Sunday, January 6, 2008

Chain Letters and la-la-la-la land

Got this in mail.
It begins:
“Dear Friend, I am a retired attorney. Approximately two years ago…”

Looking back, there are so many things wrong with it I don’t even know where to start.
Hmmm. What would Columbo do?
You could see him now, letter in hand, cracking a hard boiled egg, and spilling shells and egg crumbs all over your carpet. “Ah, sir, when did you say you first saw this?”

But a lot of people believe in this stuff. Why?
They want to believe that’s why. I was like that too. I wanted to believe that I could make $800,000 in “20 to 90 days” After all, it was a “retired attorney” saying it. A retired attorney saying that this letter, what all the ones before it have failed to be, is legal. The mind works like this: “A retired attorney is talking to me saying that I not only could, but positively would receive $800,000 cash.…. And not only would I, but that it would never fail to be anything other than that”. Your base-brain, concerned with only the primeval, thinks fast & simple: “$800,000--Me!” But watch how fast your more evolved mid-brain works next, trying to cover all the bases: “And even if I only get a quarter of what he says, I’m still rich!” The words that come next practically throw-up out of your mouth, as though discharged by your vocal cords all by themselves. “I’m in! It’s legal, I’ve got nothing to loose!”

1 comment:

tracedog said...

Columbo would have dropped the entire egg before he got in the house!