In Mamet's "House of Games", the themes of manipulation with regards to human interaction are explored, but the more fundamental question of of whether our very existence is a scam is not asked.
In books such as "The Selfish Gene" the idea is suggested that we are slaves to our DNA and our drives for survival and reproduction are merely mechanisms for the immortal DNA to propogate itself to new hosts, while our bodies are left to gradually break down and decay. This idea is very useful for explaining programmed behaviors in animals that appear detrimental on the individual level: an ant can sacrific itself to save its colony, because the genes controlling the ant are also present in the other ants in the colony, so while the individual dies, its genes are able to survive and be passed on in the colony.
How does this great existential con manifest itself in humans? One answer is the endless obsessions that society encourages: wealth, consumption, presige etc...qualities exemplified in Margaret. We are all slaves to these ideas, because for whatever reason, the genes that programmed them into our minds were propagated by our cromagnon ancestors efficiently, leading of course, to thousands of years of war and suffering. I often wonder, if I could design my mind from scratch, when qualities would I want to include, and what qualities would I recognize as mere cons perpertrated by my DNA?
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