The French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal once claimed that "mutual cheating is the foundation of society." For as long as there have been rules, it seems, there have been cheaters. By many counts, however, this has been a banner year for corner-cutters, with a spate of high-profile scams that have shocked us all.

Last week, Roman Catholic cardinals gathered at the Vatican to begin repairing a church rocked by the revelation that within its clerical ranks exists an insidious web of pedophilia and child molestation, hush money and coverups.

Former Sotheby's Chairman Alfred Taubman was just sentenced to a year in jail and fined millions for price fixing in the art world that cost customers an estimated $100 million. The ongoing Enron saga is filled with enough greedheads, schemers, and devil-take-the-hindmosters to make an Ivan Boesky blush.

In the academic world, Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Ellis remains suspended from teaching at Mount Holyoke College because he fabricated tales about serving in Vietnam. Historians Doris Kearns Goodwin and Stephen Ambrose were hit by revelations of plagiarism. Then there's the truly sorry figure of George O'Leary. His coaching career at Notre Dame lasted just five days because he lied about a few inconsequential but, in the end, telling entries on his résumé.

What's going on here? Doesn't anyone play by the rules? On Wall Street, the one-two punch of greed and competition is to blame, says journalist James Stewart. His coverage of the 1987 stock crash and insider-trading scandals earned him a Pulitzer and became the foundation of his bestseller Den of Thieves. All that money sloshing around, he says, "can drive people into a frenzy. . . . You're thrown in that competitive situation at a very early age and exhorted to win at all costs." And that win-at-all-costs ethic, critics say, is the foundation of the cheating culture.

In Hollywood, "you can get away with your embezzlements and your lies, and your murders, but you can never get away with failing," according to Dominick Dunne, celebrated chronicler of the powerful and notorious. The pressure to succeed–and the fear of failure–Dunne says, is the perfect prescription for cheating. It may also be the root of widespread cheating among students. Consider: Seventy-four percent of high school students admitted to "serious test cheating" last year. That's more than double the number who admitted this in 1969.

But pressure to succeed isn't a complete explanation. Undeniably, there is an almost romantic appeal to "beating the system"–particularly if the system, whether it's the speed limit or the stock market, is perceived as rigged or unfair. Take the tax code, for instance. Nearly everyone thinks he or she pays too much or that others don't pay enough. So Americans cheat to the tune of $195 billion a year, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That amounts to a whopping $1,600 per taxpayer.

Freeloaders. And think about the reasons people give for cheating. We steal cable because "the prices are a rip-off." We fudge insurance claims because "the rates are sky high." We pocket office supplies because "the company can afford it." All these rationalizations suggest people are perversely cheating to restore fairness. Is this tolerable?

No wonder many are now asking if there's been a major shift in cultural standards–whether cheating and deceit have become accepted tools of the trade in the never-ending quest for success. Yet there is tension here as well. As great as the urge to cheat may be, we also have an almost hard-wired hatred of cheaters and a deep-seated urge to punish them. In fact, studies have shown people will go to great lengths to ferret out and punish cheaters, even when doing so is costly and offers no material gain. According to sociologists, this instinct to punish rule-breakers may date to hunter-gatherer societies, which were highly egalitarian–there were no hierarchical leaders. So when it came to sharing food, for instance, these minisocieties had to work as a group to punish any freeloaders.

In any case, that was a long time ago. Today we face our own unsettling question: Has America become a nation of cheaters? There is much to sort through here, and we invite your thoughts in this latest installment of our World@Large series. What drives people to cut corners and swindle their way through life? When, if ever, is cheating acceptable? We can be reached at letters@usnews.com.We look forward to hearing from you.-The Editors