From the weblog Eject! Eject! Eject! comes helpful information on magic and misdirection. It would be good to keep this lesson in mind when observing politics as well.

Now, ask any professional magician how they pull off their illusions and every last one will tell you it�s all about misdirection. Sadly, those boring, insensitive, dead-white-male laws of physics don�t allow for quarters to disappear into thin air. So to make someone believe that precisely this has happened, we need to physically make that coin go someplace where it is not expected. And the way to do that is to make everyone look somewhere else for a moment.

Humans have retained several reflexes, and for good reason too � they keep us alive. All of today�s animals are reflexively attracted to fast motion in their field of vision. There were undoubtedly many animals that did not have this brain wiring, and these extinct animals are known by the scientific name, breakfast. If you�re a two-ounce tree shrew or a one-ton wildebeest, something moves fast in the bushes it would behoove you to give it your undivided attention.

This is hard-wired, and there�s not a damn thing we can do about it. So watch a magician carefully next time he makes a coin disappear. You�ll see one hand move quickly � and that is the hand you will watch. Coin�s in the other hand.

Misdirection