Taking the time period (1830s) into consideration, why are the townspeople so easily deceived by the king and the duke? And explain why people still fall victim to similar tactics using religion as a basis of trust.
Read the Washington Post article about comedian John Oliver starting his own church and attaining thousands of dollars in donations. Then defend why it should be so easy to create a church fund or why it should be more difficult. Use examples from Huck Finn to defend your position.
Provide your own response to the two questions and respond to a classmate's idea.
The king and the duke take advantage of the Second Great Awakening in these chapters. Everyone is wanting to look good in front of society and they feel obligated to help with other's ministry. The king and the duke claim they are working in ministry and everyone feels they have to contribute or they will look bad. The people donate and the conmen get away with it. This tactic is similar to today. People make fake churches and ask for donations. The people notice this and feel they will support the "work" of the "Lord." However, they just fill a greedy man's pocket. Comedian John Oliver tested this process by creating a church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. It worked well. In one week, he got thousands of dollars fromn the people by just asking for donations for a fake church. This experiment proves that this trickery works on us today as it did in Huck Finn. People are gullible fools when trying to impress people by supporting "the work of the Lord."
ReplyDeleteThe people are deceived easily because it was a simpler time when people didn't really worry about that. Everyone knew each other in town, but when the brothers came the people didn't know if they were the real ones because they had never seen them before. Had there been instagram back then, they might have known what the brothers looked like and knew the king and duke weren't the real brothers. Also, since they believed the one brother was a pastor, they put blind faith in him and trusted that he was telling the truth.
ReplyDeletePeople still fall into this trap today. Thinking all the miniseries are real because of this blind faith. People don't believe that someone could do something so evil and just send money thinking it will go to people in need. To avoid this people could actually do research and use the internet to their advantage. Back in the days when Huckleberry was written, they didn't have this luxury and were very gullible. It is sad that these deceptions still continue today, but people send money without research on what or where they are sending the money to.
These people are so easily deceived because they have fallen victim to the time period they live in. what I mean by this is that at the time Christianity was the vast majority in America especially in the portion that this novel takes place. As many know, Christianity emphasizes the importance of charity to the less fortunate. So as a result many people would jump on the opportunity to donate either out of the goodness of their heart or in order to improve their image in a community that values behavior such as this.
ReplyDeleteIn current times we still have this Christian majority in the south and along with it this mindset that values charity. However, I think the reason for donation has shifted. Meaning less people do it out of the kindness of their heart and more for the improved image among the majority of the community. This tactic is especially popular with celebrities.
Back in the 1800s there was no way to validate identification in order for people to know if their money and allegiance was going to a true cause. Also back then people were more simple minded and their only form of trust was a person's word. The con-men were able to take advantage of people by making them trust them with their word, besides they didn't have anyway easily to disprove him. On of the con-men portrayed Peter Wilkes's brother who was a minister. The good people in the town would never take a holy man's word with a grain of salt. they wouldn't think that a person would pretend to be a minister and rob a family blind. Also what would happen if they did distrust a real minister? Just like today people will take advantage of people who have good intentions. Scammers will make up a church and ask money of people who are looking to do good. some people are too eager to help a church or charity that they become oblivious to what is happening.
ReplyDeleteI agree. People should utilize todays technology to confirm the identification of people before they give money for a good cause. The townspeople did not have the opportunity to check someone's background but we do.
DeleteI agree with Terra that people are blinded and that they need to do research before they commit themselves or their money to an organization. People in the Huck Finn days didn't have this advantage but people now days do and they should think and research before they fall victim to scammers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jacob. Many celebrities just give to charities to improve their image. I think they act like they know all about the charity and really support it, but they actually don't know what it is about. The conmen might be getting money, but the celebrities are getting a better social status.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Terra because the main reason they trusted him because he was kind to the women of the household. The king was polite and kind to everyone and even gave most of the money to the women. This caused him to get more money. He rarely uses the church in that section to trick the ladies. He uses it because it is part of the identity that he learned about. The church and money idea was blind faith and support for "God's work." They believed, in Huck Finn, that the king and duke were related but they mainly trusted him on the king's kindness, a showing of how "good' he was.
ReplyDeleteI think the townspeople were easily deceived because of their ignorance at the time. Many people had little knowledge of things outside of their town or country. That is why they did not question the duke and king. The duke and king knew a lot of the information that the real brothers were suppose to know so they were taken as the real deal. The townspeople refused to look into the fact that they did not act English or have some of the English qualities. The only person who questioned them was the doctor who questioned their language choice and believed they were not real Englishmen.
ReplyDeleteSome people still fall victim to similar tactics because they don't look into information on the topic. People trust the person whose conning them and don't think to confirm that trust with background information that they may not know. This ignorance lets people get scammed out of their money even today.
I agree with Bohman in that these peoples ignorance of the outside world allowed them to be easily deceived. They had no previous examples of the English culture to compare the frauds to because of their lack of exposure. The only person that wasn't ignorant of the outside world and actually had experienced at least a small amount of English culture was the Doctor and he called out the king and the duke as frauds. Of course he was ignored due to the ignorance of the majority only to be proven right later when the frauds were exposed.
DeleteThe king and the Duke use the people to get money since they are such greedy people. Since its in this time period, the people believe that they are giving the money to a good cause and they trust that the money will be used for the right thing. Both people today and people in the time of Huckleberry Finn use religion as a basis of trust because they believe these are holy and godly people that wouldn't deceive them. On many occasions, greedy people claim to collect money for a religious thing, but use it for there own benefit since the people who donate to religious places are easy targets. In my opinion, creating a church fund should be more difficult. It would prevent these greedy people from getting away with taking other peoples money.
ReplyDeleteAt this time, The King and other high authority was never questioned. They were looked to for religion and guidance and anyone who challenged their authority was either killed or imprisoned. The King may tell them a total lie, but no one would ever challenge it or just be gullible enough to believe it because it is their king and he "must be right". Today, people believe lies because of the higher authority or in minor situation like infomercials for really out of the box ideas or a charity event and none of the money goes to the church, but to them instead. This is fraud.
ReplyDeleteJohn Oliver is a very famous man known for his comedy and guest appearances on The Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report, as I have previously watched. So for him, along with any other well-renowned person, it would be little to no effort to get large donations to the church. However, small companies or groups of people have to work very hard and find others that believe and support it. So it is safe to say that anyone can start a church as long as they have believers and money to get it started which to and extent is somewhat sad because this is not the point. John Oliver used this as an experiment to test that you can start a church from nothing and state that he will keep none for himself, so the people just throw in money and believe him instantly. He was successful in showing that people will believe a higher authority just because they give assurance just like kings.
I agree with Taylor that the people were looking to religion for guidance. They felt that if they were to donate to a church, they would be looked upon and blessed. The townspeople didn't know they were scammers, so they believed they were doing the right thing.
DeleteI also agree, people have come together behind a cause and will do almost anything an authority figure asks them to do. A great example this is when church pastors take up donations and take a part of those donations to put into their bank account, no one suspects anything because they think the pastors intentions are true.
DeleteI agree with Taylor Crisler. It seldom occurs that someone will challenge the authority of a person who is ranked higher than them in social status. In that time period, nobody would question royalty because doing so would result in brutal consequences. Even in today's society, not many people will question someone as well known as John Oliver, or any other celebrity for that matter.
DeleteThe King and the Duke take advantage of the townspeople by preying on their religious nature. This religious fervor is brought about by the Second Great Awakening and this fervor allows the King and the Duke to scam the very trusting townspeople into giving donations to them so that they may do God's work. People today still fall victim to scams similar to these because religious people are, by nature, trusting and enthusiastic to donate to a good cause. This allows fake churches to receive massive amounts of money from those that merely want to support their religion.
ReplyDeleteFake churches should be incredibly illegal, not only is it a scam that is purely designed to take advantage of the religious populace, but it is also fraud. The IRS needs to step up and create a law that defines what a church or charity foundation should be and keep track of their activities to ensure their actions are not fraudulent.
I agree with your statement about the IRS stepping up. To be considered a church you should have to show proof of effort towards the making of it. Also, you should have to get a free preaching license that is entered in a database that monitors the funds you receive and what you do with said funds.
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ReplyDeleteIn huckleberry fin chapter 25 the king pretends to be the brother of a wealthy man that had passed away in the town they stumble upon. using this false identity the king swindles the family of the deceased out of their inheritance by claiming to be a minister. Back in that time period preachers were seen as the most trustworthy of people and the family believed that the money given to the king would go to the cause of faith. its stated on pg. 294 "and told us were the six thousand cash was hid." the people obviously trusted the king due to his "status." This issue of misplaced trust still happens in todays time as seen by John Oliver. He looked into the cases of fraudulent churches claiming to take donation in order to put them to a good cause but in reality it was just a scam to get money and avoid taxes. He claims that these days anyone could claim to have or build a "church" and if that's the case then I believe that it should be more difficult for a person to claim a church. People have been conned for years because of false claims of faith.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Haley, there needs to be more restrictions in regards to the creation of churches. There is a clear difference between actual religion and false faith, in it is far too easy for people to blur these differences for their own personal wealth, in any time period.
DeleteThe reason the townspeople during this time are so gullible is because the people didn't see very many issue with this. If there were instances of identity theft it was rarely reported. Ways of identification was slim-to-none so there was no real way to prove that you weren't someone, so people had to go off of others words. Therefore, if someone said that you were of relation then you believed them because there was no way of knowing for sure. It also helped that the Duke and King were actors, meaning that they were able to portray themselves as a character easily and believably.
ReplyDeleteAnother factor is that during this time the church was a big and sacred thing. No one would think about going against it or impersonating it for personal needs. So if someone said they were a minister and acted of the part people were willing to believe.
In today's society, we have identification procedures, yet people are still easily deceived. I feel that this is because people are wanting to trust. The world is not such a good place, so to make it better people feel that they should give their trust out blindly. If they see that there is a possibility to make a positive outcome, then they will invest in it. For example "Washington Post" published an article on a "church" that John Oliver founded. He mentioned on his show to send donations to his church, Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption. This is not a real church, but a made-up name that he used to prove a point. Either way Oliver's church received thousands of dollars, as well as food and grass seeds.
These people were not even positive that this was a legitimate church, yet they sent in their hard-earned money as a possibility of making a difference.
I agree with Mal. I think people only donate to the "church" to make themselves feel good inside. They feel they are "putting their money to a good cause" without actually knowing what the cause is.
DeleteI agree with Mallory that people are wanting to give their trust out because of how the world is today and that people will give donations so willingly in hope to make a difference. I also think people give so willingly because it makes them feel better and that they are actually contributing to a good cause when there is a good possibility that they have no idea what they donation is being used for especially if they didn’t do any research on the cause.
DeleteIn Huckleberry Finn, the king and the duke pretend to be a part of a church and the king pretends to be a minister. He has this persona to him that make people trust him and believe he's a part of the church, and they believe the duke as well because he is traveling with the king. In this time period, the church and ministers were seen as a greater good. People donated to the churches because it was what the townspeople were supposed to do. So, when the king and duke show up in the town and say they knew Peter Wilks the people without question hand the money over to the king and hope their money is going to a greater cause. The people in the town trust them so easily and are deceived by the king's personality. People easily still fall for these types of situations now because they're so trusting that their donations are going to a greater cause.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to John Oliver's article, it should be harder to create a church fund than it is now. People can easily start a fund and say it's going to a greater cause like a church, but, can take the money and do what they please with it because it's a fake fund and they started it on their own. People will fall victim and donate to these fake funds just like the family of Peter Wilks did in Huck Finn. Also, the king went into a town where they were having a meeting and claimed he was a missionary and needed donations to continue his missionary work, he received a great amount of donations for him to continue his work.
The townspeople are so easily deceived because they have too must trust. The king and duke take advantage of people in very small, friendly towns. In this time period and in these types of towns, the people all trust and respect each other. When the king claims that he is a pirate who as been reformed, they have no trouble believing him and giving him money because they have developed such high levels of trust within their town. This trust is still the reason for people falling victim of schemes such as Pastor Creflo Dollar's "evangelical" fundraisers; people trust that they are giving to a good cause without looking further into the real intentions and asking questions.
ReplyDeleteIt should be made more difficult to create a church because there are thieves who take advantage of the charity given to these churches. It should be further investigated who the founder/leader of the church is and what their intentions are with creating a church and taking charity. Although fictional, an example of people taking advantage of generous donors is found in Huckleberry Finn when the king claims that he is a changed man, and he ask for money to travel back to the ocean as a missionary (just as many thieves today ask for charity claiming to be in ministry and promising use the money for the church). However, the king had lied and he took the money and used it for his own benefit, rather than for ministry, as he had claimed. Today, things like this could be prevented by making it harder to start a church and putting restrictions on how and who can collect charity. This would purge away thieves looking to make easy money and leave only the people who are willing to go through the measures to create a church and use the money for what it was intended.
The people in this time period were too trusting and more than willing to put faith into things without much convincing. Also, these people had a huge weak spot for religion. If you said that you were a minister and if there was even a small thought of truth to your statement then you were taken in as family. The Second Great Awakening was a tremendous reason for such mindsets. The King and Duke, who claimed to be brothers, were adored by those in which they came in contact with. Deception and cruelty was all too easy.
ReplyDeleteTodays society is not so different. Yes, a lot more people are more cautious than back then, but people still get duped today. For example, John Oliver created a fake church that raised thousands of dollars in just a week. People are still very blind and have weak spots for religion. Fake churches are an easy way to sneak past the government and make a quick thousand dollars. It is sickening. The Identity Theft industry makes billions of dollars every year. John Oliver made great points and we need to realize that the world isn't as candy and rainbows as we perceive it to be.
I completely agree with the fact that fraudulent causes are so easy to come up with, and blind people will follow without question. This is shown in Huck Finn both when the king and the duke claim to be fake pastors, but also when they claim to be the brothers from England in hopes of collecting all $6,000 without and argument. All because they claimed to be "honest" men. Without Huck interfering, they "brothers" would have escaped the town easily, leaving the poor, fatherless daughters with not even a piece of land to their name. Blind people trust too easily no matter what century you're in.
DeleteIn The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the king and the duke take advantage of many people. In one town it is the religious people and in another town a mourning family is tricked. In both cases they utilize the vulnerable areas of the townspeople's lives. After the loss in the Wilkes family, this pair of scandals take advantage of the family's pain and deceive them into thinking that they are family from England. This was not the pair's first time deceiving people. Earlier, the king took advantage of a religious town by claiming to be a missionary. The people collected a grand offering for his cause (Little did they know that he was a fraud). In both cases these con-artists found out what was important to the people they planned to con. By presenting something meaningful to these people, they were more likely to be deceived by their trickery. The same occurs today. A person can claim to stand for some moral standard and people will blindly back them up. Too many times do people give based on a shared idea rather then actual evidence of their claims. In John Oliver's experiment testing people on backing organizations, the results are similar. People donated blindly to his church "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption" just because he claimed that monetary donations would "come back to the worshipers in a harvest." He had no record of giving back with such offerings, yet people blindly gave. Just as it was in the 1830s it is today.
ReplyDeleteThe 1830's was a time before the civil war started and when religion was starting to go through another Great Awakening or just coming out of it. With this being said, the reason why all the townspeople are deceived by the conmen when they claim to be reformed pirates and collect donations to become missionaries is because everyone was taking a religion reform and people were believing these crazy stories of becoming believers. The reason some people still fall victim of similar tactics is because the cons appeal to the public's sense of morality. People are trying to collect donations for a cause that seems true like an orphanage or to send gifts to kids in 3rd world countries and they get your money and actually use it for something good. Other things like people sitting out on the side of the road pretending to be homeless try to appeal to peoples good nature and they really aren't homeless and using the money for their own benefit.
ReplyDeleteJohn Oliver just showed how easy it was to take people's money with a fraudulent charity fund. Even in Huck Finn when the Duke and Huck came into town and convinced the Wilks that they were their uncles. They just came in and took their money with little effort and there is no way to test them when the only person who knows who the real people are is dead. The same goes for a charity fund, there is no way of telling when someone applies for a charity fund if they are going to use the money for what they say they are. Pastors use the "sowing the seed" reference to get the congregation to donate money to the church and to their bank account.
I agree with Dakota. The Second Great Awakening did have a great deal to do with the trust that the townspeople put into the king, as he claimed to be reformed and going to become a missionary; he appealed to their spirituality and they trusted him because he claimed to be working for a cause which they were very passionate about in this time period.
ReplyDeleteIn this time period, religion is very prominent in communities all across America. With this increase in religion also results in a revival of moral basis, at least to some. People know the church, and subsequently church going individuals, as trustworthy, as those are the practices that the Bible are famous for teaching. So, in the mind of the churchgoers, those who claim to be affiliated to the church must also follow the messages of honesty that their religion teaches. Con artists caught onto this fact, and saw opportunities to take advantage of the naïve and generous church-goers. They could claim to be missionaries, in need of donations to help in their efforts to spread the word of God, or claim to be recently turned Christians, in need of money to set them back on the right path, maybe even start their own fake church and take up donations at every service, whatever brings the money in. The lack of mainstream media also contributed heavily to this epidemic of scam artists in churches. Even if one church realized that they were being scammed, there was no easy way to warn the other churches of these occurrences, so there was no true way to stop it from happening. We may think to ourselves, "Wow, people were really dumb back then", but in reality the same things still happen today. Many religious groups are founded upon values of honesty and generosity, which ultimately leads to naivety. The IRS makes it very easy to start up a church, and church donations are not taxable, making it far too easy to drain the funds out of the pockets of the trusting and faithful donators. John Oliver proved this when he set up his own church as an experiment, which accumulated thousands of dollars of non-taxable donations. Currently, it is far too easy to set up a church fund, anybody who knows how to fill out a simple application could do it. I'm a firm believer that if somebody truly wants to start a church, they will jump through any amount of hoops to do so. While its nice for the honest people in the world that starting a church is easy, the system is far too easy to exploit. Just look at the examples from Huck Finn, people will always try to prey on the trusting and naïve people on the world for personal gain, but in today's time, we have the capabilities to stop it, or at least limit it as much as possible, which is an advantage that Huck Finn did not have. If the current system is not strengthened, there will always be "Kings and Dukes" in the world ready to take advantage of the average man.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Taylor. She said that people would give trust to anyone of authority. In todays time it doesn't necessarily have to even be a "preacher" that people give too much trust to all you need to have is some sense of superiority to con people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jacob Bohman, people at this time were trusting and ignorant of events that take place outside their communities. This made them easy prey for con-men like the King and the Duke. Today, people have become more skeptical of what goes on around them, as they rightfully should.
ReplyDeleteThe King and the Duke are most definitely taking advantage of the second great awakening. The King and the Duke are also taking advantage of their Hierarchy in the society by asking the townspeople for money. People of such a hierarchy are typically not the ones to scam a community, allowing the townspeople to trust them. The people are easily deceived due to the fact that since the King and the Duke were asking, they felt obligated to help because of the power they had. During this time period, saying no to them would be like saying no to the president today (obviously none of us would do that). Since the townspeople believed that the donation was going to a church, they believed that it was for a good cause and they didn't want to be the outcast that says no.
ReplyDeleteAll of this relating to what John Oliver did by using the media and his popularity to convince his viewers to send in money to a fake church that he created. He used his popularity (hierarchy) to convince people (his fans that trusted him) to send in money for a religious cause. People could've researched the church and saw that it was fake but due to the trust they had in him, they didn't. The townspeople in Huck Finn however, didn't even have that option.
If you have people that trust you as well as a believable charity, it would be extremely easy to create your own donation fund.
Who would you rather donate to; a homeless man on the street or a church?
I disagree with you because if the president told me to do something that was against my beliefs and would harm someone else I wouldn't do it but since the king and the duke is relating to the belief of the townspeople as portraying himself as a minister to take money from them its easier for them to be deceived because they believe in him and their faith.
DeleteIn the 1800's, life for many was focused on religion. Also, people trusted each other to not lie in the name of their religious beliefs. These two things both added to cause scamming to happen very easily under the right circumstances. If someone was willing to lie about their needs and beliefs, they could make money very easily while the townspeople believed whatever they said.
ReplyDeleteThis would work the same with creating a church. Many religions make it seem like donating is important to keeping them "pure" and "worthy". Coupling that with the convenience of television and it sets up for an easy fraud. The scammer wouldn't even have to maintain a church to steal this way. In both examples, the people both fell victim thinking they were being good people.
I partially agree with Luke on the topic of trust. I definitely believe that the people in the 1830s were trusting. They tended to be more believing people. I disagree though on the notion that it is the same case today. People tend to be more skeptical, in what I've seen. I feel like in what you are describing is that people are more ignorant. They don't know the true intentions of others and they don't bother to put in proper research to be educated. To me this is the true problem.
ReplyDeleteI think that there is ignorant people today but also genuinely gullible people that are sometimes products of ignorant people. In the 1830's I think the slight cut off from larger societies made people less likely to know what to look out for. But I agree with Levi, it is a true problem.
DeleteI agree with Taylor. In many instances people are willing to give money and donations to someone of higher power or are a superior. In many cases you don't even have to be someone involved with a church, you could be a celebrity or someone with political power. Many people fall victim to scams ran by people with a higher social status because they're easy to believe.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jacob Bohman. I believe the reason the people of this time were so ignorant was because they had no knowledge on the subject. Identity theft was not recognized most of the time. Since the people weren't able to recognize it there was no way to acknowledge it as a problem. This made them oblivious to the fact that people were saying they were someone they're not and stealing things from it.
ReplyDeleteMany people in the 1830's were very religion based and focused. Their lives revolved around religion. Also the only away to trust someone was by their good word. So when people said they were collecting money for a good cause you had no choice, but to believe them. Like in Huckleberry Finn, the fake brothers came to the town and unknowingly to the townspeople, scam them out of their money. Many believed the one brother was a pastor and blindly donated money to them.
ReplyDeleteIt should be more difficult to create a church fund because many people are taking advantage of it, like the king and the duke. Many people should at least do some research on where their money goes when they blindly donate money to a church fund.
The people of this time period fell victim to the duke and the king due to the fact that they had little reason to believe the men were lying. Personal identification was not a huge concern in the 1830's, which enables people to lie about their identities, such as Huck did in chapter 11. People were very gullible during this time, which is largely based on religion. If someone claims to be a pastor, people aren't likely to question it. This is based on the strong religious convictions created by the revivals that many attended.
ReplyDeleteBeing a religious individual myself, a large portion of being affiliated in this is having faith that positive outcomes are to occur, which includes trusting that your money is going to be well-invested. It is not a blind commitment to faith, but gambling in a way. I am aware that the misplacement of money is a possibility, which is what creates a feeling of gambling one's chances when donating money. I do not believe that the townspeople were completely deceived by the king and duke, but they simply had faith that the religious figures that they look up to would put their donations to good use. I highly doubt that everyone in that community felt that the king and duke were entirely trustworthy, as people still have the same skeptical feelings today, but they simply showed their faith in them, as this is what most (if not all) religious sects practice. We are encouraged to simply have trust in what we cannot see.
ReplyDeleteI like the point of view that True has about donations being a gamble rather than an act of faith. These people were putting blind trust into strangers simply because it was the right thing to do, and they felt that it would bring them later fortunes and opportunities.
DeleteLike I said in my original comment, I highly agree with True, because as certain people are put on a pedestal we put our trust in them and expect them to do things that are right rather than something that they are going to benefit from themselves.
DeleteBeing apart of a church that has seen a pastor take money for other purpose it is very difficult not to trust a leader of religion, these leaders deceive people that have faith in them simply because they are men/women of god. Examples of this is in the book Huckleberry Finn when the king portrayed himself as a minister to deceive the towns people to give him money for his own desire. The towns people trusted him because he was "a man of god" which he wasn't. Also he deceived the wilks sisters because of their intelligence to steal their inherited money from their father. These two examples show how the king and the duke are vagabonds who are people of fraud. John Oliver shows how easy it is to do this by creating his own church and just asking people for a donation and not giving them a reason but on this case he donated the money he received other than for his own gain. If people did not donate this would be sinful in the eyes of the church and the eyes of god with this pressure of course they are not going to say no because of this it is easy to take advantage of someone who has values, morals, and faith in what they believe in and the growth of their church.
ReplyDeleteThe people were easily deceived because the Christian religion—which is the most prevalent religion in the United States—is based around a principle of mutual trust. In addition, the events of the novel took place during the Second Great Awakening, which changed the popular opinion on how one should go about being religious. However, another explanation would be that it was simply common courtesy to show strangers kindness. In the past, people were generally taken by their word, as most people thought that they had no reason to lie about their identities; cons weren’t considered to be “common” in those times, like they are today.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, it should be more difficult to create a church fund, as churches are untaxed. If a group were to make an illegitimate church, they would receive 100% of the donations as profit, as John Oliver made clear when giving the examples of many Televangelist pastors who are worth millions. This same idea was presented in Huckleberry Finn, as the people easily fooled into giving the king their money when he professed that he was a broke pirate who wanted to turn his life around, and therefore ended up making a few hundred dollars off of their donations.
The townspeople are in the middle of the Second Great Awakening, making religion still vital to their society and everyday activities. With this being said, many people will trust whoever claims to be a man of God. These poor townspeople have fallen victim to simpler times, when they believed that everyone was who they said they were, who would have reason to impersonate a minister? These men waltz into town, claiming to be men of God, and the townspeople did not argue. God is good, God is great, right? That’s why they mindlessly donated to a cause they didn’t quite understand and were then left high and dry by these cons.
ReplyDeleteClearly, as shown by John Oliver in his “church”, anything can become a church and anyone will surely believe it. He received 65 million dollars in donations only from people who knew he was a comedian and probably understood it was a joke. Imagine what would happen if he became a legitimate televangelist? It certainly should not be as simple as it still is to be considered a tax exempt church as it opens the door for many frauds such as the one exemplified by John Oliver.
During the time period people didn’t really have a chance to travel and experience. This experience would be known today as “streets smarts”. But back then people only really had to take what people told them at face value. This is why there was such a stress on honor and a man’s words. The King and Duke can deceive the townspeople because the townspeople have no experience in interacting with many people other than the ones in town. Yes there may be passing travelers but when the King and Duke show up with such pomp and big words it awes the townspeople to believing whatever they want them to believe.
ReplyDeleteI think today’s world people believe the churches because they find comforts in the fanatics and want to pay to keep it going. Because of this I think it should be more difficult for this institutions to come along and take advantage of these gullible people. Just like the gullible townspeople eventually this will lead to strife and potential violence.
I disagree with Genevieve because even though they weren't able to travel much, they still knew how to interact with others that would travel and pass through on a ferry or some mode of transportation. I believe it was part of the King and Duke's actions that made the townspeople believe who they were.
DeleteI agree with Trenton Dalton in the belief that people should monitor how their money is being used, but I feel that people during that time were still entitled to ask questions as to how their donations are being used. I believe that they could follow up the request for a donation with the question of, "what will it be used for?" Needless to say, when asking someone like the king in Huckleberry Finn this question, the answer given might not always be true, but it would at least give some reassurance to the donators. And, if those asking for these donations are fraudulent, this question could reveal them as such, in the case that they fail to answer the question of what the donation will be used for.
ReplyDeleteThe townspeople were so easily deceived by the king and the duke partially because they had never seen Peter Wilk's brothers. Since the townspeople had never seen his brothers and the king and duke didn't have an ID like we do in today's society, how were they to prove that they weren't actually Peter's brothers. In this time period, the church and people from the church were trustworthy. When the king said that he was a preacher in England, the townspeople thought since he was a person of the church, why would he lie about who he was.
ReplyDeletePeople still fall victim to similar tactics using religion as a basis of trust by, for example, if a person of the church comes to your house and asks if you can donate money for a good cause, they believe them because they are from the church. If they are from the church they are people of God which means they are good people, and if they are lying that means they are not good people and not people of God.
I believe it should be more difficult to create a church fund in some aspects but not in others. If a church wants to create a fund that is great, if it is actually going to what they say it is going to. However, if the money is actually being collected to fund something else, then they should have proof of what the money is going toward and why it is going there. Not just saying it is going to charity, like what part of charity and why. Most of the time when people know more details about something, it is most likely true. Like in Huck Finn when the sisters handed over the money to the king and duke because they thought the king and duke would have more use out of it especially with them being from the church. They didn't have a reason to need the money, yet the sisters were going to put their father's estate up for sale.
In Huck Finn, it is explained earlier on that most people in the town know each other and when new people come along and explain who they are, the towns people learn to accept them into the community. Like the brothers that pretend to be ministers, Huck was able to fool every home he came across mostly because he was good at making up stories and who he was. maybe it isn't the fact that the people were so gullible, which in most cases they probably were, but it's that the brothers were just very good at convincing the towns people that they were part of the church.
ReplyDeleteHowever, church was such a huge thing that everyone based their lives on and still do today. Many people are blinded by the "glory of god" to realize that the charity that the brothers are asking for is all fake.
I can't help but disagree, Ashley. "Many people are blinded by the glory of God to realize that the charity that the brothers are asking for is all fake." How would they know to look for dishonesty? How could they even know that it was possible that people would lie about being ministers so they could get money? It wasn't so much the glory of God or even the the brothers' ability to tell a tale as it was pure inexperience.
DeleteThe towns people are so easily deceived by The King and The Duke, because they are people who are in a sense put on a pedestal; they're put up high like this because they are people who have power. One who in all makes decisions for those "under" them. When making these decisions people are going to rely on those who are above them, because you have to have faith that things will be made to turn out the best that they can.
ReplyDeleteToday, people still fall victim of similar tactics, because of trust. For example as an individual who attends church I have a lot of faith in those superior people that run the church to do what is right and to use funds for what the money is being given for. Therefore, me trusting these people I give money to help out the church, or essentially pay for the church and new things that are happening within the church, because of my trust I don't expect someone to do anything other with the money than what it is supposed to go towards. People today don't expect anything to happen other than what is supposed too, therefore, leaving themselves wide open to be taken advantage of. Not only that, but also with the article that we read people today put "famous" people on a pedestal just like they would a religious figure, and because of this when one of those famous people say to do something, people are going to do what they're being told to do. Once again, leaving themselves wide open to be taken advantage of.
I agree 100%. As we in fact do fall into the trap of helping because of trust or the belief that that's what we are supposed to do puts us in the same shoes as the people in the book. I honestly don't believe we would be quite as vulnerable, but it's still crappy to know that you can't even trust people who belong to the church.
DeleteThe con men are able to trick the townspeople because the townspeople simply do not know any better. Communication and travel were very slow during the time period of the setting, so most people had very little experience with different kinds of people. and therefore did not know to be suspicious of the king and the duke. In addition, it is human nature to trust members of your group. This is prevalent during the time and setting, and causes people to immediately trust those who claim to be in the same group. Since the con men claimed to be of the same religion as the people, they were quick to assume that the men could be trusted. This is also why people today are able to scam others by pretending to be ministers and preachers, and why it needs to be more difficult to create churches. As the article about John Oliver explains, creating a church can lead to an easy profit because of the trust people have of churches and the IRS’s lack of monitoring. Churches also are not taxed, which means that scammers and con men can gain a profit without losing any of it to the federal or state governments
ReplyDeleteThe townspeople are so easily deceived by the king and the duke because during this time period of 1800s the people were very gullible. Huck believed anything and everything he was told because he didn’t know any better nor what was true and false. The townspeople fell for the men’s trickery because one claimed to be a minister. Being is such a small town everyone put their trust in one another so they believed the “minister” and didn’t realize that they were being played. People still fall for this today because everyone believes that religious people would never con someone out of their hard earned money just to take for themselves. John Oliver proved that people are gullible and put their trust in a church cause blindly without knowing anything about the cause. He created a fake church just to prove how easy it is to create a church and take innocent people’s money. Oliver collected thousands of dollars by doing this experiment. This just shows how blindly some people will put their trust in a church’s cause without doing any research and how trustworthy they believe in churches. I think is should be difficult to create a church just solely based on how ignorant people will create a church in hopes to just pocket the money and not do anything good with the money like give it to a charity. By people doing this it defaces churches and what their real purpose is.
ReplyDeleteThe townspeople are easily deceived by the Duke and the Dauphin during this time period because they are gullible in religious thinking and believe that everyone who practices their similar religion is an ally. The Duke and Dauphin take advantage of these people by pretending to fit in and accept donations at one point, followed by an inheritance from Peter Wilks. By representing themselves as individuals of importance during the time period, it made the common folk feel like they were obligated to donate money and help the Duke and Dauphin through ministry.
ReplyDeleteIt is unfortunate that people still fall victim to trickery and deceptive tactics in the world today. People still believe that they are putting their money to good use through donations and other generous favors, but end up donating to something that has little purpose or meaning and isn't going to leave a positive impact. It should be easy for people to create a church fund such as the one made by John Oliver, considering the technological advances and the easier availability to take donations. People who donate money to religious funds such as John Oliver's should take it upon themselves to research what they are really donating to, and make an educated decision. Just like in Huck Finn when the Duke and Dauphin pretended to practice religion with the townspeople, the citizens should have taken more time to evaluate the visitors religious faith before donating to them.
I like the way you worded the first paragraph to call them an ally is completely correct and I wouldn't have thought of it like that.
DeleteThe people were easily deceived because their religion is made up of and fulfilled with other people and the love they share with each other love being used as a term for caring more so than affection. To continue on this book is placed in the second great awakening where the overall message was equality for all people not just some therefor showing people general kindness was a trend at the time. This enlargement of courtesy made the deception of people extremely common.
ReplyDeletePersonally the idea of a “fake” church just to make money is the worst form of deception ever. Taking a building of serenity and turning it into an idea of sinful nature. Although I am not naive I know it is something that can happen therefore I believe on record you should be a church on record and submit your statistics on attendance tithe amounts ect.
This time period is a time period of vulnerability of everyone who wanted to be religious. In other words, these people associated with the church believed that they should give to the church, and blindly fall into the trap. The trap in this case was the Duke and the King. These men knew how the deceive as they had been doing it since before they met Huck. They knew how people would just blindly give to the cause, with no mention of what the cause really is. This happens all the time in todays society. These charities sound all great and stuff, but we don't really know what is going on once they rob us. It's pathetic that people take advantage of people so often, and it will go on forever.
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