Barrel Strength

I think it was William Shirer in ‘Rise and Fall of the Third Reich’ who talked with a German who compared Adolf Hitler to the stock figure of the Heiratsschwindler, a confidence man who cheats widows and spinsters out of their little means with the promise of marriage. Like the marriage swindler, Hitler achieved his end by promising what he never intended and taking what could never be recovered. To me, the Heiratsschwindler is the human rights commissioner who swears to the truth of a glowing future against a guaranteed investment today. All will be well if you but surrender the right to think and speak and read and write. Within the marriage swindle, the crisis comes when the victim must assign all her assets to the custody of the mustachioed villain. At the first sign of resistance, the Heiratsschwindler gathers himself into a ball of principled and outraged fury to explode upon his victim. “How can you dare to doubt my integrity and my intentions? I give you the promise of love and assured financial security, based on the soundness of the investment scheme for which I need all your savings, more or less immediately and without conditions and certainly without troublesome questions which visibly upset me and delay our bliss.” Trust, indeed love, is the basis of the swindle but the closer is emotional blackmail of the basest kind. If you are not already acquainted with the sinister plans of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, I would urge you to study them without delay. This is the confidence trickster writ large.