The folly of fools

Deceiving others has its advantages. 
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Camouflage in nature is useful to the hunter and the hunted. 
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The smarter the animal, the more likely it is to use and detect deception to its benefit. 
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Humans are particularly good at exploiting trickery to get ahead.
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For more money.
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More power.
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Or a desired mate. 
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Yet deception is difficult, regardless of intelligence. 
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Lying often leaves us nervous and twitchy, and complicated fictions can lead to depression and poor immune function. 
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And then there are the ethical implications. 
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Some deception is intuitive. 
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The grey squirrel, for example, cleverly builds false caches to discourage others from raiding its acorns. 
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Placebos are sometimes as effective as medication without the nasty side effects. 
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Other illustrations require more head-scratching. 
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Competition between our maternal and paternal genes can create “split selves”, which try to fool each other on a biological level. 
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Human memory often involves an unconscious process of selection and distortion.
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The better to believe the stories we tell others.
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Most effectively devious people are often unaware of their deceit. 
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Self-deception makes it easier to manipulate others to get ahead. 
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Particularly intelligent people can be especially good at deceiving themselves.
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All of this deceit comes at a price. 
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Most cunning people whether conscious liars or not tend to benefit at the expense of everyone else. 
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Overconfident Wall Street and City of London traders may hurt investors and taxpayers at little personal risk. 
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Then there are politicians who spin stories of national greatness to bolster support for costly wars in which they will not be fighting.

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There is certainly no shortage of human folly to consider. 

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Robert Trivers.

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And today we are coming to an interesting point where even the dullest are seeing through the lies.

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Politicians lies enabled by endless borrowing, bringing about financial crisis after financial crisis.

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Endless deceit.

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Endless manipulation of the truth

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Will we have the courage to become personally involved in the issues confronting us?

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Time will show.