We all know the idea of the art of distraction and deception. Events used to draw our attention and focus upon while the real tricks play out of sight. When we turn back and the rabbit comes out of the hat, magic has happened. For large tricks, the magicians assistant is a play maker, the stereotypical pretty girl that draws the discerning eye momentarily away from the mechanics of what will later appear to be pulled from thin air.
My last post about taking and missing opportunity drew a comment from 
If you always miss out, do you know you’re missing out?
No. you don't but this doesn't mean things stop happening does it? When we do not see the trick, when we do not understand the mechanics of a situation that influences us, it happens to us and we are largely powerless to act. We become victims of circumstance.
But are we victims or just ignorant?
Much of the world suffers from all kinds of ailments yet when pressed about their knowledge of its cause, very few truly have anywhere close to a deep enough understanding of the mechanics. We may laugh at the meme'd footage of Americans who are unable to put their finger on a map of countries they are at war with but, how different are we when it comes to the influencing effects on our lives.
Economic and financial knowledge is not common knowledge by far. People do not understand the banking system, debt cycles, inflation, interest rates and where and how money is created. These things definitely have an effect on life though don't they?
What this means is that without the understanding, when these things do what they do and affect what they affect, we are unable to pinpoint the cause and adjust or take advantage. Instead as the victims, we look for the perpetrators of the crimes against us, we look for someone to lay blame or, someone to save us.
There are plenty to blame of course but without understanding how things work, we don't know what is appropriate, necessary or, what is the greed in the system designed to oppress. So, we lose our objectivity and in our victim frame, blame all that have more than we do.
We also look for others to save us, change the system, break the status quo but again, without understanding we look to the powerful, those with more than us and the resources to create change but, we are unable to differentiate the good from the bad, those who have our interests at heart and those who are looking to take advantage.
It is a cycle of self-inflicted victimization that we have no way out of unless we are willing to take the time to learn and understand the mechanics of the influencing factors. Running is not an option unless running means escaping completely from all systems out of our control. What chance does anyone have?
This world is complex, intertwined and some parts are more difficult to understand than others. But more importantly than that there is an attention economy but that is the sleight of hand move deployed. It is not an attention economy at all, it is a distraction economy.
Anything and everything is thrown into our eye line to draw us away from investing and spending time learning about the very things that affect us, hold us back, oppress us. We sit in the audience unable to look away and see that the wool has been pulled over our eyes and we have become sheep.
Slaves to unseen masters under the spell of the magician's assistant.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]