ArtfulPrudence

Enriching Man's Honour by Wisdom and Nobility

Power

Machiavellian Axioms (Part 1)

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“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.”

Machiavelli Niccolo, The Prince

Preface

A collection of Machiavellian reflections in the form of axioms that I have put together for contemplation and comprehension. The axioms follow no particular order.

Axioms

1. As knowledge grows, so does your irritability. The shrewd are habitually the least forbearing.

2. You will never take back what you said, but you always have time to consider it before you utter it.

3. The talkative are the easiest to deceive and persuade.

4. Use insignificant social events to practice cunning for significant ones.

5. Do not exhibit your disdain for someone, disguise it in courtesy.

6. Speak courteously of your enemies, because that is to be commended, and the best vengeance to triumph over jealousy is excellence and aptitude.

7. Punish your foes with your success and let that be their malice.

8. One’s good fortune is another’s adversity.

9. Courage towards your adversaries is admirable. Do not fight to win, then, fight to triumph in a valiant fashion.

10. A self-aware person points out his flaws with consideration, a discreet person triumphs and conquers everything, even superstars.

11. Succeed a dozen times over, but be vigilant not to fall flat once.

12. Tell them what they want to hear and dissimulate what you have done.

13. Spite will detail every inferior thing and not one virtuous one.

14. Good sense is shielded on every occasion. There is much verity in this keen contradiction: the half is larger and more substantial than the whole.

15. Know how to cast a spell over people, for it is more beneficial than goods.

16. If your adversary has nothing to lose, do not oppose him in war.

17. Familiarity brings about scorn, shun away from intimacy when dealing with people.

18. Familiarity is indecency in disguise, the sacred commands respect.

19. There is much prowess in restraint and reservedness, for where there is intricacy and depth, there is confidential profundity.

20. Fools are easy to convince, and if you are easily persuaded, you’re utterly foolish. Fools persist harder in their folly when they are in the wrong.

21. Never argue with a fool, instead disregard them and steer clear.

22. An enemy has much to prove, thus it is more prudent to request a favour from your enemy than your friend.

23. The more you say, the more ordinary you seem to be and the less in power.

24. Have an air of natural nonchalance in everything that you do and maintain a certain stand-offishness among people to shun away from closeness.

25. Do not give people the opportunity to discern what you did or about to do.

26. While fools talk about what they did, the prudent pretend what they have done.

27. Utilise bluff to throwing people off your path.

28. Contradictory or artificial objects of desire are means of deluding people from reading your original motives.

29. Never disclose your motives in words, stir confusion through false sincerity.

30. Honesty is an edgeless device, it is probable to displease more than please.

31. Resist the temptation to react in anger, for you will give people the reaction they hoped for.

32. Discernment of reality is more substantial for people than actual reality. Power is a game of appearances, what seems to be is more real than what is. Leverage this verity to your choosing.

33. Do not become preoccupied with trivial matters, this is a deficiency in greatness.

34. Do not tether your repute on one distinct shot, the cons outweighs the pros.

35. Pass over disliked tasks to other people, and you take care of what is sought-after.

36. Do not be the messenger of bad news. Let everything that is good come immediately, and everything unpleasant allusively.

37. Know how to give commendation, it is a method of prudently publicising your good manners to the ideal people in your vicinity.

38. Fill the void. Find a person’s insufficiency and utilise it to your benefit. It is the most successful kind of constraint and force.

39. Identify solace in everything you do. There is freedom and condolence in adversity, remember this.

40. Too much courtesy is a kind of duplicity, do not be delighted by it. They utilise meaningless words as their way of bestowing acclaim.

41. Promising nothing and everything is much the same. Promises are a form of ambush that only fools will fall for.

42. Real politeness is a duty but pretentious courtesy mainly in immoderate doses, is a form of deceit. This is an utterance of reliance, not of civility.

43. People yield to their success, and not to other people. They commend you in anticipation and not in gratitude, because your significance to them is how well they can utilise you for their merit.

44. Do not take things too solemnly, expressly if they do not concern you or are consequential. Remain cool in times of disruption, steady and stoic.

45. The prudent find virtue in everyone, because they know the price of doing things competently. Learn to acknowledge and value others.

46. If you can unfasten and set aside what doesn’t matter, you have plenty to be grateful for.

47. Fools are of great merit to the wise but of no good to the practical. To the wise, they serve as lessons and warnings.

48. Know when to intercede with your excellence, for this is the way to good fortune.

49. Leave people discontented and wanting more when recompensing them, for they will be left craving more in anticipation.

50. Anxiety and fear arise following purpose’s demise.

Further Reading

  1. Baltasar Gracian: The Art of Wordly Wisdom
  2. Robert Greene: 48 Laws of Power
  3. Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince

Devices of Persuasion (Part 1)

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“Such people bow not to the person, but to their fortune, and offer praise not in acknowledgement but in expectation of future benefits.”

Baltasar Gracian

Preface

Whether you want to accept it or not, you have fallen victim to weapons of persuasion, it is a form of deception that is exercised by more or less everyone, except most people are just inferior at it, and comprehending that most people are imperceptive to strong persuasion makes it even more effectual. Strong persuasion is imperceptive to the average man because its potency lies in its roundabout means and subtlety. Devices of persuasion are much like prompts which if activated in an individual, will be exploited. These prompts find their basis in human nature, and persuasion is simply the thorough understanding of human behaviour and motivation and applying artifice to leverage it to reach your ends in business and life.

For instance, there is a continual sense of duty and obligation underlying the act of giving, receiving, and also reimbursing. Obligation to be given lessens our capacity to pick out whom we want to be beholden to and shifts that control to others. On the other hand, if we were to completely disregard the yearning to return an opening favour, we would exterminate the feedback loop and make it debatable whether our comrade would follow up with such deeds in the future. Consequently, you may be ready to comply and carry out a more considerable act of courtesy than the one you received, to mitigate yourself from the burden of entitlement. In addition, an individual who contravenes the rule of reciprocity by welcoming and not giving is detested by the community.

Rule of Reciprocation

Rejection then Retreat

For the reason that reciprocation rules over the procedure of agreement, it is practicable to utilise an opening concession as an element of an exceedingly successful approach. It is relatively straightforward, let us assume you want to me to comply with a particular appeal. A course of action to grow your chances would be to first and foremost make a bigger entreaty, one that you in all likelihood know I will reject. The bigger entreaty you propose initially should not be your genuine one, but after I have turned down your initial request, you propose a small-scale plea that should be your real incentive, to begin with.

If you have organised your requests prudently, I should be more considering your second plea as an acknowledgement of the one I have directly open to me, and that is acquiescence with your second appeal. It is also of import to note that your second appeal can impartially be a considerable one, but to the extent that it is smaller than the initial request, the course of action will still succeed. The signification of this method, therefore, is that the capable mediator is one whose opening stance is overstated enough so it permits a subsequent string of reciprocal concessions that bear a substantial closing deal from the adversary while not seeming so off-centre that it gives the impression that it was forbidden from the beginning.

By starting off with an overstated request, you are going to win both ways. If your adversary complies with your initial appeal, you have made twice as much money from your adversary as you intended. On the other hand, if he rejects your initial offer, you have made the mark you deliberated and it is a win nonetheless. The organization and act of concession bring with it feelings of control and contentment and compels targets to become further involved. These are the pleasant ramifications of utilizing the technique appropriately. To sum up, it is anticipated for an individual to measure up to the treaty if he feels accountable for the stipulations of a deal. Moreover, people disposed to agree to further preparations are already pleased with an established arrangement.

Learn How to Say No

Knowing when to say ‘NO’ with dignity and integrity is a sign of a superior man. You know very well that people have a propensity for the feebleness and timidity in other people. You can bring out the merciless nature of people who are not necessarily cold-hearted, mainly if you are ready to comply and withdraw to their conditions like the little spineless, demure man that you are. If people make a fool out of you, it is in all likelihood because you are foolish. Put your act together and proceed lionhearted. You do not pull back, safeguard and submit to others’ conditions if you are not going to come out having achieved your ends because if you do, you will be picked out to be the kind of man who is continually disposed to hold talks. People will start to regard you as the pushover that you are, and this is not a way to live. Forget compliance, you are much better off being displeasing and uncooperative in matters of negotiation because peoples’ primary concern is invariably their selfish interests, with minor exceptions.

It is crucial to understand, besides, that the appealer who calls on the rule of reciprocation to earn your acquiescence is not the actual adversary. Such an appealer is a warrior who affiliates with the extensive power of reciprocation and then unties that force by initiating the good deed or concession. The actual opponent, therefore, is the principle. If you do not allow yourself to be mistreated by it, you ought to take the sufficient course of action to lessen its force. One way of doing so is by stopping its trigger. It is possible that you can sidestep the rule by turning down the solicitor to employ its power against you, to begin with.

As soon as you have ascertained that his open concession was not a kind act but a tactic to gain your agreement, you merely have to conduct yourself accordingly to liberate yourself from its effect. Also, so long as you discern and interpret his conduct as a device of consent, the rule of reciprocation does not facilitate him. As you know, the rule states that favours are to be met with favours but it does not necessitate that stratagem is to be met with favours. Your ensuing next step should be an easy and confidential move which will involve a rational reinterpretation – Explain what you have been given from the examiner, not as gifts but as selling tactics, and you will be unencumbered to turn down his proposal effortlessly without force. Remember: A favour accompanies a favour and not a bargaining plan. That being said, what you do is accept whatever the negotiator is putting forward, show your courtesy and then gallantly direct him to his egress like the finer man you are.

Desirability

The Benevolent Burglar

Have you ever got demands from people you are familiar with and hold in esteem? You in all likelihood have. On top of that, you might not comprehend that you would rather comply with his requests than to other people who are newcomers. What you may find surprising, though, is that this common precept is utilised by outsiders in myriad different ways to convince us to abide by their requests. For that reason, the adept’s compliance strategy is ridiculously elementary; they make you like them, first and foremost, because they know full well that your liking for them will develop an individual assurance and confidence in their offering to you.

For instance, attractive people tend to be more likeable and that proves greatly effectual in matters of selling because they have that pre-established edge over ordinary salesmen. That pre-disposed likability is usually greatly leveraged by proficient salespeople because they recognize its potency. There seems to be a near-instantaneous reciprocation to good-looking people, and this occurs instinctively without anticipation. This particular response is what social scientists call The Halo Effect.

The Halo Effect: When one favourable quality predominates and controls the opinion and outlook people have of you.

Attractive people are also more probable to receive support when required and are typically more convincing in talking people into changing their opinion. It is evident that good-looking people benefit from a substantial social upper hand in our culture and in matters of aid, likeability, and persuasiveness, they generally outshine average looking people. As a consequence of their good looks, they are typically seen as being blessed with superior personality characteristics and higher intelligence. This is much a game of appearances, and similarly, you are more likely to lend a hand to someone who is well-dressed or reflects your style of attire. There is also a concept called mirroring which salespeople utilize, where they essentially assert similarities such as interests and experiences to yours, falsifying resemblances to enhance their appeal in your eyes.

Supporting the testimony that we are more approving and agreeable towards people we are familiar with, a number of people advocated a contact attitude towards bettering connections of race. The argument stated that by merely supplying individuals from diverse ethnicities additional exposure, those people will grow to like each other more as a result of familiarity. In Psychology, this is coined The Mere Exposure Effect.

Controlling the Course of Action

Stratagems that give the impression of offering the other person an alternative is many a time unrivalled. Your adversary gets the sense that he is controlling the dynamic at play, but in actuality, whatever their selection, the ball is in your court. There are various means of controlling the options, two archetypal methods are withdrawal and vanishing. This typically makes people acknowledge how circumstances will disintegrate in your absence and therefore, you provide them with an ‘alternative’. The alternative is as follows, I dissociate and you pay the price, or I remain under conditions that I enforce.

Invariably, they go with the alternative that puts the power in your hands because they know the price to be paid for the former is more odious than the latter. This mode of indirectly compelling their hand gives them the impression that they do indeed have an option. When people believe they have the ability to choose, their propensity to fall in your trap is that much higher. The misapprehension of options wedded with the potentiality of good luck will entice even the most obstinate jerk in your ploy.

Conventionally, you choose to be convinced that the game you are playing is equitable and you have adequate independence in your choosing. This is less mental strain than considering the extent to which you have freedom of choice. Your reluctance to investigate the minuteness of your choices emanates from the truism that much liberty brings rise to a sensory anxiety. If you think about that thoroughly, you really do not want inexhaustible choices because far down you know that it will immobilise you more than put you at ease. Practically speaking, you yearn for comfort, and you will get that freedom from hardship in having restricted choices.

For the cunning and shrewd, this is ample opportunity for artifice. People who are picking out between choices struggle to discern that they are being swindled and this, of course, is the perfect state of affairs for the clever to leverage your imperception. They cannot grasp the fact you are permitting them a controlled amount of independent choice that will merit your desires whatever way they please. For that reason, establishing a confined range of options should regularly be utilized in your stratagems.

Controlling the options can take many forms, ensuing are some of the most ordinary methods that maestros in history have exercised with greatly favourable outcomes. I would like to note, in addition, to recognize the suitable contexts to apply the procedures accordingly, possess good judgement and prudence to read the state of affairs meticulously.

Tint the Choices

This is an effortless approach that was employed by Henry Kissinger comprehensively with good success. What you will do is put forward three or four options for a definite state of affairs, assure that you articulate them in such a fashion that your coveted choice is apparently the most ideal in comparison to the alternative options. This is especially effectual on the unconfident professional or the clueless who are obtuse in reading a situation swiftly. Be prudent in your application, you do not want to utilize this if your choices are indistinguishable because you run the risk of appearing overbearing and that may very well give rise to misgiving which will wreck your ploy. Ideally, you do open your proposal with the desired choice, for that too may induce lack of faith. Propose your desired choice somewhere around the halfway point, never on the extremes.

Adapt the Terrain to Your Advantage

This method works well with people who are very stubborn. They will feel like you are forcing their hand but it is not of primary importance to them. You do this by adapting the terrain, shifting it to ground that you are well familiar with but obscure to them. This is powerful in circumstances where the opposer is dependant on you because you can disintegrate his footing or a substantial part of it, at a moments notice.

For instance, let us suppose that your friend comes to workout with you regularly, and you have contributed to his fitness journey by providing him with your guidance and a workout plan. At this point, your friend relies on you in matters of fitness, and he has seen great progress under your wing. One day, you are working out, and a beautiful chick asks to use the squat rack that you and your friend are using. Your friend seizes this opportunity to seemingly win the girl over by playfully undermining your identity and blowing any potential chance of you have of getting with the chick. At this point, he has more to lose than you, but he tried to capitalise on the situation by subverting his very ground, this is trouble. If you are relatively prudent, the ensuing steps should be straightforward.

As time goes, you realize that your friend is becoming increasingly snobbish when women are around, you should not permit this. After all, you are giving your friend adequate counselling in fitness and he is impeding his own ground. Having recognized this, you make it a point to him that if this conduct carries on, he will have to start training independently, and in addition, the workout plans will be dropped. This will be a dealbreaker for him, he either conforms to your conditions or he suffers the consequences of his misconduct. Whichever alternative he chooses, you emerge victoriously but on the other hand, he has to choose wisely because there are consequences to be paid as a result of his dependency.

This illustration holds a strong moral; learn not to be contingent on people, because they will exploit your dependency to reach their ends or destroy you.

Double Barrelled Questions

This technique is widely exercised by lawyers in trials where the lawyer directs the witnesses to settle between two potential accounts of an incident but both of which prod an opening in their narrative. Essentially, you must give a response to the attorney’s questions but whatever you utter, the ball is still in his court. The crucial key here is to be swift with your strike and refuse the fool time to find an eluding route. Comprehend also that in your endeavours with your adversaries, it will often demand that you cause them discomfort and injury. If you do this directly without third parties, you can expect vengeance to creep up behind you.

If, on the other hand, they are convinced that they are the source of their difficulty, they will yield in silence. This is the reason why it is prudent to permit your adversaries their choosing of malice and on top of that, to mask your participation to the furthest extent possible. In order to pull this off, you must articular the questions in such a way that they both imply his offence and your adversary can in no possible means answer the question unless he wounds himself in the process.

e.g. “Answer Yes or No. Will you stop beating your wife?”

Whatever your response, you are damned and convicted either way.

If you are in a situation where you ought to answer a double-barrelled question and pondering how to disengage from it, the answer is you can’t if you are already under the predicament. The panacea to this dilemma is to not get enmeshed in it, to begin with, because it will invariably hurt your good name. If, on the other hand, it is an ordinary personage that is attempting to undermine your reputation, you can utilize indirect means by not answering the question directly and exercising vagueness and courtesy to disentangle yourself, or, at times more hazardous, you can take no account of the said question.

Closure

There is a great number of means to persuade, some more effective than others in different conditions, however, if there is one thing to be mindful of, it is to always carry your dignity and integrity because that makes up a significant portion of your basis from which you take action. People with high levels of cunning and persuasion also concurrently have sufficient levels of nobleness and self-respect because courtesy and discreetness make deception that much more elaborate. One last note, practice artifice in trivial state of affairs, never inconsequential ones because you will get scorched.

Recommended Reading

Notes on Law 03; “Conceal your Intentions”

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Preface

The third law from 48 Laws of Power is one of the fundamental basis of power and cunning, it is well known and mastered by politicians, generals, and people in aristocratic positions in the corporate world. To be able to sustain power, you must first and foremost internalise the principles that cover the foundation upon which you will build the rest of your prowess. It is also important to note that this axiom is attached to a large number of other stratagems, and so, a sufficient comprehension and absorption of this fundamental will be indispensable. It is much to understand the art of war, however, it is through diligence and shrewd application that you will internalise and digest strategy and cunning adequately. Therefore, keep yourself accountable and exercise the axiom in the appropriate context, preferably in trivial situations where your reputation is not on the line.

Tools: Decoys

Enticing Devices and Ploys

When you give people the opportunity to acknowledge what you are up to, wariness and doubt arise and the dissimulation is down the sewer. You must not offer them the favourable moment to know what you are about to do, you keep them off your trail by pulling the appropriate devices of bluff across your direction. False sincerity is one of such devices, the adversary will struggle to figure out what is genuine or bogus, this is the point. Maintain a steadfast ambiguity through your gestures and cues, preferably those which tend to oppose one another. If you divulge too much of your control early on, you run the risk of having the enemy utilising it to reach his ends. Consequently, when you have control and power, resist giving the impression of having it, feign impotence, and when the opportunity shows itself, you have the power you need to make a swift and bold move that terrorises your adversaries.

Nino De Lenclos was a master at the art of Game, she was well-read and her methods of seduction left a lasting impression on her lovers. When the marquis was given advice from Ninon, she plainly counselled him to keep a bit of stand-offishness, coupled with an aura of coolness and unconcern. The marquis, unenlightened about Game, was fascinated to find out how well this worked and the woman fell under his spell, but little did he know that the eventual confessing of his love will break the incantation, and that is exactly what happened. You cannot make your intentions public or disclose them in a frank manner through words, you must keep your targets in a state of utter disorderliness and simultaneously absorbed. This act of capitulation is the result of confusion from their end. In matters of women, muddle your interest by giving the impression you are intrigued by another woman, then contrast it with a genuine interest in the woman, then push her away through subtle disregard and the game goes. This is much like push-pull, the same course of action can be applied in matters of strategy, also.

Charm ceases to be charm when the smokescreen has been deciphered and your intention is revealed to her, the game is not worth playing anymore from the woman’s end. The charming and delightful can very rapidly turn into the unattractive and machiavellian and this is exactly why you should resist giving the impression of being in control. Women never want full disclosure anyway, and be well read, when you know you have a window of opportunity, seize it and strike while the iron is hot.

“Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.”

Baltasar Gracián

The Game of Appearances

People, nowadays, can be read like open books, they are deluded and blind to the underlying nature of the individual. They uncover their feelings and let out their opinions every chance they get, their intentions are made known almost instantly and their plans are indisputable. Furthermore, there is this mistaken belief that honesty is the best policy and that by doing so they are appealing and irresistible, this is rubbish. Sure, honesty has its place in select circumstances, but these people are very much misled and beguiled. Truthfulness is candid but edgeless, and it has an adverse effect more often than not. Your honesty is probably going to displease people and it is wiser to adapt your words, being discreet and telling them what they want to hear instead of feeding them truths which they certainly will not savour. To be discreet is to be prudent and cautious in your speech, keeping information intimate so as to avoid difficulty.

On the other hand, honesty breeds predictability, everything is anticipated beforehand, and nothing is surprising. Bear in mind: Familiarity breeds contempt. It is almost inconceivable to have high regard or fear towards a man that is so transparent, you can predict his every move. You will not accumulate power if you do not have the capacity to rouse the appropriate feelings. Set your transparency aside in matters of authority and control.

Conveying Contradictory Messages

Natural tendencies always tilt towards relying on the outward veneer. We do not carry uncertainties about what we discern and pick up. The continual mental masturbation that perhaps the facade conceals within it something extending far down that may be subterfuge is taxing and will wear you out. This verity makes it easy as pie to conceal your objectives. Try for yourself a brief experiment; offer or hold out a goal you have a yearning for, one which you seemingly have a direction towards. Watch carefully, as people will be convinced by your statement and trust your every word because they are more invested in the impression than the reality. As might be presumed, this is merely a snare which entices the enemy and is used as a form of misdirection. For they will fall flat to distinguish what your underlying motives are. As dishonourable as it may seem, these tactics have in all likelihood been used against you in the past, and there is also a good prospect they may be exercised against you in the future. You are better prepared by understanding and internalising these principles and applying them in a suitable state of affairs.

Remember: To be, is to deceive. We all have an element of duplicity, and anyone who refuses such a statement is obviously talking bogus and is a lofty hypocrite.

In matters of gaming women, convey contradicting messages and cues. You can achieve this by subtle means through body language and gestures. Subtle sub-communications are extremely convincing and potent, and women are naturally more apt than men in picking up on these subdued statements. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, lust and aloofness are opposing forces and thus alternating them makes for an enchanting charm that is irresistible to women, and it brings with it a lecherous wish to own you and be dominated by your superiority.

Appearing contradicting leaves people concurrently baffled and demented, that being so, a move that is many a time compelling is to seemingly champion an idea or principle that is antithetical to your bona fide point of view. Your enemies will be in total disarray when you appear to be concerned about something you are not at all interested in and this disorder on their end leaves them in a substandard situation. Their calculations will be misguided and since the underlying motive is not concrete, any vague assessment holds modest ground that is pervaded with unpredictability.

False Sincerity and Honesty

Keep your intentions unknown not by appearing unforthcoming and closed off, this stimulates misgiving, and people become wary. Conversely, you conceal them by confessing your countless desires and aims, but you do so through false sincerity. Talking openly about your authentic goals is never prudent, you are playing a game fraught with danger. When you have the appearance of an affable, open and unguarded front, your motives are kept out of sight.

In drawing things to a close, people have a tendency of confusing sincerity for transparency. People merit honesty as the best policy, therefore, they frankly want to regard what you and those nearby are saying as true. That being so, it will be rigorous work for them to read your motives, predominantly if you can speak with bold conviction and certainty. However, sincerity is a delicate device; if you seem too excitable, you eventually give it away. Remember, if your good name is on the line, you do not want to arouse a lack of faith in people because you may have to pay the price, and that price may be more acute than you presumed. To make your smokescreen more cogent, emphasize the importance of integrity and rectitude as essential communal principles. Finally, deceivers always exercise honesty in one facet to make up for and camouflage treachery in other facets and they utilize honesty as an additional tool in their wide array of apparatus.

Tools: Smokescreens

Utilising Smokescreens as Dissemblance

Artifice is almost on all occasions the optimal master plan. However, the finest stratagems necessitate the use of a smokescreen to divert observation from your actual objective. For if you guide the dimwit towards a recognised trail, he will not work out when you usher him into the snare and even if he does, by the time he comprehends it, it will not be on time.

The Yellow Kid has much to learn from. The day-to-day, unobtrusive demeanour is the ideal smokescreen. Confront your ends with a spirited idea that is more typical than not, this could be a financial agreement or interest, or a deal for work. You don’t want to rouse threat or speculation. Frequently, the irrationally anxious and distrustful are not difficult to hoodwink. If you manage to secure their belief in a particular domain, it will serve as a smokescreen that makes them imperceptive to another and this buys you time to move on all fours and knock them down with a destructive strike. On top of that, be prepared to commend, it is a sensible and prudent way of publicizing your courtesy to the individuals around you, and also your adversaries. These are the devices you should be utilising and if you accomplish your ends through subtle and indirect means, you will sustain a fine reputation and be venerated by your peers.

Subtle artifice is, for the most part, the most potent because it appears effortless and leaves no traces. It is fluid and flowing, and people will have high acclaim towards your natural grace, mastery over your etiquette and good sense. These are the qualities of the well-judged and superior man, whose sufficient proficiency in cunning enables him to reach his objectives in the most heroic fashion.

Drawing People In

The greatest deceivers make use of a mild and unnoticeable mask that is typically plain-featured and calls no scrutiny. They know very well that embellished words and snobbery instantly presents misgiving. To counter this veracity, they surround their intent in the commonplace and mundane. As soon as they are under your spell, they inexorably will take no notice of the artifice you are carrying out because you have elusively ensnared them in a trap which they are not even conscious of. This, of course, finds its basis in a basic principle of human nature, which is, that people can only zero in on one thing at a time. Having understood this, you can take advantage of it. People exploit others with this underlying truth without a break and it works, it will never let you down because even if you are conscious of it, you cannot swindle human nature into drawing your attention to multiple things concurrently.

I want to make some distinctions more understandable. In Part 1, I discussed decoys and baiting devices that you utilise to sidetrack people. In Part 2, I am discussing smokescreens that you employ to draw people in and get them to fall under your spell. This differentiation between the two should be noted and recognized.

Types of Smokescreens

The most straightforward kind of smokescreen is an expression of the face, preferably one which is illegible in its nature and inscrutable. The most influential men in history all comprehended its efficacy and mastered it. To have an imperceptible face is compelling and puzzling to many and they are at a crossroad of feeling both fearful and plagued by it. The good poker player is scarcely theatrical, he instead exercises uninteresting conduct that curtails decipherable patterns, muddles and bewilders rivals and forces them to consider their moves ever more closely. Deception can be employed in almost all strands of life, some call for it more than others such as politics or law. Understand this: many people are ill-informed about power games and strategy, and this is tremendous. If you study this material attentively and apply it in the relevant conditions, you more or less have a considerable edge on all occasions and that is remarkable to fathom and will impel you to sharpen your sword.

The noble gesture is another convincing smokescreen, for loftiness and virtue are characteristics of the wise. A righteous deed may extricate you from the most intricate labyrinth. One more smokescreen is the utilization of the pattern; the organization of numerous actions that allure the target into trusting that you will carry on with the same course of action. This manoeuvre finds its footing on the psychology of expectancy. Our conduct follows conventional patterns, but even if this is not so, we are compelled to believe this.

Remember: it takes forbearance and modesty to mute your vibrant hues and employ the facade of the discreet.

As a side note, make sure you emerge the victor before asserting conflict. Do not wage war in battles you are not certain you can defeat.

Corollary

You can have the most fitting smokescreen, however, if you have a reputation for deception, your tactics will be perused and there might be a price to pay for being exploited for recognised manipulation. If everyone knows you are manipulative, seeming guiltless will only reinforce the duplicity. It is more advantageous, therefore, to be honest about your dishonesty because people will respect you more for confessing and coming clean.

Further Reading

Friendship & How to Use your Enemies

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Be prudent with your friendly relationships, for friends will break the promise in due course. Friends can rapidly foster a blend of envy and distaste for you, and become upset and worse, autocratic. Men are willing to recompense an offence but scarcely a blessing because thankfulness is responsibility and retribution a rapture. On numerous occasions, the people you love may be unfaithful, even those you regard greatly. And, it may be fair-minded to have a deep affection and esteem for particular people but on no account should you rely copiously on the alluring snare of friendship. For it may bring with it terrible repentance that is of no service to your mental soundness.

“Lord, protect me from my friends; I can take care of my enemies.”

Voltaire

You consider you know your friends more than you do. You may have high acclaim for them and as a result, your evaluation of them does not hit the mark, for your judgement is distorted by your personal prejudice. If you have agreeable friends, they tend to run away from arguments and concur.

They conceal their wrongdoing, both for reputation and to avoid an unnecessary upset. Candour and sincerity hardly ever reinforce a friendship, not to mention a treacherous one.

Friends have a tendency of exhibiting lofty commendation towards your good looks, etiquette, and culture. Perhaps it is frank, many a time it is not. When you get to be acquainted more deeply, their real qualities start to give out. Everyone wears a mask in the dawn, for they will seem more principled. Your act of affection is what unhinged the double-dealing, and that is quite a queer observation. A good turn can come to be tyrannical and burdensome, it implies that you have been picked out because you are a friend, and not for your admirable decency. Employing your friends for favour borders on scorn and that privately besets them. This is almost a recipe for disaster, you will start catching glimpses of subtle envy and hints of indignation that slowly dissolves the friendship. And, conversely, the more you invest in attempting to resuscitate the friendship, the less appreciation you receive in turn. For an act of revival of friendship has imbued in it a sense of dishonesty. The history associated with thanklessness goes far down. You are better off acting prudent and sceptical. If you do not have high suppositions of gratitude, you will be taken by surprise when they show appreciation. There is more to be gained from a foe than a friend. A foe will let you know of your shortcomings sooner than your friends and companions. As a matter of course, your power is finite through employing your friends for a good turn. Forthrightly, only on a few rare junctures will your friend be proficient enough to support you because cordial empathy is not as consequential as adeptness and capability.

A workplace requires a sense of cultivated detachment between yourself and other people. Your work is your precedence. And, you are in the workplace to get your work fulfilled, not make friends and be affable. In fact, geniality merely hides it. This leads to a crucial rudimentary lesson of power, that is, the capacity to determine who is accomplished and gifted to further your passions in all your pursuits. Friends are great for friendship, but always affiliate with the proficient and competent in the workplace. Your enemies are like diamonds in the rough, if you know how to utilise them, and use to good advantage.

When the opportunity arises, bury the hatchet with an enemy and put him under your wing. An enemy has much to prove, and an enemy is knocked down when you befriend him.

We grow indolent in their absence, for in their presence you brush up your shrewdness, and they keep you attentive to what’s going on in the present. That being said, an enemy does not necessarily have to be converted into a friend. It is mentally refreshing to have enemies around, a man cannot grow stronger without opposition. If you have no enemies, you must from time to time make an arrangement, perhaps even converting a friend into a deserving nemesis. The prudent man of power embraces confrontation and dispute, utilising his enemies to amplify his character and good name. And, in times of disruption, he can be dependent upon.