With apologies for the long thread.

At its core, illusion is about momentum. To grow the crowd, action must intensify. It is all about the expectation of what is yet to come. Ponzi schemes must expand to be sustained.

For the illusionist, then, there is mounting pressure. The two headed lady must grow to three, then five, then eight then 13. It's Fibonacci at his best. To hold the crowd's attention, the next act must be the sum of the last two.

With the exaggeration becoming extreme, the illusionist has little choice but to also attack the naysayers. Soaring deception is fragile.

The result is that amid extreme illusion there are always two struggles: One to create an even bolder act of deception and a second waged against the doubters. It is why extreme illusion is inherently authoritarian and predatory.

It is also exhausting. Ultimately the illusionist can't keep up. There comes a point where there are too many plates to spin all at once.

As one plate falls the rest inevitably follow. Extreme illusion is inherently binary. The lady either has all 13 heads or just one.

Don't get me wrong, as Wirecard has shown, through authoritarian efforts and audacious illusion, the best can take their acts to an extreme that is laughable in hindsight, but inevitably all acts fail.

As I said above it is all about momentum. At the end, the slightest pause can topple the whole show.