Quotes, Retz, Distrust, and Dupes

I have in my possession a book titled The Great Thoughts (compiled by George Seldes), which I picked up for $1 at a local (very) cut-rate used book store a few months ago.  I purchased it with the idea of hitting upon an intriguing quote here and there, and then writing an article about it.  Finally, after all this time, as with other areas of my often sluggish lifestyle, I've finally gotten around to writing about a quote contained within.  The individual making it was, as the book describes, a French prelate and statesman named Paul de Gondi, Cardinal de Retz...or simply more commonly known as Retz.  He was an interesting character, a noble who was involved in the rebellion called the Fronde.  This Fronde occurred at the close of the Thirty Years War, in which France played a major role, which ended in 1648, and which resulted in bands of war-hardened soldiers and a royal treasury depleted of funds.  When taxes were imposed on the localities in order to build back up that treasury, open revolt resulted...for the next five years or so.  The young king Louis IV used its failure to consolidate his own power into an absolute monarchy.  Retz, for his part, was afterwards rehabilitated and bestowed the title of cardinal.  His memoirs, written from 1655-65, contribute four quotes in my little book.  It was the final one given that interested me for its prescient application to the times we now live in:

"The most distrusting persons are often the greatest dupes."

There's one dude I see on infomercials from time to time that crystallizes the application of this quote.  He sells his wares, which come in the form of books, CD sets, and even cruises, by claiming access to sources of health and wealth that "they" don't want us to know about.  And what does this huckster mean about "they"?  You know, those people behind the scenes, secretive and powerful, who are always trying to ruin things for the rest of us...although this individual seems to have trouble naming anyone specifically.  "They" won't tell us about miracle cures for all kinds of diseases.  "They" are interfering with this dude's attempts to tell us how to get "our" money back from the government.  But "we" won't let "them" get away with that, right? No, we'll buy whatever this person is selling because we distrust the "powers that be".  In the end, though, we're dupes.

The entire UFO conspiracy industry, as well as just about anyone else hawking attractive conspiracy theories for profit, fishes upon the same kind of distrusting population, rendering the ones who take the baits offered as dupes.  But one doesn't have to go off into the fringe of pseudo-science and conspiracy theory to see this "distrust/dupe" relationship...

In our political scene, actually on both sides of the political spectrum, we hear folks ranting and raving about the ulterior motives of the other side...and how the way to combat that is to support the "good guys" like themselves who are calling the "bad guys" out.  Therefore, I'm either supposed to support the Democrats because the Republicans have ulterior motives, or I'm supposed to support the Republicans because the Democrats have ulterior motives.  What makes people who think this way into dupes is that it frees those politicians and media ideologues who are instigating the sense of distrust from having to lead in a responsible and proactive way while at the same time avoiding the necessary compromises with their political opposition to advance reasonable and beneficial policies.  Instead, we're supposed to accept them because at least they're better than those "other guys"!

What a con!!!