Conning the Conmen

Much mental energy has been expended on the intertubes over the question: Who are the good guys and bad guys on Lost? It's the sign of a well crafted story that it is quite impossible to tell. There are points in favor and against for all the main characters - a plausible case can be made, for example, for Smokey to be the "good" guy. That's unlikely though, of course.

But rather than good and evil, I think a far more likely scenario is: There are a series of cons going on: Jacob runs a con, Smokey runs a con, Ben, Widmore, Eloise Hawking, they're all running long cons - the long con has been a consistent theme on this show, from the start. None of these people are necessarily Good or Evil, but are rather acting on behalf of what they think to be correct. However, with all the conning going on, who knows what's what? As I said, Smokey might be the victim in all this - he did say Jacob took his body, his humanity. If true, that puts him in a very sympathetic light. Hard to justify all the killing, however.

The next level of players in this game - Jack, Hurley, Sun, etc - clearly have no larger ambitions other than getting off the island/reuniting with loved ones. Selfish, of course, but aren't we all? 

I would be satisfied with a resolution along these lines: The Island is Eden, and is the source of much of mythology. Due to its magic abilities, the Island has been fought over forever. At some point, guardians were appointed to protect the Island, and they did, but eventually one of these guardians got bored of the whole thing, and wants out. Hence the events we are seeing.

In such a scenario, it's really a case of no one has the full story, everyone is trying to get ahead for themselves, and thinks the stakes are high enough to fully justify an "ends justify the means" philosophy. In this scenario, it would be safe to assume everyone is "bad", in that none of them understand the true significance of the Island, and instead are just seeking to fulfill their own personal desires regarding it.

Thus, the true "hero" of the story would likely be someone who doesn't give a damn about the Island or anything related to it, and has enough reasons to give up the Island. Desmond, in other words.