The World Keeps Turning: The art of misdirection

Allen Woods
Published: 01-17-2025 2:01 PM |
In 2012, The New Yorker profiled Apollo Robbins, universally accepted as the best pickpocket in the world at the time, but one who always returned what he had stolen, including watches, keys, billfolds, eyeglasses (being worn at the time), coins, cartridges from ballpoint pens, etc., etc. One of his most famous demonstrations was in 2001 when, at the age of 27, he struck up a conversation with Secret Service agents protecting former President Jimmy Carter.
Within a few minutes he had stolen nearly everything in their pockets, “except their guns.” When an agent snatched back Carter’s stolen itinerary, and prepared to show his badge to Robbins as proof of his authority, Robbins had to return it to him, along with the keys to the primary car in the motorcade.
Robbins has worked in Las Vegas and at corporate events as an entertainer, and consulted with law enforcement, psychologists, the military, and neuroscience researchers to explain how he is able to control people’s attention so they are always watching the wrong thing when he light-fingers their possessions. Today there are multiple YouTube clips showing his uncanny dexterity in action, and lecturing at a conference while demonstrating “The Art of Misdirection.”
In the article, he says, “It’s all about the choreography of people’s attention. Attention is like water. It flows. It’s liquid. You create channels to divert it.” He also discusses ”inattentional blindness,” where people focus so much on one task that they fail to see something else in plain sight. His abilities prove that it’s not usually enough to “watch your wallet” when a glib con-artist is nearby. While you’re concentrating on your wallet, he might steal your watch.
What does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Or the price of eggs on American shelves? Just a week before his inauguration, as news media gobbled up the absurdities of taking over Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico, Donald Trump again displays what may be his greatest skill, like that of the legendary Robbins: the art of misdirection.
The first column I wrote here in 2016 was called “The Fog of Trump,” and I marveled at the fact that he perpetually seemed to surround himself with an impenetrable fog that obscured his political and moral shortcomings. During his recent campaign, he was even able avoid attention to his incoherence by claiming his rants and digressions were intentional, that he was doing “the weave.” His supporters seemed to love his addled stream of consciousness, since it relieved them from the hard work of analysis as well.
The current fog around conquering a new empire obscures the release of a Justice Department report on the investigation into his effort to obstruct the 2020 election, which would have resulted in felony charges had he not persuaded or bullied the Supreme Court into giving him immunity. But he directs attention away from it, declaring it unworthy of scrutiny since it would be “a fake report just like it was a fake investigation.” It’s another case of directing our “fluid” attention, of using the art of misdirection to prevent accountability.
But comparing Trump to a pickpocket minimizes what he is stealing. Pickpockets seem relatively innocuous, even though Robbins has stolen (and immediately returned) watches worth more than $100,000. What is our Thief-in-Chief, Donald Trump, stealing as he misdirects our attention and guides our ”inattentional blindness?”
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So far, he has colluded in stealing our trust: in government, our elections, our public officials, our system of justice, our international alliances and agreements, and our economy. He has helped erase our basic sense of decency, our tradition of honoring our veterans, and our belief in an America that pursues the elusive ideals stated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
Unlike Robbins, he seems to have no inclination to return any of what he has stolen. I’m not sure he realizes he’s been a thief. He may imagine instead that he has only revealed people’s true nature: that we live in a dog-eat-dog world where might makes right, and that anyone who shows empathy is probably a loser.
We face a tough task, but we need to continue to value our democratic system over any possible short-term promises, such as lowering the cost of groceries. But lowering everyday prices “is hard, once they’ve gone up,” Trump now admits. But don’t worry about it. Currently, it’s more important to focus on those suddenly important security concerns posed by Greenland and the Panama Canal ...
Allen Woods is a freelance writer, author of the Revolutionary-era historical fiction novel “The Sword and Scabbard,” and Greenfield resident. His column appears regularly on a Saturday. Comments are welcome here or at awoods2846@gmail.com.