The 48 Laws Of Power

Greene judges that safety and security of position lies not in isolation, which “cuts you off from valuable information […] makes you conspicuous and an easy target” but in putting yourself at the center of public life, mingling amongst allies (245). Louis XIV, who ascended to power at the end of a civil war, built the lavish court of Versailles so that he “could keep an eye and an ear on everyone and everything around him” and prevent the conspiracies against him (250).

Putting yourself at the center of public life when you feel threatened is counterintuitive and goes against most people’s instinct to retreat and lessen their engagement in the world. However, the lack of flexibility this puts on them causes them to become easy targets and makes their re-entry into public life difficult. 

It is essential to identify the type of person you are dealing with when you launch an attack on your opponent. Different types of people will react to your stratagems in diverse ways, and you must anticipate these discrepancies or risk being a target of revenge for the rest of your existence.

The arrogant and the insecure are especially dangerous to insult, as their egos are fragile, and they hold grudges. They will spend the rest of their lives resentful of those who administered the insults. It is also important to not become the pathologically suspicious person’s target of suspicion, as they will not stop until they have destroyed you.

You should also be cautious of apparently unemotional, nonreactive types. They may be experts in hiding how much your slight has hurt them and be quietly plotting their revenge. You should “never assume that the person you are dealing with is weaker or less important than you are” (262), as they may be future rising stars who will later be in a position to dominate you. When judging people for the true essence of their threat to you, you should never rely on your instincts. Instead, you should study and spy on your opponent until you gather concrete information.

Greene advises that you would do best to commit to yourself rather than to any outside faction. Sixteenth-century monarch Elizabeth I of England played this game marvelously when she allowed many suitors to court her and gave them hope to believe they might be successful, but she eventually married none. This created an aura of sexual suspense around Elizabeth and kept her at the center of attention. She knew from the example of her cousin Mary Queen of Scots that queens who married gave up their power to a man who styled himself as King and became embroiled in his conflicts. Instead, Elizabeth’s independence “protected her power and made herself an object of worship” amongst those who could never truly possess her (273).

Greene judges that when your reputation for self-possession and independence grows, your desirability will escalate because “desire is like a virus: If we see that someone is desired by other people, we tend to find this person desirable too” (274). In contrast, committing to one faction over another causes your unique, elusive appeal to diminish. Additionally, by committing to a faction, you may wear out your energy in battles which are of no importance to you.

While most of the time it is a wise strategy to dangle the promise of commitment to your hopeful, there are times when, like George Washington at the beginning of the American Republic, you need to boldly announce your independence.

Greene writes that most people are intellectually vain and feel defensive and suspicious when someone is showing them up as being less intelligent. Instead, if you show yourself as stupider than the person you are targeting, they lower their guard and “you can run rings around them” (296). Appearing less intelligent also enables you to fall under the radar and perform your work of deception away from suspicious eyes before you deliver a decisive power move. People often keep the apparently guileless and unintelligent around because they enable them to feel superior. Being kept around is essential for growing and maintaining your power.

Overall, you will earn more respect for being discreet about your brilliance, however, there are occasions when a direct show of authority and knowledge can gain people’s trust. 

When you are in the position of weakness, Greene advocates that you surrender rather than fight. This is because “surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane” instead of delivering him the boost of defeating you (301). It is far better to attempt to fight your enemy at a later stage when their power is weakened and yours is in the ascendant, than to exhaust or potentially annihilate yourself prematurely.

During the McCarthy trials of the late 1940s, those suspected of being Communists were forced to appear before the Un-American Activities Committee. While most in the Hollywood 19, a group who faced trial, decided that they would be argumentative with the committee, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht was compliant, deciding to “outfox the committee by appearing to surrender to it while subtly mocking it” (305). He imitated the committee chairman’s suit-wearing, cigar-smoking conservatism and answered his questions about Communist sympathies vaguely and enigmatically, avoiding directly stating that he was a Communist. He thus appeared to yield while maintaining the upper hand and was spared imprisonment. This meant that he was able to go through with his plan of leaving the United States and continuing to write and publish.

The opposite of surrender is martyrdom to a cause. While your martyrdom may be inspirational to future generations and earn you glory, it bears the inconvenience of annihilating you before you are able to enjoy the fruits of power.

Greene advises that for most people, empires and organizations, intensity is better than extensity. You will become more powerful if you concentrate your resources where they are strongest, rather than dispersing them on fanciful projects and ideas. He argues that “power itself always exists in concentrated forms” (320), as in most organizations, a small group of individuals control the operations. It is wise to figure out who these people are and align yourself with them.

However, there are times when dispersal of attention is the power move. For example, under-resourced guerrilla warriors disperse their forces in numerous locations to make it difficult for them to be completely wiped out by stronger armies. Similarly, Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci was a far more intriguing artist for his different interests than perspective-obsessed Paolo Uccello.

The perfect courtier strikes the balance of flattering superiors, while asserting power over others in a graceful and indirect way. They can manipulate people at different levels, enabling superiors to see themselves in a flattering light and making inferiors respect and fear them. A degree of effortlessness is also a requisite as ostentatious displays of work-ethic, flattery, or talents should be traded in for nonchalance. Still, it is important to have a trademark style that makes you stand out from the crowd. Such traits enable a person to rise immeasurably in a court environment. Although courts that revolve around a feudal monarch are a fixture of the past, Greene considers that these “microcosmic world(s)” which are engineered to maintain the power of authority, continue to exist (324).

Thus, rules about cultural adaptability, caution to avoid offensive remarks, and frugality in asking for favors continue to be important traits. Social skills are often more important than natural talent, and you should apply them to everyone in your metaphorical court, not just the master. Many have precipitated their downfall as a result of not knowing how to deal with envious colleagues.

Greene compares courtiers to those other masters of illusion—magicians. He warns would-be courtiers to cover their tracks well and “never let your master unmask you” (344).

Instead of accepting the role that society grants you, it is far better to master your image and incorporate dramatic gestures and devices that will enable you to stand out from the crowd. You have the opportunity to “remake yourself into a character of power” (352). Instead, if you rely on the sincerity of being your true self, you will not inspire respect or admiration. Being a good dramatist is also an aid to deception, as it will provide an attractive front for what you are really doing.

The Roman emperor Julius Caesar was the first public figure to understand the link between power and drama; incorporating dramatic elements such as surprise into his speech. In a similar way, the early 19th-century female writer Georges Sand applied the protean power of an actor to assume the pose of a male writer with a continually changing physical aspect and political alliances. As a result, Sand remained continually fascinating to the public, while she maintained control of her public image.

The maintenance of power depends on the illusion that you yourself have not acted unpleasantly towards others. Performing unpleasant tasks is unflattering to your image, but an inevitable part of keeping enemies in check and holding onto power. Greene argues that if you perform the dirty work yourself, you can look both brutal and incompetent—traits which are not consonant with power. Instead, you would do better to employ scapegoats and cat’s paws.

Greene explains how the idea behind the scapegoat is “the shifting of guilt and sin to an outside figure—object, animal, or man—which is then banished or destroyed” (363). Similarly, those in power commonly affix blame on others when they have been caught out so that their image remains untarnished. The most effective scapegoat is often a close associate, as the performance of sacrificing a favorite makes your innocence more convincing.

The cat’s paw refers to getting someone else to do your dirty work for you, so that your hands remain clean. It is allowing “someone else be the executioner, or the bearer of bad news, while you bring only joy and glad tidings” (368). However, on occasion, those in positions of great power can get away with playing the penitent and confessing their crimes before an audience who they expect to forgive them.

You can play on people’s desire to believe in something, as you style yourself as a prophet or guru and create a lucrative cult-like following. Greene writes how “in the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power” (385). Get-rich-quick schemes and spiritual and technological fads have the power to inspire such following, as they fill the emptiness that is at the center of most people’s existence.

Greene asserts the importance of keeping your cult’s message vague and simple, so that it can apply to as many people as possible. You should provide simple cures to complex problems. Other deceptive measures such as fancy titles for things can give you the illusion of being a figure of authority. You can guard against inertia by invoking an enemy to the group’s cause. This will bond your followers and give them a crusade-like mentality. You should always “hint at the mystical source of some personal change” as tales of the spectacular rather than the mundane keep people interested (397). However, it is also effective to mix religion with science, citing statistics and technological innovations to boost your cult’s message and your own personal power as people attribute genius to you.

Danger may arise if the group sees through you and then they will chase you like an angry mob. This is why it is often safer to practice on individuals, gaining your power as you isolate them from the group.

It is better to launch into actions decisively and boldly. Boldness earns you the respect and admiration of others, as they are surprised by your actions without having too much time to think about them. Instead, when you hesitate and seem timid, you give others time to think and give away your power. You also stand the chance of being pushed around according to the will of others and so create obstacles to your own progress.

Greene also writes that when you are the underdog, “as small and obscure as David was, you must find a Goliath to attack” (420). The admiration you will garner depends on the boldness of the attack.

Greene asserts that both boldness and timidity are learned behaviors. No-one is born bold or timid. However, timidity arises from a desire to not offend people or to avoid conflict. Often the fears of the timid are out of proportion with the reality of the threats facing them. The consequences of timidity are a “self-fulfilling cycle of doubt and disaster” (423). In contrast, the negative consequences of a bold move can be wiped out with another bold move. Timidity only serves as a foil to distract your opponents from the bold move you are planning for the future.

Planning all the way to the end of a project “taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune” is essential to your success (426). Forming no concrete idea of the goal can lead to disaster, as you do not know when to stop your campaign and you overreach your vision, leading to your decline.

Greene writes how in Ancient Greece, humans were victims of fate, unable to see past the moment, while the “gods were thought to have complete vision into the future (435). Greek myths are full of heroes like Odysseus who have the foresight and planning to assume godlike traits. Rather than being surprised by fortune, they plan their future concretely, master their emotions and are not surprised or distracted into abandoning their plans, as so many of us are. While too much rigidity can make you inflexible, most people suffer more from the consequences of vague planning.

Making your actions seem effortless rather than the result of endless toil means that they resemble the awesome and inexplicable marvels of nature. As Greene writes, “nature does not reveal its tricks, and what imitates nature by appearing effortless approximates nature’s power” (444). Humanity has sought to imitate the ease of nature in its quest for power, no more in that more contrived of settings, the Renaissance Italian Court. In 1528, the courtier Baldassarre Castiglione coined the term sprezzatura, which means the grace or lightness “to make the difficult seem easy” (450). Ease is the province of gods, whereas labor that of mortals. You will not be seen as special or naturally talented by your peers if you reveal the effort behind your results. You can inspire fear and intimidation if people think that you would have achieved even more excellent results had you actually tried.

 Additionally, revealing the tricks of your trade has the other undesirable consequence of giving people ideas to act against you, either by copying or preparing a counter-response. Any efforts to partially disclose your working methods should be considered as part of a theatrical move that enhances people’s awe. 

Greene asserts that giving people a choice between two options, both of which favor you, has the advantage of disguising you as the purveyor of power or punishment. People trust you more, even if the choice is between two things which will harm them and so play better into your hands. This is because “people who are choosing between alternatives find it hard to believe they are being manipulated or deceived; they cannot see that you are allowing them a small amount of free will in exchange for a much more powerful imposition of your own will” (463).

Greene argues that while appealing to truth and reality can inspire anger, those who can conjure up an alternative fantasy are often magnetic and as a result become powerful. He advises that “as you search for the fantasy that will take hold of the masses […] keep your eye on the banal truths that weigh heavy on us all” and you will find the “magical key” for the appropriate fantasy to spin (476).

For example, charlatans counteract the oppressive reality that change is slow and requires hard work in addition to self-sacrifice and good luck, by spinning the fantasy of sudden transformation. This is the nature of most get-rich-quick schemes. In the 20th century, Dutch forger Han van Meegeren counteracted the realities of death and scarcity by forging works by the seventeenth-century artist Vermeer. As Greene writes, “in a strange way, Vermeer had been brought back to life. The past had been changed” (479).

Vagueness is a key element of fantasy, as charlatans never allow the duped to come too close to their creations. Additionally, fantasy need not be complicated, as simplicity and an appearance of candor is what people crave during turbulent times. Such was the appeal of Abraham Lincoln.