Dr. Greenspan, who calls himself well-educated (he says:" I'm a college professor"), and "relatively intelligent," and "an expert on gullibility and financial scams to boot," portrays himself as a "victim." He needs two pages and several photographs to come to terms with himself.
Like all pseudo-scientists Dr. Greenspan has an elaborate "multi-dimensional" theory to explain where he and countless others went wrong. He says:"based on my academic work in psychology, I propose a multi-dimensional theory that would explain why so many people behave in a manner that exposes them to severe and predictable risks."
If that doesn't get you for gullibility, you surely deserve to be in the company of the good doctor.
If there is one thing worse than being greedy it is surely trying to justify your greed. Professor Greenspan invokes anything and everything, from being Jewish (like Mr. Madoff), to visiting Boca Raton (where the golf courses are), to being sophisticated and not easily deceived, so as to avoid having to admit plain greed. I am surprised he does not invoke the fact that he shares a last name with our friend Allen, one of the engineers of the bubbleconomics.
In the end, all professor Greenspan can come up with is a double indirection to absolve himself. He quotes his sister, who -he is careful to point out- fell for it more than he did, as saying: " I suppose it was greed on some level." On some level? Duh?
Surely it wasn't as simple as greed, but it had something to do with the four dimensions of Situation, Cognition, Personality, and Emotion? How about I am some greedy Jewish (situation) idiot (personality), faced with a too-good-to-be-true opportunity (cognition) to get insanely rich (emotion)?
Or, I am not greedy, I am an innocent victim, trying to protect what is rightfully mine so I can survive in my old age. Weep, weep.
No comments:
Post a Comment