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Klered · 12-02-2003, 10:05 PM

Tez -

In the story, you don't know if the snake oil in the bottle is real or fake. It looks like snake oil. It smells like snake oil. It has no label, but is said to cure all ailments. So do you trust your close friend who is a believer or shun him away for being a fool.

Remember who is the fool - the fool or the one who follows him

I believe trust is a key component but trust can be decieving no?

here for example, and I quote from a write-up found in google search -

"Snake oil is a worthless preparation fraudulently sold as a cure for many ills. Nineteenth century medicine shows notoriously peddled all manner of tonics and physicks to cure everything from bunions to cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was established ostensibly to protect the public against such hucksters. But nowadays the FDA is also treating companies and people who want to communicate scientific findings about nutritional supplements to the public as though they, too, are snake oil hawkers."

So if the FDA is your brother in the above example - Then you trust them to tell you which brands are good and bad, and if they don't like what your selling, then your a snake oil salesman too - So who wins -

What If in our example, that your neighbor/brother is treated as the common snake oil salesman so therefore he too will be/should be treated as the stranger right?

Why do we except things at face value only 90 percent of the time - the other 10 percent, as humans, we are probably at our most weakest. Instinct takes over.

I am trying to discover , not what the oil really does , but whether one should believe a total stranger any more than your brother, regarding this bottle of black snake oil said to cure all ails.

What we discover might surprise you.

12-02-2003, 10:05 PM	#8
Klered Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston USA Posts: 39	Tez - In the story, you don't know if the snake oil in the bottle is real or fake. It looks like snake oil. It smells like snake oil. It has no label, but is said to cure all ailments. So do you trust your close friend who is a believer or shun him away for being a fool. Remember who is the fool - the fool or the one who follows him I believe trust is a key component but trust can be decieving no? here for example, and I quote from a write-up found in google search - "Snake oil is a worthless preparation fraudulently sold as a cure for many ills. Nineteenth century medicine shows notoriously peddled all manner of tonics and physicks to cure everything from bunions to cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was established ostensibly to protect the public against such hucksters. But nowadays the FDA is also treating companies and people who want to communicate scientific findings about nutritional supplements to the public as though they, too, are snake oil hawkers." So if the FDA is your brother in the above example - Then you trust them to tell you which brands are good and bad, and if they don't like what your selling, then your a snake oil salesman too - So who wins - What If in our example, that your neighbor/brother is treated as the common snake oil salesman so therefore he too will be/should be treated as the stranger right? Why do we except things at face value only 90 percent of the time - the other 10 percent, as humans, we are probably at our most weakest. Instinct takes over. I am trying to discover , not what the oil really does , but whether one should believe a total stranger any more than your brother, regarding this bottle of black snake oil said to cure all ails. What we discover might surprise you.