Confidence Game = Confidence!

So yes, if we take "con game" to be slang for a confidence game… can't we apply it broadly to much of our lives, and to our great American "can do" spirit? And really isn't the whole "power of positive thinking" enterprise just an elaborate con game?

And isn't Stuart Smalley's - "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and dog gone, people like me," just a great personal con?

Or that Little Engine that Could? "I think I can, I think I can…"

And if we dream and try to do anything new, create something that hasn't existed before, don't we have to con ourselves into thinking that it will work out, that we will have success despite all the odds against success? And isn't it people who successfully con themselves into taking a chance, who are the ones who do take a chance?

So yes, the con game. For ourselves and others too...