time to leave a small tip behind for the gagged and roped security guard for being such an accommodating idiot.

Pax Discerni

ps: The smart money is on ignoring legerdemain until it's time to write the history of it ... for the one's in control of legerdemain are the legerdemainers. They have a competitive advantage over the scholars ... in the times of trouble.

Speaking from my own experience, I think you've got it completely backwards. In times of bliss, I have no interest in legerdemain (French for "lightness of hands", or deception through slight-of-hand). Since I am not a con-artist, I have no interest in the tools that con-artists employ. That interest changes dramatically in times of trouble, when I am being deceived and manipulated by the con-artists. Suddenly, recognizing and understanding the con-artist's tools becomes paramount, as my own well-being is at stake, if I am to avoid becoming a victim of the con-artist's crime.

However, viewed from the con-artist's perspective, things are more like you've presented. In times of bliss, con-artists scheme and conspire, practicing and perfecting their legerdemain skills. They then employ those skills to create times of trouble, going to great lengths to ensure that their victims remain ignorant of the deceptions used against them.

Legerdemain is planned by the perpetrators and studied by the victims. The victims can study it while it is happening if they are especially prescient, and pull the rug out from under the deception ... but most people aren't that prescient. More likely, legerdemain is successful because far too many people lend ears to it far beyond what is reasonably due. Since most people don't recognize legerdemain until it is too late, it is usually studied after the fact when all the damage is already done, e.g. in times of bliss (where there are no consequences in study) ... and not in simultaneity, e.g. in times of trouble (when there are indeed consequences in study). In the latter case, the consequences depend on the nature of the study. Exposition of the legerdemain and zero tolerance for it can deliver positive outcomes for the victims. OTOH, extending benefit of doubt to the various layers of the legerdemain - and players in it - under the excuse of full spectrum or analog study, i.e. watching it to see where it will lead, is likely to deliver food for the dragon. The proactive dragon of legerdemain after all, knows when it's going to throw the broiling fire, and can then afford to play the waiting game with its reactive food supply.

My approach is to preempt the breath of the dragon of legerdemain with a proactive swing of the sword. Yours is to gamble that the fire will not be thrown ... or will be thrown and you will have time to react with your sword ... or will be thrown at others and not yourself.



I don't know if you recognize it, Chico ... but you have a gift for the hidden ad hominems. At least, I hurl my invectives from the front where you can see them coming. So be it.

Qui bono?

When one answers that question earnestly, one will find that your method profits the con artists because it buys them time to implement their legerdemain. Mine denies them time by exposing their game at the earliest point.

Pax Antigone

My approach is simply to question the proceedings as early as possible and study the response. That is essentially exposure, which is the con-artist's greatest fear.


I realize that my comment can be misinterpreted as a hidden ad hominem attack, so that is why I immediately present my evidence so that it will not. OTOH, if the shoe fits, might it not be worthy of examination? You are a self-claimed truth seeker, are you not?

I think both you guys are both some binary dialectic for intelligence.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this UncleZooK, but this is the real world, not the world of "Dungeons & Dragons"!

I think its now time for your mother cut off your internet privileges.

No matter how many times I read this, I can't figure out what it means. Can you explain, Mags?

Nothing to really explain really, just my cheap sense of humor..

Oh, you mean like Dumb and Dumber. Given how long it took me to figure it out, I must be the one that starts with "D".