The urge to be cunning creates duplicity among the adroit and the stupid alike. How many of us have the wit to be sure we are cunning? The people who organized Paul Martin’s calamitous takeover of the Liberal Party all considered themselves cunning. La Rochefoucauld wrote in 17th-century France that the best way to be deceived is to consider yourself more cunning than your neighbours. But Herzog points out that Tupperware succeeded by appeals so obvious that he doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “People need to express themselves,” its brochures announced. “And one of the best ways is by putting on a Tupperware party.”
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