We live in an age of Vipers

Merriam-Webster

Viper - 2 : a vicious or treacherous person

Treacherous - 1 : characterized by or manifesting treachery :perfidious

2 a : likely to betray trust : unreliable

b : providing insecure footing or support

c :marked by hidden dangers, hazards, or perils

Treachery - 1 : violation of allegiance or of faith and confidence : treason

2 : an act of perfidy or treason

Perfidious - 1 : the quality or state of being faithless or disloyal: treachery

2 : an act or an instance of disloyalty

It is an unfortunate truth that we live in an age of people that are ever looking to one up, or take the advantage of anyone so that they can get ahead or benefit in some form. In a word they are duplicitous, often saying one thing but meaning quite another, playing on confidences and usurping trusts of private disclosures, acting one part when they feel or think quite differently. More often than not, the most dangerous vipers are those that wear the guise of friends at least by colloquial, popular, or Facebook-like standards. Some people accept the pecking order strata and get comfortable with their roles, others try to play the game better than others, but few actually hold their heads up high and speak to the truth that it is a bad thing that has become the norm, and something that needs to stop. Today, people are master actors, easily confirmed by the way the masses dot over those that adorn the tabloids, television, and movie screens, imitating fashionable and trendy dress, demeanor, and dialog. Oftentimes the more outwardly religious, social, wealthy, or intelligent an individual, the more treacherously skilled they are. Honesty, purity of heart and word, sincerity, what I deem as real people, not plastic people, are truly more valuable and rare than gold. It is a hard thing to read between the "lines" amateur movie actors sometimes spew out in almost imperceptible contrivances. I have, however, found a common denominator. A behavioral mark that all that are dishonest reliably use. They beguile!!

Well, what does that mean you might ask.

Beguile:

1 : to lead by deception

2 : hoodwink
3 : to while away especially by some agreeable occupation; also : divert 2
4 : to engage the interest of by or as if by guileintransitive verb: to deceive by wiles

synonyms see deceive

And it's root word

Guile

1 : deceitful cunning : duplicity

2 : stratagem, trick

By the way a WILE is

1 : a trick or stratagem intended to ensnare or deceive; also : a beguiling or playful trick

2 : skill in outwitting : trickery, guile

synonyms see trick

Ok, ok, you might say. I understand what the words mean but how does that help, you might ask.

The following phrases show beguiling in action:

Just kidding

Just joking

Can't you take a joke?

And all similarly duplicitous comments.

Another commonality is the acceptance and use of SARCASM!

Sarcasm

1 : a sharp and often satirical or ironic utterance designed to cut or give pain
2 a : a mode of satirical wit depending for its effect on bitter, caustic, and often ironic language that is usually directed against an individual

Sarcasms and double meaning comments sharpened to sting or in the common vernacular zing or zingers, are a clear sign of someone that practices the dark arts of beguiling. Beguiling is also shown by those that use half truths or those who try and get others to feel a particular emotion void of truth by hyper manifesting emotion in their communications mostly by physical body language. It seems to me that those that hail from the western regions of the US are particularly adept at this tactic, especially women. Many have mastered the art of communicating through the most effective medium, body language, intonation, and facial gestures, things that are either expected, elicit a certain response, or would benefit them by getting someone to feel a certain way. Either way it disenfranchises the person receiving the information from the true feelings and thoughts or disposition of the communicator.

Another clear example of a beguiler is someone that regularly and often uses the term sorry. In our time "I'm sorry" has become a common phrase void of true contrition, said so often it is almost as common as the, and, or but. It is said so often and expected to appease all so readily that if you don't accept an insincere apology people turn the tables on you and make the argument about your attitude instead of the original problem. I'm sorry means that one is sorrowful for one's actions. The words without the sorrow is a lie!!

Sorry

1 : feeling sorrow, regret, or penitence

2 : mournful, sad
3 : inspiring sorrow, pity, scorn, or ridicule :pitiful

The person that practices insincere sorries is a beguiler, they seek to overlook their faults and proper restitution, and get back into the good graces of whomever, and for whatever motives, it is beneficial to maintain the status quo.

On the opposite spectrum are the people that never say that they are sorry. Those that say one thing and deliver another and by force of character, prestige, prominence, wealth, status, or any other point expect others to overlook their shortcomings without making mention of the inconveniences they impose. These people exhibit classic narcissistic behaviors and narcissists make the greatest beguilers!!

Bottom line.

Beguilers are liars, and there are many ways to impress upon people to

believe things that are not entirely accurate. But then again the beguiler

doesn't care about relationships or equality, at least not so much as the

ends they seek to bring to pass.

Christ didn't miss the mark when he said

Mathew 7:17-20

17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Our fruits are what we choose to do with the faculties we possess and have power to exercise! What we practice openly manifest what we believe. Our actions are the fruit of the seeds we have planted in our hearts and minds. Practices like those discussed grow out of deception and dishonesty.

Look around you and you'll recognize how it is very true that;

We live in an age of Vipers.

Don't be one of them!!

Oh the Brilliance of Hamlet!! Some of my favorites!

Act 2

Hamlet - Scene ii

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world.

Frailty, thy name is woman!

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

I'll speak to it though Hell itself should gape
And bid me hold my peace.

Polonius

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief.

Gertrude

More matter with less art.

Polonius

That he is mad, 'tis true; 'tis true 'tis pity;
And pity 'tis 'tis true: a foolish figure;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.

Hamlet - from a letter read by Polonius

Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.

Polonius - My honored lord, I will most humbly take my leave of you.
Hamlet - You cannot, sir, take from me anything that I will more willingly part withal — except my life — except my life — except my life.

Hamlet

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks.

What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though, by your smiling, you seem to say so.

That I, the son of a dear father murdered,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,
Must like a whore unpack my heart with words,
and fall a-cursing like a very drab

Ophelia - scene iii

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.
And recks not his own rede.

Polonius - scene iii

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.

Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment.

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend.

This above all — to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Ghost - scene v

Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin.

Hamlet - scene v

O most pernicious woman!
O, villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables, — meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hamlet - scene v

The time is out of joint; O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

Act 3

Polonius - scene i

We are oft to blame in this, —
'Tis too much prov'd, — that with devotion's visage,
And pious action, we do sugar o'er
The devil himself.

Hamlet

To be, or not to be, — that is the question: —
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? — To die, to sleep, —
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, — 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; —
To sleep, perchance to dream: — ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death, —
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, — puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know naught of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought;
And enterprises of great pith and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

Get thee to a nunnery: why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me. I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves all; believe none of us.

Ophelia

Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

O! what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!

Scene ii

Gertrude - Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet - No, good mother, here's metal more attractive.

Hamlet - Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
Ophelia - No, my lord.
Hamlet - I mean, my head upon your lap?
Ophelia - Ay, my lord.
Hamlet - Do you think I meant country matters?

Hamlet

Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass; and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me.

Tis now the very witching time of night,

When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business, as the day
Would quake to look on.

Claudius

O! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven.

Hamlet

Let me be cruel, not unnatural;
I will speak daggers to her, but use none.

Claudius - scene iii

My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

Hamlet - scene iv

Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better.

Nay, but to live
In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed,
Stew'd in corruption, honeying and making love
Over the nasty sty.

I must be cruel, only to be kind:
Thus bad begins and worse remains behind.

Gertrude

Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,
And breath of life, I have no life to breathe
What thou hast said to me.

Act IV

Claudius - scene i

So, haply, slander —
Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,
As level as the cannon to his blank,
Transports his poisoned shot — may miss our name
And hit the woundless air. — O, come away!
My soul is full of discord and dismay.

Scene ii

Rosencrantz: I understand you not, my lord.
Hamlet: I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear.
Rosencrantz: My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king.
Hamlet: The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing —
Guildenstern: A thing, my lord?
Hamlet: Of nothing.

Scene iii

Hamlet: A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.
Claudius: What dost thou mean by this?
Hamlet: Nothing but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.

Claudius: Where is Polonius?
Hamlet: In heaven; send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

Hamlet - scene iv

How all occasions do inform against me,
And spur my dull revenge!

O! from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

Claudius - scene v

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.

Act V

Laertes - scene i

Lay her i' the earth:
And from her fair and unpolluted flesh
May violets spring!

Hamlet

I lov'd Ophelia: forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum.

Hamlet

Hear you sir;
What is the reason that you use me thus?
I lov'd you ever: but it is no matter.
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, and dog will have his day.

Hamlet - scene ii

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

We defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

Horatio

Now cracks a noble heart. Good-night, sweet prince;
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.