48 Laws of Power. PREFACE

48 Laws of Power

PREFACE

The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to uswhen we feel helpless we feel miserable. No one wants less power; everyone wants more. In the world today, however, it is dangerous to seem too power hungry, to be overt with your power moves. We have to seem fair and decent. So we need to be subdecongenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious.

This game of constant duplicity most resembles the power dynamic that existed in the scheming world of the old aristocratic court. Throughout history, a court has always formed itself around the person in powerking, queen, emperor, leader. The courtiers who filled this court were in an especially delicate position: They had to serve their masters, but if they seemed to fawn, if they curried favor too obviously, the other courtiers around them would notice and would act against them. Attempts to win the master's favor, then, had to be subde. And even skilled courtiers capable of such subdety still had to protect themselves from their fellow courtiers, who at all moments were scheming to push them aside.

Meanwhile the court was supposed to represent the height of civilization and refinement. Violent or overt power moves were frowned upon; courtiers would work silendy and secredy against any among them who used force. This was die courtier's dilemma: While appearing the very paragon of elegance, tiiey had to outwit and diwart their own opponents in the subdest of ways. The successful courtier learned over time to make all of his moves indirect; if he stabbed an opponent in the back, it was widi a velvet glove on his hand and the sweetest of smiles on his face. Instead of using coercion or outright treachery, the perfect courtier got his way through seduction, charm, deception, and subde strategy, always planning several moves ahead. Life in die court was a never-ending game tfiat required constant vigilance and tactical thinking. It was civilized war.

Today we face a peculiarly similar paradox to diat of the courtier: Everything must appear civilized, decent, democratic, and fair. But if we play by those rules too stricdy, if we take them too literally, we are crushed by tiiose around us who are not so foolish. As the great Renaissance diplomat and courtier Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, “Any man who tries to be good all die time is bound to come to ruin among die great number who are not good. ” The court imagined itself die pinnacle of refinement, but underneath its glittering surface a cauldron of dark emotionsgreed, envy, lust, hatredboiled and simmered. Our world today similarly imagines itself the pinnacle of fairness, yet the same ugly emotions still stir within us, as they have forever. The game is the same. Outwardly, you must seem to respect the niceties, but inwardly, unless you are a fool, you learn quickly to be prudent, and to do as Napoleon advised: Place your iron hand inside a velvet glove. If, like the courtier of times gone by, you can master the arts of indirection, learning to seduce, charm, deceive, and subtiy outmaneuver your opponents, you will attain the heights of power. You will be able to make people bend to your will without their realizing what you have done. And if they do not realize what you have done, they will neitfier resent nor resist you.

To some people the notion of consciously playing power gamesno matter how indirectseems evil, asocial, a relic of the past. They believe they can opt out of the game by behaving in ways that have nothing to do with power. You must beware of such people, for while diey express such opinions outwardly, they are often among the most adept players at power. They utilize strategies that cleverly disguise the nature of the manipulation involved. These types, for example, will often display their weakness and lack of power as a kind of moral virtue. But true powerlessness, without any motive of self-interest, would not publicize its weakness to gain sympathy or respect. Making a show of one's weakness is actually a very effective strategy, subtle and deceptive, in the game of power (see Law 22, the Surrender Tactic).

Another strategy of the supposed nonplayer is to demand equality in every area of life. Everyone must be treated alike, whatever tiieir status and strength. But if, to avoid die taint of power, you attempt to treat everyone equally and fairly, you will confront the problem diat some people do certain things better than others. Treating everyone equally means ignoring their differences, elevating the less skillful and suppressing those who excel. Again, many of diose who behave this way are actually deploying another power strategy, redistributing people's rewards in a way that they determine.

Yet another way of avoiding the game would be perfect honesty and straightforwardness, since one of the main techniques of those who seek power is deceit and secrecy. But being perfectly honest will inevitably hurt and insult a great many people, some of whom will choose to injure you in return. No one will see your honest statement as completely objective and free of some personal motivation. And they will be right: In truth, the use of honesty is indeed a power strategy, intended to convince people of one's noble, good-hearted, selfless character. It is a form of persuasion, even a subde form of coercion.

Finally, those who claim to be nonplayers may affect an air of naivete, to protect them from the accusation that they are after power. Beware again, however, for die appearance of naivete can be an effective means of

deceit (see Law 21, Seem Dumber Than Your Mark). And even genuine naivete is not free of the snares of power. Children may be naive in many ways, but they often act from an elemental need to gain control over those around them. Children suffer greatiy from feeling powerless in the adult world, and they use any means available to get their way. Genuinely innocent people may still be playing for power, and are often horribly effective at the game, since they are not hindered by reflection. Once again, those who make a show or display of innocence are the least innocent of all.

You can recognize these supposed nonplayers by the way they flaunt their moral qualities, their piety, their exquisite sense of justice. But since all of us hunger for power, and almost all of our actions are aimed at gaining it, the nonplayers are merely throwing dust in our eyes, distracting us from their power plays with their air of moral superiority. If you observe them closely, you will see in fact that they are often the ones most skillful at indirect manipulation, even if some of them practice it unconsciously. And they greatly resent any publicizing of the tactics they use every day.

If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game. That will only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable. Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power. In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become. By following the route of the perfect courtier (see Law 24) you learn to make others feel better about themselves, becoming a source of pleasure to them. They will grow dependent on your abilities and desirous of your presence. By mastering the 48 laws in this book, you spare others the pain that comes from bungling with powerby playing with fire without knowing its properties. If the game of power is inescapable, better to be an artist than a denier or a bungler.

The only means to gain one's ends with people are force and cunning. Love also, they say; but that is to wait for sunshine, and life needs every moment.

Learning the game of power requires a certain way of looking at the world, a shifting of perspective. It takes effort and years of practice, for much of the game may not come naturally. Certain basic skills are required, and once you master these skills you will be able to apply the laws of power more easily.

The most important of these skills, and power's crucial foundation, the ability to master your emotions. An emotional response to a situation the single greatest barrier to power, a mistake that will cost you a lot more than any temporary satisfaction you might gain by expressing your feelings. Emotions cloud reason, and if you cannot see the situation clearly, you cannot prepare for and respond to it with any degree of control.

Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds your vision the most. It also has a ripple effect that invariably makes situations less controllable and heightens your enemy's resolve. If you are trying to destroy an enemy who has hurt you, far better to keep him off-guard by feigning friendliness than showing your anger.

I thought to myself

with what means, with

what deceptions, with

how many varied arts,

with what industry a

man sharpens his wits

to deceive another,

and through these

variations the world is

made more beautiful

Francesco Vettori,

contemporary and

friend of

Machiavelli,

early sixteenth

CENTURY

There are no principles; there are only events. There is no good and bad, there are only circumstances. The superior man espouses events and circumstances in order to guide them. If there were principles and fixed laws, nations would not change them as we change our shirts and a man can not be expected to be wiser than an entire nation.

Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850

Love and affection are also potentially destructive, in that they blind you to die often self-serving interests of those whom you least suspect of playing a power game. You cannot repress anger or love, or avoid feeling them, and you should not try. But you should be careful about how you express them, and most important, they should never influence your plans and strategies in any way.

Related to mastering your emotions is the ability to distance yourself from the present moment and think objectively about the past and future. Like Janus, the double-faced Roman deity and guardian of all gates and doorways, you must be able to look in bodi directions at once, the better to handle danger from wherever it comes. Such is the face you must create for yourselfone face looking continuously to the future and die odier to the past.

For the future, die motto is, “No days unalert. ” Nothing should catch you by surprise because you are constandy imagining problems before they arise. Instead of spending your time dreaming of your plan's happy ending, you must work on calculating every possible permutation and pitfall that might emerge in it. The further you see, the more steps ahead you plan, die more powerful you become.

The other face of Janus looks constandy to the pastdiough not to remember past hurts or bear grudges. That would only curb your power. Half of die game is learning how to forget those events in die past that eat away at you and cloud your reason. The real purpose of the backward-glancing eye is to educate yourself constantlyyou look at the past to learn from those who came before you. (The many historical examples in this book will gready help that process. ) Then, having looked to die past, you look closer at hand, to your own actions and diose of your friends. This is die most vital school you can learn from, because it comes from personal experience.

You begin by examining the mistakes you have made in die past, die ones diat have most grievously held you back. You analyze diem in terms of the 48 laws of power, and you extract from them a lesson and an oath: “I shall never repeat such a mistake; I shall never fall into such a trap again. ” If you can evaluate and observe yourself in this way, you can learn to break the patterns of the pastan immensely valuable skill.

Power requires the ability to play with appearances. To this end you must learn to wear many masks and keep a bag full of deceptive tricks. Deception and masquerade should not be seen as ugly or immoral. All human interaction requires deception on many levels, and in some ways what separates humans from animals is our ability to lie and deceive. In Greek myths, in India's Mahabharata cycle, in the Middle Eastern epic of Gilga-mesh, it is the privilege of the gods to use deceptive arts; a great man, Odysseus for instance, was judged by his ability to rival the craftiness of the gods, stealing some of dieir divine power by matching them in wits and deception. Deception is a developed art of civilization and die most potent weapon in the game of power.

You cannot succeed at deception unless you take a somewhat distanced approach to yourselfunless you can be many different people, wearing the mask that the day and the moment require. With such a flexible approach to all appearances, including your own, you lose a lot of the inward heaviness that holds people down. Make your face as malleable as the actor's, work to conceal your intentions from others, practice luring people into traps. Playing with appearances and mastering arts of deception are among the aesthetic pleasures of life. They are also key components in die acquisition of power.

If deception is the most potent weapon in your arsenal, then patience in all things is your crucial shield. Patience will protect you from making moronic blunders. Like mastering your emotions, patience is a skillit does not come naturally. But nothing about power is natural; power is more godlike than anything in the natural world. And patience is the supreme virtue of the gods, who have nothing but time. Everything good will happenthe grass will grow again, if you give it time and see several steps into the future. Impatience, on the other hand, only makes you look weak. It is a principal impediment to power.

Power is essentially amoral and one of the most important skills to acquire is the ability to see circumstances rather than good or evil. Power is a gamethis cannot be repeated too oftenand in games you do not judge your opponents by dieir intentions but by the effect of dieir actions. You measure their strategy and their power by what you can see and feel. How often are someone's intentions made the issue only to cloud and deceive! What does it matter if another player, your friend or rival, intended good things and had only your interests at heart, if the effects of his action lead to so much ruin and confusion It is only natural for people to cover up their actions with all kinds of justifications, always assuming that they have acted out of goodness. You must learn to inwardly laugh each time you hear this and never get caught up in gauging someone's intentions and actions through a set of moral judgments that are really an excuse for the accumulation of power.

It is a game. Your opponent sits opposite you. Both of you behave as gendemen or ladies, observing the rules of the game and taking nodiing personally. You play with a strategy and you observe your opponent's moves with as much calmness as you can muster. In die end, you will appreciate the politeness of those you are playing with more than their good and sweet intentions. Train your eye to follow the results of dieir moves, the outward circumstances, and do not be distracted by anything else.

Half of your mastery of power comes from what you do not do, what you do not allow yourself to get dragged into. For this skill you must learn to judge all mings by what diey cost you. As Nietzsche wrote, “The value of a thing sometimes lies not in what one attains with it, but in what one pays for itwhat it costs us. ” Perhaps you will attain your goal, and a worthy goal at that, but at what price Apply this standard to everydiing, including wheuier to collaborate wim other people or come to their aid. In die end,

life is short, opportunities are few, and you have only so much energy to draw on. And in this sense time is as important a consideration as any other. Never waste valuable time, or mental peace of mind, on the affairs of othersthat is too high a price to pay.

Power is a social game. To learn and master it, you must develop die ability to study and understand people. As the great seventeenth-century thinker and courtier Baltasar Gracian wrote: “Many people spend time studying die properties of animals or herbs; how much more important it would be to study those of people, with whom we must live or die! ” To be a master player you must also be a master psychologist. You must recognize motivations and see through the cloud of dust with which people surround their actions. An understanding of people's hidden motives is die single greatest piece of knowledge you can have in acquiring power. It opens up endless possibilities of deception, seduction, and manipulation.

People are of infinite complexity and you can spend a lifetime watching them without ever fully understanding them. So it is all the more important, dien, to begin your education now. In doing so you must also keep one principle in mind: Never discriminate as to whom you study and whom you trust. Never trust anyone completely and study everyone, including friends and loved ones.

Finally, you must learn always to take the indirect route to power. Disguise your cunning. Like a billiard ball that caroms several times before it hits its target, your moves must be planned and developed in the least obvious way. By training yourself to be indirect, you can thrive in the modern court, appearing die paragon of decency while being the consummate manipulator.

Consider The 48 Laws of Power a kind of handbook on the arts of indirection. The laws are based on die writings of men and women who have studied and mastered the game of power. These writings span a period of more dian three diousand years and were created in civilizations as disparate as ancient China and Renaissance Italy; yet they share common threads and themes, together hinting at an essence of power diat has yet to be fully articulated. The 48 laws of power are the distillation of this accumulated wisdom, gadiered from the writings of the most illustrious strategists (Sun-tzu, Clausewitz), statesmen (Bismarck, Talleyrand), courtiers (Castiglione, Gracian), seducers (Ninon de Lenclos, Casanova), and con artists (“Yellow Kid” Weil) in history.

The laws have a simple premise: Certain actions almost always increase one's power (the observance of the law), while otfiers decrease it and even ruin us (the transgression of die law). These transgressions and observances are illustrated by historical examples. The laws are timeless and definitive.

The 48 Laws of Power can be used in several ways. By reading die book straight through you can learn about power in general. Although several of the laws may seem not to pertain direcdy to your life, in time you will

probably find that all of them have some application, and that in fact they are interrelated. By getting an overview of the entire subject you will best be able to evaluate your own past actions and gain a greater degree of control over your immediate affairs. A thorough reading of the book will inspire thinking and reevaluation long after you finish it.

The book has also been designed for browsing and for examining the law that seems at mat particular moment most pertinent to you. Say you are experiencing problems with a superior and cannot understand why your efforts have not lead to more gratitude or a promotion. Several laws specifically address the master-underling relationship, and you are almost certainly transgressing one of them. By browsing the initial paragraphs for the 48 laws in the table of contents, you can identify the pertinent law.

Finally, the book can be browsed through and picked apart for entertainment, for an enjoyable ride through the foibles and great deeds of our predecessors in power. A warning, however, to those who use the book for this purpose: It might be better to turn back. Power is endlessly seductive and deceptive in its own way. It is a labyrinthyour mind becomes consumed widi solving its infinite problems, and you soon realize how pleas-andy lost you have become. In other words, it becomes most amusing by taking it seriously. Do not be frivolous with such a critical matter. The gods of power frown on the frivolous; they give ultimate satisfaction only to those who study and reflect, and punish tiiose who skim the surfaces looking for a good time.

Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.

The Prince, Niccolb Machiavelli, 1469-1527

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