Om Malik: We Are Living in Pinocchio’s World
This starts out as a review on a Montblanc pen, but stay with it as it shifts toward a look at the original book for "Pinocchio" and how relevant it's themes are in today's world.
Collodi refuses to assign blame only upward. That is what keeps the novel from collapsing into moralism. Pinocchio is deceived because he wants to be deceived. He chooses shortcuts over work, belonging over truth, spectacle over judgment, every time, until the costs become too steep to ignore. The Fox and the Cat succeed because he hands them what they need. His credulity is not innocent. It is participation.