Caveat Emptor

These days, there are so many temptations out there.

My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbor, if you have bound yourself to another, you are snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth. So do this, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor's power: go, hurry, and plead with your neighbor. Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber; save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise. Without having any chief or officer or ruler, it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest. How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior. A scoundrel and a villain goes around with crooked speech, winking the eyes, shuffling the feet, pointing the fingers, with perverted mind devising evil, continually sowing discord; on such a one calamity will descend suddenly; in a moment, damage beyond repair. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil, a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family. - Prov. 6:1-19

Today's lesson from Proverbs is to be wise in our dealings.

Don't be lazy and look for an easy way to gain financial wealth, but do the hard work and make a good life for yourself honestly.

This is a warning about associating with scoundrels but in today's world, the temptations do not come looking so sinister.

There is something called the Creator Economy, which temps the young and old alike to give up their pursuit of traditional jobs in favor of earning revenue from telling the world about your life.

It can be very tempting to think you can gain a following for who you are and what you have done, even when you haven't done anything yet.

Is this the new lazybones life?  Or is this more than a trend, as the influencers propose?

I guess it is normal for us who are older and more accustomed to traditional approaches to question the validity of a new approach, especially when it is so hard to understand.

Do these new approaches represent a threat?  Are they devices of evil minds looking to mislead?

No.

And I guess they cannot be seen as laziness, since it takes a lot of work to sell yourself every day on social media.

So, we need to apply wisdom and understanding to all we encounter, just as this reading says.  

The easier being an influencer becomes, the more attractive it will be as a platform for the real scoundrels and evildoers.

So, the old idiom, Caveat Emptor, applies here in this new economy as well.