Pitfall of Wishful thinking: ignorance is not bliss

Cover of Matrix-Trilogy [Blu-ray]

When a victim doesn't even recognize s/he is a victim, who should be blamed? The people who defrauded them, or the people who told them that they've been defrauded?

If this is too theoretical, let me do a different example:

You've seen "The Matrix", right? Neo, Morpheus, Trinity, et al?

Is Neo a "victim" of the machines? Definitely, at least from Morpheus's standpoint. People who don't know "the truth" are all victims of this elaborate lie, this "simulation" called "The Matrix".

When did Neo become a victim? Clearly, he'd been a "victim" ever since he started in The Matrix. Long before he even realized he was a victim.

So when Morpheus got him "flushed" out of his pod by forcing him to "wake up", Neo gets exposed to "the reality". And it was much more unpleasant than he had ever expected.

Would you say that before Morpheus intervened, Neo was not a victim?

Of course not. Neo was a victim. He just doesn't know it. However, ignorance of his own status as a victim of the machines doesn't make him any less of a victim, except the cliche "ignorance is bliss", though it really isn't.

So what does this have to do with a scam?



What does the Matrix have to do with a scam? When the victims choose to live in la-la land (The Matrix) instead of confronting reality: that they've been defrauded. They are in "denial", and I don't mean the river. They blame the government (Morpheus) for waking them from their dream.

Here's one example:

This is, of course, about Zeek Rewards, the largest Ponzi (in terms of victims) to hit the US. Note that Curt Miller wrote: "There were  no victims until the government came around... only 2 million happy affiliates". Clearly, Curt Miller is much like Cypher: he prefers to eat the virtual "juicy steak" (i.e. watch those virtual VIP points grow) and accept "ignorance is bliss".

And the government (Morpheus) is to blame for forcing reality down everybody's throat. Why can't the government leave me my dreams?

You can't live on a dream, moron. That's like Neo blaming Morpheus for making Neo see the reality, that he's merely a power generator for the machines. And we all saw what happened to Cypher, right?

That is the danger of believing in too much wishful thinking, that you start to invert reality instead of merely distorting reality. People who saved you are viewed as villains, and people who defrauded you are viewed as heroes, that you'd rather dream than confront reality. That's a symptom of persecutory delusion, that you feel persecuted for what you believe in, even though nobody is persecuting you. It's paranoia.

Ignorance is NOT bliss. Ignorance is just ignorance.

The truth will set you free, but it'll probably hurt. 


http://skepdic.com/wishfulthinking.html

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