First of all, I'd love to let everybody know that I'm very happy and very touched at all the nice things you people have said about my little doodle from yesterday. I had been thinking about making my own doodle for my avatars and icons instead of picking pictures from the net, and though I had already did so once with a sign I came up with some years ago, this is the first time I actually put on my own doodle (kind of my mark, the same way Kurt Vonnegut had his own representation of self), so I'm really, really happy of all the warm, fuzzy comments I've received through many ways.
Today I was reading the news, starting with Le Figaro, of course, and saw this article about some guru who did something to an aristocratic family of France. Well, I had to actually read the article twice and then look it up in English to understand what the hell was it about, and once I did my eyebrows rose so high in my forehead I could have done cosplay as Voldemort. A con-artist, known as Thierry Tilly convinced eleven members of the Védrines of some story pulled out from some blockbuster, and held them pretty much hostage for years selling all they had. You can find an article (in English) about the case here. From the reccounts of the few articles I've read, he pretty much weaved up a story that mixes The Da Vinci Code with Wanted, into some kind of "You are the Last Hope of Earth" speach. This family, the members brainwashed into this scam are smart people (or so the papers say), so the guy must have been pretty good at goofing them. I dunno, but if someone were to come to me and tell me that I belong to a Earth Protecting Secret Society and what not, and I have to help protect the Universe, I'd tell them where they can stick it. Sorry, I'm not one for saving the Universe, mankind or even the cast of my favorite sitcom.
However, as usual, this got me thinking.
Perhaps a lot of people, such as me, would read this story and think about how stupid does someone has to be to believe such a stupid story. What? They'll also believe that EVA's do exist (actually they do, only they are not machines to kill angels... Hell, hope Castiel won't get face to face with one of them), or that people named after numbers are out there driving Gundams? However, a lot of people, people who is considered smart by others, and who regard themselves as smart, fall for these kinds of stories, and others of similar nature. The "con-artists", so to call them, are often refered as gurus.
As soon as a guru pops up, people go crazy buying their expensive books, paying big loads of money to assist to their seminars, and wrap themselves in the bubble of "guruness" around the given person. Often companies are also pulled into this and they pay loads of money to these people and their institutions, believing that by it they'll acquire some leverage, some higher knowledge, that's often reduced to common places and quotations from books like "The Art of War". The whole environment around them reminds me a bit of Castiel, from Supernatural, as he in some episode (Season 4, I believe) mentioned that pretty much their duty is to have faith and obey, and that doubt is a crime paid with death. Well, the attitude towards gurus is just the same. People don't question why do they sell as their own discovery the saying of our grandmothers, nor question them when something is not clear.
Once we had this "guru" here, at the Institution, and I remember I was forced to assist to one of his seminars. He mislead people, didn't correct them when they were mistaken and then commited HUGE mistakes. An engineer sitting next to me commented in a low voice that this man should be so smart and so elevated, because no matter how much he explained thing, he couldn't understand a word of what he said. I felt terrible for the guy, specially because I realized that the guru was talking non-sense. People left those seminars feeling overwhelmed, with an undeserving sense of being stupid, while they were not (or not as much as they thought of themselves at that point). An obscene amount of money was paid to this man and then vital things were changed at the office on the step of what this con-artist said.
The man is still walking free, cashing huge checks and spreading his word to those wealthy enough to pay and stupid enough to believe.
Like Castiel, somehow there's a feeling among people that we are not smart enough to question, that we should leave the thinking to others, when it's not like that. Sure, there's smarter and less smart people on the world, but no one is free of some degree of ignorance, or flaws. A question can help you reduce your ignorance, increase your knowledge, and it could even point out a flaw that still can be worked out perfected and improved.
Today I was reading the news, starting with Le Figaro, of course, and saw this article about some guru who did something to an aristocratic family of France. Well, I had to actually read the article twice and then look it up in English to understand what the hell was it about, and once I did my eyebrows rose so high in my forehead I could have done cosplay as Voldemort. A con-artist, known as Thierry Tilly convinced eleven members of the Védrines of some story pulled out from some blockbuster, and held them pretty much hostage for years selling all they had. You can find an article (in English) about the case here. From the reccounts of the few articles I've read, he pretty much weaved up a story that mixes The Da Vinci Code with Wanted, into some kind of "You are the Last Hope of Earth" speach. This family, the members brainwashed into this scam are smart people (or so the papers say), so the guy must have been pretty good at goofing them. I dunno, but if someone were to come to me and tell me that I belong to a Earth Protecting Secret Society and what not, and I have to help protect the Universe, I'd tell them where they can stick it. Sorry, I'm not one for saving the Universe, mankind or even the cast of my favorite sitcom.
However, as usual, this got me thinking.
Perhaps a lot of people, such as me, would read this story and think about how stupid does someone has to be to believe such a stupid story. What? They'll also believe that EVA's do exist (actually they do, only they are not machines to kill angels... Hell, hope Castiel won't get face to face with one of them), or that people named after numbers are out there driving Gundams? However, a lot of people, people who is considered smart by others, and who regard themselves as smart, fall for these kinds of stories, and others of similar nature. The "con-artists", so to call them, are often refered as gurus.
As soon as a guru pops up, people go crazy buying their expensive books, paying big loads of money to assist to their seminars, and wrap themselves in the bubble of "guruness" around the given person. Often companies are also pulled into this and they pay loads of money to these people and their institutions, believing that by it they'll acquire some leverage, some higher knowledge, that's often reduced to common places and quotations from books like "The Art of War". The whole environment around them reminds me a bit of Castiel, from Supernatural, as he in some episode (Season 4, I believe) mentioned that pretty much their duty is to have faith and obey, and that doubt is a crime paid with death. Well, the attitude towards gurus is just the same. People don't question why do they sell as their own discovery the saying of our grandmothers, nor question them when something is not clear.
Once we had this "guru" here, at the Institution, and I remember I was forced to assist to one of his seminars. He mislead people, didn't correct them when they were mistaken and then commited HUGE mistakes. An engineer sitting next to me commented in a low voice that this man should be so smart and so elevated, because no matter how much he explained thing, he couldn't understand a word of what he said. I felt terrible for the guy, specially because I realized that the guru was talking non-sense. People left those seminars feeling overwhelmed, with an undeserving sense of being stupid, while they were not (or not as much as they thought of themselves at that point). An obscene amount of money was paid to this man and then vital things were changed at the office on the step of what this con-artist said.
The man is still walking free, cashing huge checks and spreading his word to those wealthy enough to pay and stupid enough to believe.
Like Castiel, somehow there's a feeling among people that we are not smart enough to question, that we should leave the thinking to others, when it's not like that. Sure, there's smarter and less smart people on the world, but no one is free of some degree of ignorance, or flaws. A question can help you reduce your ignorance, increase your knowledge, and it could even point out a flaw that still can be worked out perfected and improved.
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