The Poodle and The Con

I am going to try a thought experiment. One of the questions posed to us at the very end of our discussion of Faust was whether Faust is the every man or the superman. I am going to try and convince you that Faust is the every man its just that we don't want to admit it, because its too uncomfortable. I am going to convince you with a poodle and a con.
The poodle comes from Faust, the details of the con from a movie named "Revolver".

If you recall, in Faust, Mephistopheles first appeared to Faust as a black poodle:
  <-poodle. Later on, when they talk face to face, Mephistopheles appears to Faust as a nobleman of sorts. Now this may raise an obvious question, why?

What I want to do is not think of Faust in terms of a disillusioned old man making a pact with the devil to give him the highest pleasure of all, but in terms of you. I want you to think of it as a story of you through life.

“The greatest enemy will hide in the last place you would ever look.”

—Julius Caesar 75 BC
Modern psychology today breaks up our mentalities into three separate regions: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id represents feelings, emotions, and to an extent chaos (romanticism?). The superego represents reason, logic to the effect or order and perfection (enlightenment?). The ego, resting in between the two sides mediates the two, often forming its own persona. According to psychological thought, that is your persona.

The greatest con, that he ever pulled... was making you believe... that he is you.  
- Avi (Revolver)

Back to Faust for a bit. In these terms we see a man engrossed in the 'superego' side of his mentality and becoming curious about the 'id'. Or, us starting on our journey to try and balance these two sides of ourselves. This is where the ego comes in. As with Mephistopheles, he creeps in as a friend. (man's best friend is dog, right?) He has a foot in the door per se, but its important that we accept him as a friend. So he comes back, as us. He makes you believe that he is like us, as with in Faust, Mephistopheles gets Faust to believe that there are equals of sorts (hence the casual conversation). Here is where he pulls his best trick.

"In every game and con, there is always a victim and an opponent; the more control the victim thinks he has, the less he actually has." - Rules of the Con (Revolver)

So Mephistopheles gives the power and control to Faust, to make him believe he is the master. By the end of part 1 think, who really is in control?
Of course once the ego has done this, you can't get out of his game. The bigger and older the trick the easier it is to pull. Questioning the opponent now would mean questioning your intelligence, and no one can do that, especially to themselves - admit they are stupid. Even Faust couldn't even after saying he knew nothing.

“First rule of business, protect your investment.”

—Etiquette of the Banker 1775

So now that the ego has you, what does it do? It protects its investment. The story of Faust highlights two distinct methods beyond the power con. The first is consumption.

"The opponent distracts the victim by getting him distracted by his own consumption" - (Revolver)

Look at Faust, as he goes further and further into Mephistopheles' game, as he consumes more,  he seems to lose more power over himself and the game itself. The second is image.
This is the devil:


Notice the very cartoon feeling about the devil as we think about him? It makes us believe he is not real. As the ego goes, the conception of good and evil are its best friend, it gives us a perceived enemy to make war with while we go to it for comfort and safety, increasing its power over us. With Faust the same can be said. The dog is conceived as good, hence why Faust was more likely to allow it into his quarters. On a similar tone, it is possible why Mephistopheles tried to pull Faust away from Gretchen.
"The perceived threat can be used to defeat the real threat." - (Revolver)
God is the cure to the perceived threat of the devil. The ego, or Mephistopheles, must protect its investment.
This was a thought experiment, I don't expect anything else from you, as that would question your intelligence, and no one wants to do that, not to themselves. Why? Maybe its because as Jake green from Revolver puts it:
"There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. "Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special." We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The "hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah." Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others."

And maybe that's the only reason I really posted this blog.