My eyes were opened recently to the cynical use of people's belief in family, in Christianity, in the American Dream, in hard work and self-reliance, and even in marriage, by con men. I recently read the free, self-published book by Eric Scheibeler, Merchants of Deception. He details his ten-year journey through the cult of Amway, rising to Emerald pin level (1/10th or 1% of distributors reach this level), always finding solvency and the promised income and Amway lifestyle just out of reach. He had driven himself to the brink of exhaustion, and his family to the brink of bankruptcy and divorce, when the web of social control his 'upline' had woven around him began to unravel. He began to realize that nobody but the very top distributors were making money, and they weren't making it off Amway, but from the ubiquitous and mandatory 'marketing tools' in the form of tapes, books and videos, which had slowly transformed his worldview (brainwashed him, in fact) and that of others in the Amway 'family'. He started asking questions, and digging, and threatening to go public. Then the legal harassment, personal smears, economic assaults, and death threats began.

Scheibeler's book takes you inside the heart of a soulless mechanism of fraud that preys upon the hopes and dream of decent everyday people and leaves them with broken lives and a deep and abiding shame at their own 'failure.' After reading the book, I came to realize that the shell game the Amway sharps were practicing was founded on the same principles of social control and mental influence as the stunning con that the Neo-Cons are now running on America from the towering heights of power. When you consider the close economic and political ties that exist between massive frauds like Amway and Enron and other frauds, such straight-up religious leaders in the evangelical movement such as Pat Robertson, 'fringe' groups like the Moonies, and key figures in the neo-con GOP, one is left wondering if we have been taken in by the largest con in history.

Have you ever wondered how some Republicans could be so stupid as to believe some of the patent bullshit coming out of the leadership's mouths? Well, entertain for a moment that they aren't just stupid at all. Their complete acceptance of statements that are clearly counter-factual may be accomplished by means more sophisticated than simply preying upon gullibility. Acceptance of objectively nonsensical beliefs as the truth can also be achieved by well-documented methods of social control.