We’re all so very clever. We know things other people don’t know. We are certain about things that confuse them. We give only enough information to get what we want and retain that which might betray the whole truth. Perhaps it is all part of the human condition. We hold our cards close to the vest to gain both an advantage and protect ourselves. We like to win and hate to lose.

Since the beginning of human interaction, we have formed social groups and practiced empathy to best manage the world around us. To those closest, we often made ourselves the most vulnerable. Trust, rest and recovery were reserved for the sanctum sanctorum. Once we were home, we could finally drop our guards. As our civilization flourished, we came to specialize in enhancing our strengths and overcoming our weaknesses. Some grew grain and others hunted on the prairie. Eventually, we found abundance and began to trade with other small groups, then larger, larger and so on.

Today, we exchange in a world marketplace. It has all happened so fast that it has overwhelmed our ability to vet those with whom we interact or to hold them accountable if we discover them to be scurrilous. The internet has us trading for goods with people we will never meet in places we will never be. Our social group may be comprised of many people who we have not met, at least in the physical sense. This gap in our evolved defenses exposes us to abundant manipulation and trickery. Who do we trust? Marketing ploys, hidden fees, political double speak and snake oil pitches are all very clever. They rely upon our inability to verify in a corporal way if the offer is authentic and to enforce repercussions if it is not.