"THE ART OF DECEPTION"

‘Deception’ as we decipher it comes across as a word which is always taken in the negative connotation in whichever references we take it but here I am emphasizing on the fact that how so many people have this great Art of Deception and their knack of doing things so effortlessly that the people believe in them so readily.

The Oxford Advanced Dictionary explains this word Deception as “the act of deliberately making somebody believe something that is not true” or “a trick intended to make somebody believe something that is not true”. These definitions points out the same things that have been discussed above i.e. making people believing in things that is not true. Deception involves concepts like propaganda, distraction and or/concealment. Fiction, while sometimes manipulative, is not a deception unless it is portrayed as the whole truth.


Our parents who always tell what to do and what not to do, they try to control the lives of their children by their own ways. Like when we were kids they try to teach us that listen to us or else the ghost will come so that the kids listen to their orders or the times they lie and tell us not to lie. Also in a society like ours where marriages are considered as a sacrament, our parents try to deceive us and convince us that don’t marry this girl or boy whom we love and tell us if you marry according to your own wishes then you will be thrown out and cut out all relations with the children they have born and brought up.

Look at our politicians, they are master of this art and how they have no shame in deceiving the people and garnering the votes by hook or by crook.

Another example of people using this art is our so called religious leaders who create such a hostile environment which makes people believe that only there religion and god is true and the rest are bad and inhumane.

The thriving market of Advertising, Entertainment and our Booming Economy is based on this art of deception and how to effectively plan a campaign or a strategy which can deceive the people and the people think that they are actually have a bucketful of things from which they can use but they neglect the fact that these demands are being created by these companies.

In many cases it is difficult to distinguish deception from providing unintentionally wrong information. One of the reasons for this is that a person or an entire organization may be self-deceived.



Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Sculptor and Painter once quoted that “The greatest Deception men suffer is from their own opinions.”

If we carefully look at this scenario, then everybody in this world has this art of deception through which we manipulate things to get the things done but we hardly acknowledge the fact that we are actually using this art.

Look at our own self, we daily deceive people to get our things done or say things that are never true but we are saying it just to appease the people and get our work done. We say that we don’t care about what the world think of us but is it actually true. We ourselves thrive in this society by wearing multi-facet masks of our personality which differ from person to person and their varied interactions in the environment with us. Like the differences that we have in our personal and professional spheres of life.

“When people say that they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majorities because they are supported by the approval of their neighbors. It’s not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set.” William Somerset Maugham (English short-story Writer, Novelist and Playwright, 1874-1965)

But here I would like to add that some people uses deception in a very different way, they use this as a shield so as to protect them from the prying eyes of people. They don’t want anybody to know about themselves and share their problems, insecurities, etc... With the world becoming cunning and selfish day by day and for materialistic and vested interest, people’s feelings are crushed day in and out. So they use this as a defensive technique and remain a mystery to the world.

“I love walking in the rain, so no one can see my crying”. -Charlie Chaplin.

The above statement was from a man who was considered one of the funniest in the world; he too had a life which no one knew about him and still he entertained people across the globe with his own unique style.

In the end, we can say that we hardly acknowledge the fact that deceptions are not bad at all and with due time it has been ingrained in us to use it effectively to woo the people. The statement given below will summarize the whole concept of using this beautiful art of deception.

“It’s better to get something worthwhile done using Deception than to fail to get something worthwhile done using truth” by Carlos Castaneda (American author and writer).

COMPILED BY:-
Prady