The 48 Laws of Power

(Spoiler Alert: The Secret is that buying the book makes the woman who wrote it rich)

At the moment I’m reading Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power. It contains many valuable lessons for aspiring President’s and power hungry janitors alike. With the upfront premise that telling the truth is for suckers, it contains gems such as “use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim” and “court attention at all costs”. If you’ve been plotting a bloodless coup in the staff room or a hostile take-over of the typing pool, this book is for you.

Clearly the moralists amongst you will be arguing that deceit is wrong and that the ‘game of power’ should be avoided, let alone perfected. Greene though would (rightly) counter that the game is constantly in play around us, and to ignore it, is to become its victim. My philosophy is that knowledge is the real power – including knowledge of Greene’s 48 Laws, gleaned from the greater leaders, con-men, charlatans and artisans of history. Almost all of the laws I have sifted through so far have rung true to some extent, usually recognisable as incarnations of modern day snake oil salesman and Machiavelli wanna-bes.

Let me give you a practical example. Law 27: Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cult like Following. In short, Greene proposes that the world is full of gullible people, dying to believe in something (anything) – and that this can (and has been for centuries) taken advantage of for personal gain. He even prescribes 5 steps to creating your own cult: Keep it Vague; Emphasise the Sensual over the Intellectual; Borrow the forms of Organised Religion; Disguise your Income and Set Up and Us-Versus-Them Dynamic. So, its simple. Start out with a generalist premise, the vaguer the better. Toss in some sciencey-sounding words and ‘expert testimony’. Install a hierarchy, and a way to increase your rank. While you fleece your followers, disguise the fact that their money is paying your team of butlers. And most importantly, create the impression that non-believers are out to undermine all that you worked for.

Not convinced that you get away with this crap in the 21^st century, or that Greene’s book has relevance? In modern times the establishment of a cult following seems to have gotten easier, not harder. It seems primarily to be a number of followers issue when it comes to credibility. David Koresh led a cult, while Ron L. Hubbard founded a religion. Faux religions though are not my beef today – it’s the tying of financial reward to mysticism that Law 27 particularly brought to my mind, in the form of The Secret.

The 2006 film and book are classified as ‘self-help’, sharing with you the secret law of attraction, summarised as: ask the universe for anything… believe you can have it… and it will be yours. The movie includes footage of a young boy wishing for a shiny new bike, and it being delivered coincidentally by his grandfather – not to mention a grown man changing the gears (on his sofa) of an imaginary Ferrari, before star-swipe to him washing that dream machine… It follows Greene’s steps eerily closely. Things are kept very vague (like how does wishing for a bike make it appear?), the screen is often shrouded in smoke amidst shots of old parchment and genies appearing from their bottles and the practitioners are given made-up titles (what the hell is a metaphysicist?). Other peddlers of the Secret give testimonials, amounting to: “I was poor until I started selling this myth, and now own a fleet of Lear jets”, leaving unsuspecting idiots naïve to the fact that it’s their money fuelling that fleet. The illusion is completed with the warning that sceptics are out there that will seek to suppress the secret and deprive you of your millions…

I can’t go on. Millions of suckers, dying to believe, all for the low low price of $49.95. In the year 2007, astride the information age, this hoax has been perpetrated on countless gullible souls. My antidote, other than becoming President and outlawing stupidity – is to get yourself a copy of Greene’s Laws and at least familiarise yourself with ‘the game’, and its insidious practices, even if you don’t intend to play it. Law 27 will save you from The Secret – while the other 47 laws will equally educate you about the devious facets of the world we live in.

I can guarantee you two things: 1) Greene's book is not 'self-help' - its history. Those ignorant of history are doomed and so forth and 2) you’ll need to actually get off your lounge to buy it – the universe won’t bring it to you, no matter how nicely you ask