TAHPS Day 3 - Visual History

I found today’s discussion of the text The Art of Deception: Playing with Fraud in the Age of Barnum to be fascinating. The ideas that the American public has and continues to be fascinated, if not entwined with being deceived, to be the most interesting aspect of the discussion. And our depth of deception knows almost know bounds or time periods. There is no cyclical pattern of ups and downs in the popularity of deceptions. Instead they weave themselves throughout American History. In addition, there seems to be no particular type of deception that is more popular than another. For example, the common carnival freak might be as much or more popular than the millionaire magician or the infamous con artist.

And just like the people the medium of entertainment and or infuriation of deception has evolved and reinvented itself over time. The magician now performs his/her acts on national television in place of the Opera House or town square. The con-deception may come through your email in the form of a “jackpot lottery” or “wish for success” rather than the door-to-door salesman. With evolution and the passage of time comes the ever-changing face of deception, from Barnum to David Blaine the book does a nice job of chronicling many of the more famous deceivers. The namesake of the book, P.T. Barnum is the measuring rod by which all other deception artists are measured and the author does a wonderful job telling his story and judging other would be masters of deception against his success. All-in-all a great discussion covering a great book, one I would recommend.

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