The main theme I was exploring in The Easy River to Success was how the plethora of Get Rich Quick schemes that seem to clog the Internet like bindweed are sort of similar to the use of demonology of necromancy in the Middle Ages. Those who attempted to practice the summoning of demons, or related magic such as alchemy, were looking for an easy fix that they couldn’t get by hard work, luck, talent or birth. They hoped that if they said the right words and made the right signs they could summon a demon and bind it to their will and thereby get what they wanted in life. Many spells and demonic invocations are to do with getting power over others, foretelling the future or winning the love of a woman. Alchemy is perhaps more directly associated with getting rich.
In the same way Get Rich Schemes on the Internet offer the hopeful the chance to get what they dream of with the minimum of effort. But at least demonology, necromancy or alchemy was usually only a waste of time with some small outlay and wasn’t, it seems, a mean for con men to get rich quick off the hopes of others.
UPDATE
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Interesting analogy … though I’m not sure I’d include alchemy as a ‘low outlay’ pursuit – at least for committed practitioners
Dear Ellsea, perhaps easier than finding a seam of gold and mining it yourself though – that’s why alchemists wanted to turn base money into gold – they thought it would be easier and cheaper. But yes, definitely their experiments required a lot of effort, especially as they didn’t get anywhere, but what they were hoping for was an easy fix.