THE ART AND SCIENCE OF CHARLATANISM

By Eric Del Rosario
9 May 2016

Men are so simple of mind, and so much dominated by their immediate needs, that a deceitful man will always find plenty who are ready to be deceived. –– Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527)

As humans, we have a desperate need to believe in something, anything. This makes us eminently gullible: We simply cannot endure long periods of doubt, or of the emptiness that comes from a lack of something to believe in. Dangle in front of us some new cause, elixir, get-rich-quick scheme, or the latest hi-tech trend or art movement and we leap from the water as one to take the bait. Look at history: The chronicles of the new trends and cults that have made a mass following for themselves could fill a library. And just look at what's happening with us today in politics!

The great European charlatans of the 16th and 17th centuries mastered the art and science of charlatanism. They lived, as we do now, in a time of transformation: Schism in organized religions, changing political landscape and clashes in ideologies, science on the rise. People were desperate to rally around a new cause or faith.

These charlatans had begun by peddling health elixirs and alchemic shortcuts to wealth. Moving quickly from town to town, they originally focused on small groups –– until, by accident, they stumbled on a truth of human nature: The larger the group they gathered around themselves, the easier it was to deceive.

The gimmicks of the charlatans may seem quaint today, but there are thousands among us still, using the same tried-and-true methods their predecessors refined centuries ago, only changing the names of their elixirs and modernizing the look of their charlatan crafts. We find these latter-day charlatans in all arenas of life –– business, fashion, politics, art, etc. Many of them, perhaps, are following in the charlatan tradition without having any knowledge of its history.

The charlatan achieves his great power by simply opening a possibility for men to believe what they already want to believe … The credulous cannot keep at a distance; they crowd around the wonder worker, entering his personal aura, surrendering themselves to illusion with a heavy solemnity, like cattle.~Power of the Charlatan (1939), Grete De Francesco

Throughout the history of charlatanism, it would seem that there were three fundamental (3) steps charlatans followed to perfect their art and science:

Step 1: Keeping it vague and simple. 
Charlatans knew how to attract attention not through actions (which are too clear and readable) but through words, which are vague, simple, and deceptive. Their initial speeches, conversations, and interviews included two elements: on the one hand the promise of something great and transformative, and on the other a total vagueness.

This combination stimulated all kinds of hazy dreams and speculations among listeners, who made their own connections and saw what they wanted to see. The charlatans made vagueness attractive, and used words of great resonance but with cloudy meaning, words full of heat, enthusiasm, and passion. All of these created the impression of specialized knowledge, giving the charlatans a veneer of profundity.

The combination of vague promises, cloudy alluring concepts, and fiery enthusiasm stirred people's souls and grouped themselves around the charlatans.

Step 2: Appealing to senses and emotions rather than reason. 
Charlatans knew that boredom and skepticism will set in once people gather around them. Boredom will make people go elsewhere; skepticism will allow them the distance to think rationally about whatever the charlatans are offering. Charlatans created a theatre-like atmosphere around them, dazzled their followers with visual splendour, filling their eyes with spectacle. Not only did this keep the people from seeing the ridiculousness of their ideas, the holes in their belief system, it also attracted more attention, more followers.

Step 3: Setting up an 'Us-Versus-Them' principle.
 When the groups were now growing large and thriving, a magnet attracting more and more particles, the charlatans became concerned that inertia will set in, and time and boredom will demagnetize the group. To keep the followers united, they borrowed from what all religions and belief systems have done: create an 'us-versus-them' principle. First, they made sure that followers were part of an exclusive club, unified by a bond of common goals. Then, to strengthen the bond, charlatans manufactured the notion of a devious enemy out to ruin the followers. The charlatans maintained that there was a force of nonbelievers that will do anything to stop the group. Any outsider who tries to reveal the charlatan nature of the belief system of the group can now be described as a member of this devious force. Charlatans were so good in their crafts, that even on instances where they had no enemies, they invented one!

This strategy tightened and cohered the followers: they have a cause to believe in and infidels to destroy.

Source: FB