Michael
Carlos Santayana
February
8, 2016
Artifice
Wile
E. Coyote orders acme
paint then paints a picture of tunnel up ahead. Coyote observes his artifice on
the wall hoping his plan works. His hope is that the road runner, the Coyote’s hoped
for future meal, will run at high-speed straight into the disguised foreground
thinking it is a continuous road and will then crash to his death. Wile E. Coyote watches, waiting for
the bird to be fooled into the trap. This painting of a road on the wall is his
artifice. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary “Artifice is a clever or cunning device or expedient,
especially as used to trick or deceive others” (“Artifice”). Thinking about
Artifice makes one aware of how important it is to avoid being on the short end
of the stick. After clearing up what an artifice is there are two kinds of
artifice to go over: ones that include devices and the ones that include a stratagem.
The Artifice as a device is a concrete
example of its use. It is like something one might find in a magicians starter
kit, a shiny, flashy, smoke and mirrors sort of thing that distracts. Weighted dice, Trojan horse, fake ID, all work
well the first couple times. For instance, when Lewis Dodgson hired the chief
programmer in Jurassic Park as a corporate spy, he arms him with an artifice. “’The can's a little heavier than usual,
is all.’ Dodgson's technical team had been assembling it around the clock for
the last two days. Quickly he showed him how it worked.” (76). The
purpose of an artifice is to increase the probability that the victim will be
fooled. This form of artifice works well because people place their trust in
familiar objects (shaving cream can) more easily than in the person using the
device itself. The Artifice was made to help pull off a small plot and fool
someone, to help place people’s trust more with the use of a device than they
would have in the actual person. It is like a trap for the perceptions, in the
sense that it catches and retains someone’s understanding allowing the trapper
to achieve his own end. The perpetrator, in this case Dennis the programmer, of
the artifice gains control over the perceptions of the victim; InGen, the
company. The artifice is a seemingly innocent object or process that is only
meant to deceive. When the time is right, Dennis lays his backdoor to the parks
system and removes 1.5 million dollar worth of embryos in his artifice.
However, while an artifice can be the bait to a trap or any other part of the
trap, it is not exclusively for traps but can be used to create elaborate
misperceptions that will guide people to act in a way they would never have
acted without the artifice. Thus a corporate spy may have many concealed gadgets,
but a federal spy in comparison may have even more sophisticated tools.
Artifice is not always a physical
object, but a normal process or in the example of the spy, a person who also
happens to use devices that are examples of artifice. Now the abstract artifice
may look like an action. This is more difficult, but can be less traceable than
the artifice in the form of a device. The abstract artifice can be a phony idea
or story that lets the perpetrator get what he or she wants. If the user of the
Artifice is using it well, the result can be deceit or entertainment. The
fooled may never know that they were ever tricked, like Ingen in the previous
example. Abstract artifice can be a stratagem disguised as a true story or
situation when in fact, the story itself is really untrue. If the trick is ever
brought to light, smart people try to not let it happen twice. Ted Shackley,
Famous spymaster of World War II, wrote that “legal travelers could include
Communist Party types, Business-men-technicians, and religious figures. Another
form of third-country national who turned out to be very useful was the foreign
diplomat, Finn, let’s say, under assignment to Hanoi or Beijing.” (9). It is
not unusual for individuals to enter a country of interest, in this case
Germany, and exit with valuable knowledge that helps the cause of their country’s war, while still remaining
innocent of the whole process. Professional spymasters use a military strategy
in espionage known as the “indirect approach” and how it is not easy to
implement, but less conspicuous and more successful. They position people to
help them who do so unwittingly by delivering or carrying something they are
not even aware they have. Eventually, Germany recruited spies in Egypt posing
as American intelligence and got them to serve the German cause while the
victims thought they were working for American intelligence. Artifice is trickery, duplicity, guile, cunning, artfulness, wiliness,
craftiness, slyness, and chicanery. Artifice is not transparency, candor,
trustworthiness or innocence. People of good faith, who believe everyone is as
honest as them, they are natural victims for artifice.
By the
way, Wile E. Coyote’s artifice failed in the cartoon. Yet a real life street
artist implemented the same artifice with success as captured in the online
magazine Inquisitor.com, “The photo shows a fake tunnel painted onto the side of a wall and the Road
Runner from the popular cartoon created by Looney Tunes.
The Road Runner is peeking around the side of the tunnel, in the same manner he
used to do in the famous cartoon.” (Road Runner Faux Tunnel). Unfortunately, a real car actually crashed into this all too
convincing “tunnel.” Artifice can be used
for acting, amusing, tickling and entertaining us.
No one likes to be
tricked and no one likes a trickster who deals in artifice to take advantage of
others. Often the Artifice is not necessary for a winning strategy and was
actually overkill. Additionally, artifice is really only as good as the user of
the artifice. Sometimes in life there is justice and it can be both satisfying
and funny. When Wile E. Coyote put up his artifice and was waiting eagerly, the
Road Runner runs through it with ease as if it was not a painting on wall.
When Mr. Coyote investigates the matter, a little justice is served as he gets
hit by an incoming truck from the solid road ahead. Unfortunately, if we are
not aware of artifice, the story will not end as happily for us.
Bibliography
- “Fast and furry-ous.” The Road-Runner and Wile E. Coyote. Writ. Michael Maltese.
Dir. Chuck Jones. Warner Brothers, September 17, 1949. Film.
- Finney,
Richard A. Spymaster. Dulles:
Potomac Books, 2005. Print.
- Crichton,
Michael. Jurassic Park. New York:
Ballantine Books, 1990. Print.
- "Artifice." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 1 Apr. 2016.
- Mooney, Paula. “Road Runner Faux Tunnel Painted on Wall
Causes Car Crash-gets 3 Million Views in 9 Hours” Inquisitr.com December
16, 2015. URL.
