The Necessity of Artifice
From a viral street-safety hand signal to Madoff, O.J. Simpson, and Animal Farm — an argument that deception is unavoidable, and the real question is only whether it's ill-intentioned.
In what appears to be another mindless social media viewing session (a phenomenon many refer to as “doomscrolling”), I came across a video with the caption: this hand signal needs to be normalized! The video featured a collection of clips with a similar setup — a man and woman actor would walk past a stranger. When the woman was near the stranger, she’d secretly tap the stranger’s shoulder and signal a hand gesture as the stranger looked back. While most confused pedestrians kept walking without a second thought, the advantage of repeated exposure, in addition to the few knowing pedestrians, made it obvious to viewers that the woman was signaling danger. The few passersby aware of the signal, typically women of a similar age to the actor, would pretend to be the long-lost friend of the actor, taking her away from the man. This scenario expands on Hedges’s idea that “the most essential skill in political theater… is artifice,” as deception has proven so essential in modern society that its use is vital not only to the survival of a politician’s career, but to the survival of civilian life as well.
However, this isn’t to say that the use of artifice itself is justified merely by its seemingly unavoidable presence in modern society — it is clear that artifice is a skill lying in the gray area of morality, often used for nefarious purposes by ill-intentioned individuals. Sometimes the devastation is even quantifiable. In December of 2008, the former chairman of NASDAQ and president of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC was arrested by the FBI for what is by far the largest and longest Ponzi scheme of all time, defrauding investors of over $65 billion across multiple decades. The premise was simple: Madoff’s investment fund promised consistent high returns of 10–20%. In reality, he simply used cash from new investors to pay returns to existing investors, allowing early investors to generate massive profits. However, when the financial crisis of 2008 prompted panicked investors to withdraw their money, the bubble ultimately burst as withdrawal demands exceeded the cash flow Madoff had. His two sons, who idolized their father since childhood, were forced to pay the price for his deception; after turning their father in, one died by suicide and the other died from cancer, perhaps the only remnant of their existence being the massive debt owed by the family and the outcries from its investors.
Where morality becomes poorly defined, and often up to interpretation, is where the law resides. One of the best examples is the infamous O. J. Simpson murder case, in which the former NFL running back was accused of murdering his wife. Despite extensive DNA evidence, Simpson was found not guilty largely because his lawyers famously argued that he couldn’t fit the bloody gloves in which the crime was conducted. He later published a book called If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer (the “if” is so small one wouldn’t realize it was there unless otherwise prompted), in which he “hypothesized” how he’d go about killing his wife, should he have been the murderer. One has to question the morals of lawyers in such cases: are they in the wrong for defending such obvious killers and letting them get away with it? Or should “innocent until proven guilty” be taken to the absolute extreme? Either way, it is clear that Simpson would not have been made a free man had his lawyers not come up with a unique perspective to deceive the jury.
Perhaps the best example, however, lies in the exaggerated reality of fiction. In the famous satirical novel based on the Russian Revolution, Animal Farm, the pigs best demonstrate why “the most essential skill… is artifice.” Being by far the smartest of the animals, the pigs lead the revolution against humans and achieve freedom, establishing a set of rules to avoid humanism (the story literally refers to this as “animalism”). In the story, the pigs take on the role of leaders of the farm, transitioning from wise, dependable companions of other animals to politicians seeking power. Taking advantage of the terrible memories of the other animals, the pigs begin to change the commandments: “No animal shall drink alcohol” becomes “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess.” “No animal shall sleep in a bed” becomes “No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.” While fictitious, it is clear what Orwell had to say about the Russian Revolution: perhaps the leaders of the revolution held good intentions, but ultimately lost the cause when consumed by a society where artifice had become a necessity for success.
Artifice itself, though, is neither inherently noble nor wicked. From pretending to forget the birthday of a loved one in order to plan a surprise party, to a magician’s misdirection intended to wow an audience, nearly all of our actions reside in the gray area of morality. In a world where artifice is unavoidable, the question isn’t whether one should avoid dishonesty, but rather, how can we make sure artifice isn’t ill-intentioned?