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Law 3 is below, this is just pure deception:
Law 3 – Conceal Your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you’re up to, they cannot prepare a defence. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realise your intentions, it will be too late.
Part 1 – Use Decoyed Objects Of Desire And Red Herrings To Throw People Off The Scent
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.
Transgression Of The Law
Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of 17th century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigne explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was 62 and experienced, the marquis was 22 and hopeless in romance. Finally, unable to bear his ineptitude in seducing a woman, she decided to take the marquis under her wing, and explained the first step to seduction was that every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail.
Ninon told the marquis to approach the countess with a bit of distance and an air of nonchalance, saying the next time the two were alone together he would confide in the countess as a friend but not as a potential lover. The reason for this was to throw the countess off the scent, as she would no longer be able to take his interest for granted – maybe he was only interested in friendship and nothing more?
Ninon then planned ahead. Once the countess was confused as to whether the marquis wanted her as a friend or as a lover, it would be time to make her jealous. At their next encounter she had the marquis show up with a beautiful young woman at his side, who also had equally beautiful friends, so when the countess saw him he would be surrounded by the most stunning women in Paris. Now not only would the countess be seething with jealousy, but she would also see him as someone who is desired by others, and this instant value he gained would make it all the more satisfying for the countess to snatch him from their clutches.
When the countess became intrigued, it was now time to beguile her. Ninon told the marquis to fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him, and then suddenly appear at places he had never been seen before but that the countess attended. This would have the effect of pushing her into a state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.
Over the next several weeks this is what he did, and Ninon’s friends reported back to her that the countess was taking a closer interest in the marquis, laughing harder at his jokes, listening closely at his stories, and asking questions about him. She was also following him around the room, and Ninon felt that in a month or so she would succumb to him.
A few days later the marquis was alone with the countess at her home. Rather than acting on the instructions given to him he acted on impulse, took the countess’s hand, and told her he loved her. The young woman became confused, a reaction he didn’t expect, and excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided him and did not say goodbye when he left. The next few times he visited he was told she was not at home, and when they finally came into contact again the two felt very uncomfortable and awkward around each other. The spell was broken.
Interpretation
Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. Some of the greatest men of her time had been her lover, and as her reputation grew the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love. Ninon knew that men and women are different, but that when it comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along.
Everything in seduction depends on suggestion. You cannot announce your intentions or reveal them directly in words, instead you must throw your target off the scent. You have to scramble your signals – appear to be interested in another man or woman as a decoy, then hint at being interested in your target, then feign indifference, and repeat. Such patterns will not only confuse your target, it will excite them as well.
From the countess’s perspective after a few moves she sensed the marquis was playing a game but it delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her, and his moves intrigued her, each one keeping her waiting for the next one. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives, but she was willing to wait and see.
The moment the marquis revealed his true feelings everything changed. It was no longer a game, just a pure show of passion, and his intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put everything he’d done in the past into a new light, and all he’d done now seemed ugly and conniving. The countess felt embarrassed and used, and the door was closed on any possible romance between the two of them.
“Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.” (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Observance Of The Law
In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, a 35 year old deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states into which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful neighbour to the south that kept the Germans weak and threatened to stop Germany trying to reunite. Prince William, next in line to be the Prussian king, was in favour of war, and parliament backed him, but the current king, Frederick William 4th, and his ministers preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.
Throughout his career Bismarck had been a loyal and passionate supporter of Prussian might and power, dreaming of German unification and going to war against Austria. He then stunned everybody by giving a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever by talking of the madness of war, and strangest of all praised Austria and defended her actions, which went against everything he had stood for. The consequences of this speech were immediate. Bismarck was against the war – what could this mean? A number of people now changed their vote on going to war from yes to no and the war was averted.
A few weeks after Bismarck’s speech the king, grateful that he had spoken for peace, made Bismarck a cabinet minister. A few years later he became the Prussian premier, and in this role he led his country and king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.
Interpretation
At the time of his speech in 1850 Bismarck sensed that the Prussian military was not ready for war and that a defeat by Austria would be the end of Prussia. He also knew that if he supported a war and it was lost he would be ruined. The king wanted peace, Bismarck wanted power, so the answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested. It was because of the speech he made that the king made him a cabinet minister, where he rose to become Prime Minister, attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplishing what he had wanted all along – the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia’s leadership.
Bismarck was a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to, and had he announced his real intentions of making peace now and fighting later he would have lost the argument as most Prussians wanted war and mistakenly believed the Prussian army was superior to the Austrian one. Had he played up to the king and asked to be made a cabinet minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded as the king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his sincerity.
By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.
Keys To Power
Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to want to talk about your feelings and plans for the future, and much harder to hold your tongue and control what you want to reveal.
Second, by opening up people believe they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature, but they are deluded, and honesty is a blunt instrument which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the ugly truth of what you really feel and think. Most importantly, by being open you make yourself predictable and familiar and it becomes almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not come to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.
If you yearn for power you need to put honesty to one side and train yourself to conceal your true intentions, as our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and hear as it would exhaust and terrify us, and this fact makes it relatively easy to conceal your intentions. All you need to do is to dangle an object you seem to desire in front of people’s eyes and they will take it as reality, and once you have achieved this they will focus on this decoy and fail to notice what you are really up to. In the case of seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and then indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you also inflame their desire to possess you.
A tactic that is effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments. Most people will believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is unusual to play so lightly with something as precious as your opinions and values. The same applied for any decoyed object or desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.
During the War of the Spanish succession, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort that protected a vital through passage that led deeper into France. He knew that if he went and destroyed it the French would immediately realise what he wanted to do – to get down that road. What he did instead was to capture the fort and garrison it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it to use as his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let then recapture it, and thinking that the duke wanted it for some important tactical reason they destroyed it. The way was now clear for the duke and his troops to march further on into France.
Use this tactic as follows: Hide your intentions not by closing up and going all secretive, which will make people suspicious, but talk endlessly about your goals and desires – just not your real ones. In this way you appear friendly, open, and trusting, you conceal your real intentions, and you send your rivals on a wild goose chase.
Another powerful took used to throw people off the scent is false sincerity, as people easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight, and this is how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over people’s eyes. He seemed to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling in front of his victims, such as phoney stock, that he made its reality hard to doubt. It is of vital importance however not to go over the top, as doing so will raise suspicions. Be measured and keep it believable otherwise your ruse will appear as the put-on that it really is.
To back up your false sincerity make sure that people believe that you believe honesty and openness are important social values, doing it as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this by occasionally giving away some heartfelt thought, though one that is meaningless and irrelevant.
Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their sinister qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely a another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
Part 2 – Use Smoke Screens To Disguise Your Actions
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people’s attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior – like the unreadable poker face – if often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.
Observance Of The Law 1
In 1910, Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for $1 million and settled down into semi-retirement managing his many properties, but deep down he still yearned for the old days of deal making. One day a young man named Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment that was for sale. Geezil explained the terms – the price was £8,000 with a deposit of $2,000, and Weil said he would sleep on it.
The next day Weil came back and said he could pay the full $8,000 in cash if he could have a couple more days until a deal he was working on came through. Geezil was of course curious as to how Weil could come up with so much cash (about $200,000 today) so quickly, but Weil was reluctant to say and quickly changed the subject. Geezil’s curiosity wouldn’t let go however, and after persisting Weil told him the following story.
Weil’s uncle was the secretary to a group of multi-millionaire financiers, and 10 years ago they had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan at a cheap price. They had not bothered to use the lodge for a few years and so had decided to sell it, and had turned to Weil’s uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons of his own, which were not disclosed, Weil’s uncle had been nursing a grudge against the financiers for a number of years, and this was his chance to get back at them.
The plan was to sell the property for $35,000 to a set-up man, whom it was Weil’s job to find, and as the financiers were so wealthy they wouldn’t be worried about this low price. The set-up man would then re-sell the lodge for its true price, around $155,000, and the $120,000 profit would be split 3 ways between Weil, his uncle, and the set-up man. What they were doing was all legal and above board and all in the name of a good cause – the uncle’s revenge.
Geezil immediately jumped at the chance to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant, but Geezil would not back down, as the idea of a large profit and the return to a little adventure was too good to miss. Weil explained that to pull the deal off Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash, and being a millionaire Geezil said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally gave in and arranged a meeting between his uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in Galesburg, Illinois.
On the train ride there Geezil met the uncle – an impressive man with whom he enthusiastically discussed business with. Weil also brought along a man called George Gross, and explained that he was a boxing trainer and Gross was one of his up and coming fighters who he had asked to come along so they could continue his training regime. Geezil noticed that for an up and coming boxer Gross was unimpressive – overweight and scruffy and with greying hair, but he was so excited about the deal he didn’t think any more about it.
When they got to Galesburg Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who changed into his boxing trunks and began shadow boxing. With his mind on the deal, Geezil noticed that after only a few minutes Gross was wheezing but again didn’t give it another thought. An hour later Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive looking group wearing expensive suits and carrying an air of authority. The meeting went perfectly, and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil for $35,000, who said he had already had the money wired to a local bank.
The business now being settled, the men all sat back into their armchairs and began some informal chatting about high finance, throwing in the name JP Morgan as if he were a personal friend of theirs. Finally one of them noticed the boxer sitting on his own in the corner of the room, and Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier replied that he too had a boxer in his entourage and named him, and Weil arrogantly laughed and said that his boxer could easily knock out the financier’s boxer. The conversation got heated, and ended with Weil challenging the financier to a $50,000 bet, which he accepted and then left to get his man ready for the fight the next day.
As soon as the financiers had left, the uncle started screaming at Weil, right in front of Geezil. They didn’t have enough money to cover the bet, and if the financiers found out he would be fired. Weil apologized profusely for getting his uncle into this situation, but said that he knew the other boxer well and with a little bribe could fix the fight. The uncle replied this was all well and good but where would they get the money from?
At this point Geezil jumped in, and unwilling to jeopardize his deal with the financiers offered his own $35,000 cash to cover part of the bet. Weil and his uncle thanked him, and said that with their own $15,000 they would be able to cover the whole of the bet. That night Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind hardly believing the killing he was going to make from the lodge and fixed boxing match.
The fight took place the next day in a gym. Weil handled the cash, and everything proceeded as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at the way their man was performing, and Geezil was dreaming of the easy money he was about to make. Suddenly however the financier’s boxer made a wild swing and hit Gross hard in the face, after which he fell down to the canvas and banged his head, resulting in blood spurting out of his mouth and him laying motionless on the floor.
One of the financiers, a retired doctor, jumped into the ring to check on Gross, and then stated he was dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out now before the police arrived as they could all be charged with murder. A terrified Geezil fled the gym and went straight back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000, which he was only too glad to forget to avoid being implicated in a murder. He never wanted to see Weil, his uncle, the financiers, or the boxers again.
After Geezil has fled, Gross got up, and removed a plastic bag from his cheek that had been filled with chicken’s blood mixed with hot water. The whole scam had been masterminded by Weil, better known as “The Yellow Kid”, and one of the most creative con artists in history. The $35,000 was split between Weil, his uncle, the “financiers”, and the “boxers” (all fellow con artists of course), which wasn’t a bad return for a few days work.
Interpretation
The Yellow Kid had been staking out Geezil long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing match scam would be a perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money permanently, but he also knew that to try and interest him in a boxing match would have failed miserably. He needed something to conceal his real intentions, and came up with the idea of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil’s mind had been completely occupied with the impending deal, the easy money resulting from it, and the chance to hobnob with wealthy men who knew JP Morgan personally. Such is the power of the smoke screen, even though in passing he had noticed Gross was a poor specimen for a boxer he hadn’t given it a second thought as he was so focused on the lodge deal.
Once the boxing match scam had been set up it was too late for Geezil to back out but now the match, after all, had been fixed and Geezil thought he couldn’t lose. When Gross had been declared “dead” by the retired doctor financier he was so distracted again that he completely forgot about his money and just wanted to stop himself from going to jail for a long time.
Learn from The Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your victim with an idea that seems ordinary enough, such as a financial deal, to distract his mind and calm his suspicions. Once this is done you gently guide him onto your second path, down the slippery slope into your awaiting trap.
Keys To Power
If you believe that deceivers are colourful folk who mislead with elaborate lies and tales you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers use a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves, as they know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. In The Yellow Kid’s dealing with Geezil, the familiar was a business deal.
Once you have lulled your target’s attention with the familiar, they will not notice the deception going on behind their backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It is too difficult for them to imagine that the bland person they are dealing with is setting up something else.
The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned without detection. Henry Kissinger used this tactic and would bore his opponents around the negotiating table with his monotonous voice, blank look, and endless repeating of the same details. As soon as he sensed they were losing interest he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms, and caught off-guard they would be easily intimidated.
As an adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective is the noble gesture, as people want to believe these are genuine and rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be. The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for his paintings were running out of wall space and with inheritance tax getting higher and higher it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. In 1937 Duveen hit upon the idea of creating a National Gallery in Washington DC, and got Andrew Mellon to donate his large collection to it.
The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen, as in one noble gesture he had helped his clients to avoid paying inheritance tax on the paintings, cleared their wall space for them to buy more paintings, and reduced the number of paintings that were on the market, pushing up the prices of the ones that were. He also increased the collectors reputations as they were opening up their collections for all to see.
Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the same way. This plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behaviour conforms to patterns, or so we like to think. In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a company that began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided the best thing to do would be to buy Gould’s company up, and even though it cost them a hefty sum they had managed to rid themselves of a threatening competitor.
A few months later Gould started up an identical new company and the same thing happened. Soon after this he did it again for a third time, but this time he went for the jugular and staged an aggressive takeover and managed to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern and had tricked the company’s directors into thinking his goal was to be bought out at a handsome rate, and after they had done this a second time they relaxed and failed to notice he was actually after taking over their company. The pattern strategy is powerful in that it deceived the other person into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.
Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality – the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you, and the better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War in the 1950’s and 60’s a group of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets, and managed to go undetected for years because they were decent chaps, had gone to all the right expensive schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colours and to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to appear so bland, as it is usually your unreadibility that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
Image: A Sheep’s Skin
A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.
Authority
Have you ever heard of a skilful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plans to the enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those war-like people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)
Reversal
No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. In this case it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or even better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but most wonderful and strangest of all, you will be able to continue your deceptions.
As PT Barnum, the 19th century king of deception, grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey with a few imported buffalo, and publicized the hunt as genuine. However it came off as totally fake, but instead of getting angry and demanding their money back, the crowd were highly amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time and loved him for it, and from this Barnum learned a lesson and stopped concealing all of his devices, even revealing the secrets of some of his deceptions in his autobiography.
Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when a colourful, conspicuous gesture is the right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of 17th and 18th century Europe used humour and entertainment to deceive their audiences, and dazzled by the great show, the audience would not notice the charlatan’s real intentions. Thus the star charlatan would appear in town in a black night-coach drawn by black horses, and clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people into his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions.
Spectacle and entertainment are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely, as the public will quickly catch on to the trick, and indeed the charlatans used to move regularly from town to town looking for new victims before people realised the potions were useless.
Powerful people with bland exteriors however can practice the same deceptions throughout their lifetimes in the same place, and their act will never wear thin and rarely cause suspicion. The colourful smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when the occasion is right.
My Opinion
This law, especially part 2 on smoke screens, is just pure deception. If you take the advice given in this law you are basically a con-man taking advantage of people and deserve everything you get if hopefully you get caught out.
This law is just trying to teach people how to be underhand and snide in their dealings to get whatever they want, at whatever the cost. Following this law might get you what you want, but when people figure you out, which they will do in the end, you’ll be a very lonely person.
Law 3 – Conceal Your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you’re up to, they cannot prepare a defence. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realise your intentions, it will be too late.
Part 1 – Use Decoyed Objects Of Desire And Red Herrings To Throw People Off The Scent
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.
Transgression Of The Law
Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of 17th century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigne explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was 62 and experienced, the marquis was 22 and hopeless in romance. Finally, unable to bear his ineptitude in seducing a woman, she decided to take the marquis under her wing, and explained the first step to seduction was that every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail.
Ninon told the marquis to approach the countess with a bit of distance and an air of nonchalance, saying the next time the two were alone together he would confide in the countess as a friend but not as a potential lover. The reason for this was to throw the countess off the scent, as she would no longer be able to take his interest for granted – maybe he was only interested in friendship and nothing more?
Ninon then planned ahead. Once the countess was confused as to whether the marquis wanted her as a friend or as a lover, it would be time to make her jealous. At their next encounter she had the marquis show up with a beautiful young woman at his side, who also had equally beautiful friends, so when the countess saw him he would be surrounded by the most stunning women in Paris. Now not only would the countess be seething with jealousy, but she would also see him as someone who is desired by others, and this instant value he gained would make it all the more satisfying for the countess to snatch him from their clutches.
When the countess became intrigued, it was now time to beguile her. Ninon told the marquis to fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him, and then suddenly appear at places he had never been seen before but that the countess attended. This would have the effect of pushing her into a state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.
Over the next several weeks this is what he did, and Ninon’s friends reported back to her that the countess was taking a closer interest in the marquis, laughing harder at his jokes, listening closely at his stories, and asking questions about him. She was also following him around the room, and Ninon felt that in a month or so she would succumb to him.
A few days later the marquis was alone with the countess at her home. Rather than acting on the instructions given to him he acted on impulse, took the countess’s hand, and told her he loved her. The young woman became confused, a reaction he didn’t expect, and excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided him and did not say goodbye when he left. The next few times he visited he was told she was not at home, and when they finally came into contact again the two felt very uncomfortable and awkward around each other. The spell was broken.
Interpretation
Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. Some of the greatest men of her time had been her lover, and as her reputation grew the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love. Ninon knew that men and women are different, but that when it comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along.
Everything in seduction depends on suggestion. You cannot announce your intentions or reveal them directly in words, instead you must throw your target off the scent. You have to scramble your signals – appear to be interested in another man or woman as a decoy, then hint at being interested in your target, then feign indifference, and repeat. Such patterns will not only confuse your target, it will excite them as well.
From the countess’s perspective after a few moves she sensed the marquis was playing a game but it delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her, and his moves intrigued her, each one keeping her waiting for the next one. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives, but she was willing to wait and see.
The moment the marquis revealed his true feelings everything changed. It was no longer a game, just a pure show of passion, and his intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put everything he’d done in the past into a new light, and all he’d done now seemed ugly and conniving. The countess felt embarrassed and used, and the door was closed on any possible romance between the two of them.
“Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.” (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Observance Of The Law
In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, a 35 year old deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states into which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful neighbour to the south that kept the Germans weak and threatened to stop Germany trying to reunite. Prince William, next in line to be the Prussian king, was in favour of war, and parliament backed him, but the current king, Frederick William 4th, and his ministers preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.
Throughout his career Bismarck had been a loyal and passionate supporter of Prussian might and power, dreaming of German unification and going to war against Austria. He then stunned everybody by giving a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever by talking of the madness of war, and strangest of all praised Austria and defended her actions, which went against everything he had stood for. The consequences of this speech were immediate. Bismarck was against the war – what could this mean? A number of people now changed their vote on going to war from yes to no and the war was averted.
A few weeks after Bismarck’s speech the king, grateful that he had spoken for peace, made Bismarck a cabinet minister. A few years later he became the Prussian premier, and in this role he led his country and king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.
Interpretation
At the time of his speech in 1850 Bismarck sensed that the Prussian military was not ready for war and that a defeat by Austria would be the end of Prussia. He also knew that if he supported a war and it was lost he would be ruined. The king wanted peace, Bismarck wanted power, so the answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested. It was because of the speech he made that the king made him a cabinet minister, where he rose to become Prime Minister, attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplishing what he had wanted all along – the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia’s leadership.
Bismarck was a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to, and had he announced his real intentions of making peace now and fighting later he would have lost the argument as most Prussians wanted war and mistakenly believed the Prussian army was superior to the Austrian one. Had he played up to the king and asked to be made a cabinet minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded as the king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his sincerity.
By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.
Keys To Power
Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to want to talk about your feelings and plans for the future, and much harder to hold your tongue and control what you want to reveal.
Second, by opening up people believe they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature, but they are deluded, and honesty is a blunt instrument which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the ugly truth of what you really feel and think. Most importantly, by being open you make yourself predictable and familiar and it becomes almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not come to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.
If you yearn for power you need to put honesty to one side and train yourself to conceal your true intentions, as our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and hear as it would exhaust and terrify us, and this fact makes it relatively easy to conceal your intentions. All you need to do is to dangle an object you seem to desire in front of people’s eyes and they will take it as reality, and once you have achieved this they will focus on this decoy and fail to notice what you are really up to. In the case of seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and then indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you also inflame their desire to possess you.
A tactic that is effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments. Most people will believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is unusual to play so lightly with something as precious as your opinions and values. The same applied for any decoyed object or desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.
During the War of the Spanish succession, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort that protected a vital through passage that led deeper into France. He knew that if he went and destroyed it the French would immediately realise what he wanted to do – to get down that road. What he did instead was to capture the fort and garrison it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it to use as his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let then recapture it, and thinking that the duke wanted it for some important tactical reason they destroyed it. The way was now clear for the duke and his troops to march further on into France.
Use this tactic as follows: Hide your intentions not by closing up and going all secretive, which will make people suspicious, but talk endlessly about your goals and desires – just not your real ones. In this way you appear friendly, open, and trusting, you conceal your real intentions, and you send your rivals on a wild goose chase.
Another powerful took used to throw people off the scent is false sincerity, as people easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight, and this is how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over people’s eyes. He seemed to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling in front of his victims, such as phoney stock, that he made its reality hard to doubt. It is of vital importance however not to go over the top, as doing so will raise suspicions. Be measured and keep it believable otherwise your ruse will appear as the put-on that it really is.
To back up your false sincerity make sure that people believe that you believe honesty and openness are important social values, doing it as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this by occasionally giving away some heartfelt thought, though one that is meaningless and irrelevant.
Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their sinister qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely a another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
Part 2 – Use Smoke Screens To Disguise Your Actions
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people’s attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior – like the unreadable poker face – if often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.
Observance Of The Law 1
In 1910, Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for $1 million and settled down into semi-retirement managing his many properties, but deep down he still yearned for the old days of deal making. One day a young man named Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment that was for sale. Geezil explained the terms – the price was £8,000 with a deposit of $2,000, and Weil said he would sleep on it.
The next day Weil came back and said he could pay the full $8,000 in cash if he could have a couple more days until a deal he was working on came through. Geezil was of course curious as to how Weil could come up with so much cash (about $200,000 today) so quickly, but Weil was reluctant to say and quickly changed the subject. Geezil’s curiosity wouldn’t let go however, and after persisting Weil told him the following story.
Weil’s uncle was the secretary to a group of multi-millionaire financiers, and 10 years ago they had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan at a cheap price. They had not bothered to use the lodge for a few years and so had decided to sell it, and had turned to Weil’s uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons of his own, which were not disclosed, Weil’s uncle had been nursing a grudge against the financiers for a number of years, and this was his chance to get back at them.
The plan was to sell the property for $35,000 to a set-up man, whom it was Weil’s job to find, and as the financiers were so wealthy they wouldn’t be worried about this low price. The set-up man would then re-sell the lodge for its true price, around $155,000, and the $120,000 profit would be split 3 ways between Weil, his uncle, and the set-up man. What they were doing was all legal and above board and all in the name of a good cause – the uncle’s revenge.
Geezil immediately jumped at the chance to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant, but Geezil would not back down, as the idea of a large profit and the return to a little adventure was too good to miss. Weil explained that to pull the deal off Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash, and being a millionaire Geezil said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally gave in and arranged a meeting between his uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in Galesburg, Illinois.
On the train ride there Geezil met the uncle – an impressive man with whom he enthusiastically discussed business with. Weil also brought along a man called George Gross, and explained that he was a boxing trainer and Gross was one of his up and coming fighters who he had asked to come along so they could continue his training regime. Geezil noticed that for an up and coming boxer Gross was unimpressive – overweight and scruffy and with greying hair, but he was so excited about the deal he didn’t think any more about it.
When they got to Galesburg Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who changed into his boxing trunks and began shadow boxing. With his mind on the deal, Geezil noticed that after only a few minutes Gross was wheezing but again didn’t give it another thought. An hour later Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive looking group wearing expensive suits and carrying an air of authority. The meeting went perfectly, and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil for $35,000, who said he had already had the money wired to a local bank.
The business now being settled, the men all sat back into their armchairs and began some informal chatting about high finance, throwing in the name JP Morgan as if he were a personal friend of theirs. Finally one of them noticed the boxer sitting on his own in the corner of the room, and Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier replied that he too had a boxer in his entourage and named him, and Weil arrogantly laughed and said that his boxer could easily knock out the financier’s boxer. The conversation got heated, and ended with Weil challenging the financier to a $50,000 bet, which he accepted and then left to get his man ready for the fight the next day.
As soon as the financiers had left, the uncle started screaming at Weil, right in front of Geezil. They didn’t have enough money to cover the bet, and if the financiers found out he would be fired. Weil apologized profusely for getting his uncle into this situation, but said that he knew the other boxer well and with a little bribe could fix the fight. The uncle replied this was all well and good but where would they get the money from?
At this point Geezil jumped in, and unwilling to jeopardize his deal with the financiers offered his own $35,000 cash to cover part of the bet. Weil and his uncle thanked him, and said that with their own $15,000 they would be able to cover the whole of the bet. That night Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind hardly believing the killing he was going to make from the lodge and fixed boxing match.
The fight took place the next day in a gym. Weil handled the cash, and everything proceeded as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at the way their man was performing, and Geezil was dreaming of the easy money he was about to make. Suddenly however the financier’s boxer made a wild swing and hit Gross hard in the face, after which he fell down to the canvas and banged his head, resulting in blood spurting out of his mouth and him laying motionless on the floor.
One of the financiers, a retired doctor, jumped into the ring to check on Gross, and then stated he was dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out now before the police arrived as they could all be charged with murder. A terrified Geezil fled the gym and went straight back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000, which he was only too glad to forget to avoid being implicated in a murder. He never wanted to see Weil, his uncle, the financiers, or the boxers again.
After Geezil has fled, Gross got up, and removed a plastic bag from his cheek that had been filled with chicken’s blood mixed with hot water. The whole scam had been masterminded by Weil, better known as “The Yellow Kid”, and one of the most creative con artists in history. The $35,000 was split between Weil, his uncle, the “financiers”, and the “boxers” (all fellow con artists of course), which wasn’t a bad return for a few days work.
Interpretation
The Yellow Kid had been staking out Geezil long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing match scam would be a perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money permanently, but he also knew that to try and interest him in a boxing match would have failed miserably. He needed something to conceal his real intentions, and came up with the idea of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil’s mind had been completely occupied with the impending deal, the easy money resulting from it, and the chance to hobnob with wealthy men who knew JP Morgan personally. Such is the power of the smoke screen, even though in passing he had noticed Gross was a poor specimen for a boxer he hadn’t given it a second thought as he was so focused on the lodge deal.
Once the boxing match scam had been set up it was too late for Geezil to back out but now the match, after all, had been fixed and Geezil thought he couldn’t lose. When Gross had been declared “dead” by the retired doctor financier he was so distracted again that he completely forgot about his money and just wanted to stop himself from going to jail for a long time.
Learn from The Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your victim with an idea that seems ordinary enough, such as a financial deal, to distract his mind and calm his suspicions. Once this is done you gently guide him onto your second path, down the slippery slope into your awaiting trap.
Keys To Power
If you believe that deceivers are colourful folk who mislead with elaborate lies and tales you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers use a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves, as they know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. In The Yellow Kid’s dealing with Geezil, the familiar was a business deal.
Once you have lulled your target’s attention with the familiar, they will not notice the deception going on behind their backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It is too difficult for them to imagine that the bland person they are dealing with is setting up something else.
The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned without detection. Henry Kissinger used this tactic and would bore his opponents around the negotiating table with his monotonous voice, blank look, and endless repeating of the same details. As soon as he sensed they were losing interest he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms, and caught off-guard they would be easily intimidated.
As an adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective is the noble gesture, as people want to believe these are genuine and rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be. The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for his paintings were running out of wall space and with inheritance tax getting higher and higher it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. In 1937 Duveen hit upon the idea of creating a National Gallery in Washington DC, and got Andrew Mellon to donate his large collection to it.
The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen, as in one noble gesture he had helped his clients to avoid paying inheritance tax on the paintings, cleared their wall space for them to buy more paintings, and reduced the number of paintings that were on the market, pushing up the prices of the ones that were. He also increased the collectors reputations as they were opening up their collections for all to see.
Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the same way. This plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behaviour conforms to patterns, or so we like to think. In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a company that began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided the best thing to do would be to buy Gould’s company up, and even though it cost them a hefty sum they had managed to rid themselves of a threatening competitor.
A few months later Gould started up an identical new company and the same thing happened. Soon after this he did it again for a third time, but this time he went for the jugular and staged an aggressive takeover and managed to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern and had tricked the company’s directors into thinking his goal was to be bought out at a handsome rate, and after they had done this a second time they relaxed and failed to notice he was actually after taking over their company. The pattern strategy is powerful in that it deceived the other person into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.
Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality – the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you, and the better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War in the 1950’s and 60’s a group of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets, and managed to go undetected for years because they were decent chaps, had gone to all the right expensive schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colours and to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to appear so bland, as it is usually your unreadibility that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
Image: A Sheep’s Skin
A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.
Authority
Have you ever heard of a skilful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plans to the enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those war-like people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)
Reversal
No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. In this case it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or even better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but most wonderful and strangest of all, you will be able to continue your deceptions.
As PT Barnum, the 19th century king of deception, grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey with a few imported buffalo, and publicized the hunt as genuine. However it came off as totally fake, but instead of getting angry and demanding their money back, the crowd were highly amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time and loved him for it, and from this Barnum learned a lesson and stopped concealing all of his devices, even revealing the secrets of some of his deceptions in his autobiography.
Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when a colourful, conspicuous gesture is the right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of 17th and 18th century Europe used humour and entertainment to deceive their audiences, and dazzled by the great show, the audience would not notice the charlatan’s real intentions. Thus the star charlatan would appear in town in a black night-coach drawn by black horses, and clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people into his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions.
Spectacle and entertainment are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely, as the public will quickly catch on to the trick, and indeed the charlatans used to move regularly from town to town looking for new victims before people realised the potions were useless.
Powerful people with bland exteriors however can practice the same deceptions throughout their lifetimes in the same place, and their act will never wear thin and rarely cause suspicion. The colourful smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when the occasion is right.
My Opinion
This law, especially part 2 on smoke screens, is just pure deception. If you take the advice given in this law you are basically a con-man taking advantage of people and deserve everything you get if hopefully you get caught out.
This law is just trying to teach people how to be underhand and snide in their dealings to get whatever they want, at whatever the cost. Following this law might get you what you want, but when people figure you out, which they will do in the end, you’ll be a very lonely person.
It also takes ages to scroll down to make a response ... so no GAD ... ( User Unfriendly)
One of them will eventually be GAD-worthy.
"The 4th Law of Power - All Staffies are the best"
"The 4th Law of Power - All Staffies are the best"
Doesn't work in BF3
Understandable making this post after the others were so warmly received
Law 3 is below, this is just pure deception:
Law 3 – Conceal Your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you’re up to, they cannot prepare a defence. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realise your intentions, it will be too late.
Part 1 – Use Decoyed Objects Of Desire And Red Herrings To Throw People Off The Scent
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.
Transgression Of The Law
Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of 17th century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigne explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was 62 and experienced, the marquis was 22 and hopeless in romance. Finally, unable to bear his ineptitude in seducing a woman, she decided to take the marquis under her wing, and explained the first step to seduction was that every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail.
Ninon told the marquis to approach the countess with a bit of distance and an air of nonchalance, saying the next time the two were alone together he would confide in the countess as a friend but not as a potential lover. The reason for this was to throw the countess off the scent, as she would no longer be able to take his interest for granted – maybe he was only interested in friendship and nothing more?
Ninon then planned ahead. Once the countess was confused as to whether the marquis wanted her as a friend or as a lover, it would be time to make her jealous. At their next encounter she had the marquis show up with a beautiful young woman at his side, who also had equally beautiful friends, so when the countess saw him he would be surrounded by the most stunning women in Paris. Now not only would the countess be seething with jealousy, but she would also see him as someone who is desired by others, and this instant value he gained would make it all the more satisfying for the countess to snatch him from their clutches.
When the countess became intrigued, it was now time to beguile her. Ninon told the marquis to fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him, and then suddenly appear at places he had never been seen before but that the countess attended. This would have the effect of pushing her into a state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.
Over the next several weeks this is what he did, and Ninon’s friends reported back to her that the countess was taking a closer interest in the marquis, laughing harder at his jokes, listening closely at his stories, and asking questions about him. She was also following him around the room, and Ninon felt that in a month or so she would succumb to him.
A few days later the marquis was alone with the countess at her home. Rather than acting on the instructions given to him he acted on impulse, took the countess’s hand, and told her he loved her. The young woman became confused, a reaction he didn’t expect, and excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided him and did not say goodbye when he left. The next few times he visited he was told she was not at home, and when they finally came into contact again the two felt very uncomfortable and awkward around each other. The spell was broken.
Interpretation
Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. Some of the greatest men of her time had been her lover, and as her reputation grew the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love. Ninon knew that men and women are different, but that when it comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along.
Everything in seduction depends on suggestion. You cannot announce your intentions or reveal them directly in words, instead you must throw your target off the scent. You have to scramble your signals – appear to be interested in another man or woman as a decoy, then hint at being interested in your target, then feign indifference, and repeat. Such patterns will not only confuse your target, it will excite them as well.
From the countess’s perspective after a few moves she sensed the marquis was playing a game but it delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her, and his moves intrigued her, each one keeping her waiting for the next one. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives, but she was willing to wait and see.
The moment the marquis revealed his true feelings everything changed. It was no longer a game, just a pure show of passion, and his intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put everything he’d done in the past into a new light, and all he’d done now seemed ugly and conniving. The countess felt embarrassed and used, and the door was closed on any possible romance between the two of them.
“Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.” (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Observance Of The Law
In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, a 35 year old deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states into which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful neighbour to the south that kept the Germans weak and threatened to stop Germany trying to reunite. Prince William, next in line to be the Prussian king, was in favour of war, and parliament backed him, but the current king, Frederick William 4th, and his ministers preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.
Throughout his career Bismarck had been a loyal and passionate supporter of Prussian might and power, dreaming of German unification and going to war against Austria. He then stunned everybody by giving a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever by talking of the madness of war, and strangest of all praised Austria and defended her actions, which went against everything he had stood for. The consequences of this speech were immediate. Bismarck was against the war – what could this mean? A number of people now changed their vote on going to war from yes to no and the war was averted.
A few weeks after Bismarck’s speech the king, grateful that he had spoken for peace, made Bismarck a cabinet minister. A few years later he became the Prussian premier, and in this role he led his country and king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.
Interpretation
At the time of his speech in 1850 Bismarck sensed that the Prussian military was not ready for war and that a defeat by Austria would be the end of Prussia. He also knew that if he supported a war and it was lost he would be ruined. The king wanted peace, Bismarck wanted power, so the answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested. It was because of the speech he made that the king made him a cabinet minister, where he rose to become Prime Minister, attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplishing what he had wanted all along – the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia’s leadership.
Bismarck was a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to, and had he announced his real intentions of making peace now and fighting later he would have lost the argument as most Prussians wanted war and mistakenly believed the Prussian army was superior to the Austrian one. Had he played up to the king and asked to be made a cabinet minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded as the king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his sincerity.
By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.
Keys To Power
Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to want to talk about your feelings and plans for the future, and much harder to hold your tongue and control what you want to reveal.
Second, by opening up people believe they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature, but they are deluded, and honesty is a blunt instrument which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the ugly truth of what you really feel and think. Most importantly, by being open you make yourself predictable and familiar and it becomes almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not come to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.
If you yearn for power you need to put honesty to one side and train yourself to conceal your true intentions, as our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and hear as it would exhaust and terrify us, and this fact makes it relatively easy to conceal your intentions. All you need to do is to dangle an object you seem to desire in front of people’s eyes and they will take it as reality, and once you have achieved this they will focus on this decoy and fail to notice what you are really up to. In the case of seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and then indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you also inflame their desire to possess you.
A tactic that is effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments. Most people will believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is unusual to play so lightly with something as precious as your opinions and values. The same applied for any decoyed object or desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.
During the War of the Spanish succession, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort that protected a vital through passage that led deeper into France. He knew that if he went and destroyed it the French would immediately realise what he wanted to do – to get down that road. What he did instead was to capture the fort and garrison it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it to use as his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let then recapture it, and thinking that the duke wanted it for some important tactical reason they destroyed it. The way was now clear for the duke and his troops to march further on into France.
Use this tactic as follows: Hide your intentions not by closing up and going all secretive, which will make people suspicious, but talk endlessly about your goals and desires – just not your real ones. In this way you appear friendly, open, and trusting, you conceal your real intentions, and you send your rivals on a wild goose chase.
Another powerful took used to throw people off the scent is false sincerity, as people easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight, and this is how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over people’s eyes. He seemed to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling in front of his victims, such as phoney stock, that he made its reality hard to doubt. It is of vital importance however not to go over the top, as doing so will raise suspicions. Be measured and keep it believable otherwise your ruse will appear as the put-on that it really is.
To back up your false sincerity make sure that people believe that you believe honesty and openness are important social values, doing it as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this by occasionally giving away some heartfelt thought, though one that is meaningless and irrelevant.
Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their sinister qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely a another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
Part 2 – Use Smoke Screens To Disguise Your Actions
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people’s attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior – like the unreadable poker face – if often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.
Observance Of The Law 1
In 1910, Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for $1 million and settled down into semi-retirement managing his many properties, but deep down he still yearned for the old days of deal making. One day a young man named Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment that was for sale. Geezil explained the terms – the price was £8,000 with a deposit of $2,000, and Weil said he would sleep on it.
The next day Weil came back and said he could pay the full $8,000 in cash if he could have a couple more days until a deal he was working on came through. Geezil was of course curious as to how Weil could come up with so much cash (about $200,000 today) so quickly, but Weil was reluctant to say and quickly changed the subject. Geezil’s curiosity wouldn’t let go however, and after persisting Weil told him the following story.
Weil’s uncle was the secretary to a group of multi-millionaire financiers, and 10 years ago they had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan at a cheap price. They had not bothered to use the lodge for a few years and so had decided to sell it, and had turned to Weil’s uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons of his own, which were not disclosed, Weil’s uncle had been nursing a grudge against the financiers for a number of years, and this was his chance to get back at them.
The plan was to sell the property for $35,000 to a set-up man, whom it was Weil’s job to find, and as the financiers were so wealthy they wouldn’t be worried about this low price. The set-up man would then re-sell the lodge for its true price, around $155,000, and the $120,000 profit would be split 3 ways between Weil, his uncle, and the set-up man. What they were doing was all legal and above board and all in the name of a good cause – the uncle’s revenge.
Geezil immediately jumped at the chance to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant, but Geezil would not back down, as the idea of a large profit and the return to a little adventure was too good to miss. Weil explained that to pull the deal off Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash, and being a millionaire Geezil said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally gave in and arranged a meeting between his uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in Galesburg, Illinois.
On the train ride there Geezil met the uncle – an impressive man with whom he enthusiastically discussed business with. Weil also brought along a man called George Gross, and explained that he was a boxing trainer and Gross was one of his up and coming fighters who he had asked to come along so they could continue his training regime. Geezil noticed that for an up and coming boxer Gross was unimpressive – overweight and scruffy and with greying hair, but he was so excited about the deal he didn’t think any more about it.
When they got to Galesburg Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who changed into his boxing trunks and began shadow boxing. With his mind on the deal, Geezil noticed that after only a few minutes Gross was wheezing but again didn’t give it another thought. An hour later Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive looking group wearing expensive suits and carrying an air of authority. The meeting went perfectly, and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil for $35,000, who said he had already had the money wired to a local bank.
The business now being settled, the men all sat back into their armchairs and began some informal chatting about high finance, throwing in the name JP Morgan as if he were a personal friend of theirs. Finally one of them noticed the boxer sitting on his own in the corner of the room, and Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier replied that he too had a boxer in his entourage and named him, and Weil arrogantly laughed and said that his boxer could easily knock out the financier’s boxer. The conversation got heated, and ended with Weil challenging the financier to a $50,000 bet, which he accepted and then left to get his man ready for the fight the next day.
As soon as the financiers had left, the uncle started screaming at Weil, right in front of Geezil. They didn’t have enough money to cover the bet, and if the financiers found out he would be fired. Weil apologized profusely for getting his uncle into this situation, but said that he knew the other boxer well and with a little bribe could fix the fight. The uncle replied this was all well and good but where would they get the money from?
At this point Geezil jumped in, and unwilling to jeopardize his deal with the financiers offered his own $35,000 cash to cover part of the bet. Weil and his uncle thanked him, and said that with their own $15,000 they would be able to cover the whole of the bet. That night Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind hardly believing the killing he was going to make from the lodge and fixed boxing match.
The fight took place the next day in a gym. Weil handled the cash, and everything proceeded as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at the way their man was performing, and Geezil was dreaming of the easy money he was about to make. Suddenly however the financier’s boxer made a wild swing and hit Gross hard in the face, after which he fell down to the canvas and banged his head, resulting in blood spurting out of his mouth and him laying motionless on the floor.
One of the financiers, a retired doctor, jumped into the ring to check on Gross, and then stated he was dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out now before the police arrived as they could all be charged with murder. A terrified Geezil fled the gym and went straight back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000, which he was only too glad to forget to avoid being implicated in a murder. He never wanted to see Weil, his uncle, the financiers, or the boxers again.
After Geezil has fled, Gross got up, and removed a plastic bag from his cheek that had been filled with chicken’s blood mixed with hot water. The whole scam had been masterminded by Weil, better known as “The Yellow Kid”, and one of the most creative con artists in history. The $35,000 was split between Weil, his uncle, the “financiers”, and the “boxers” (all fellow con artists of course), which wasn’t a bad return for a few days work.
Interpretation
The Yellow Kid had been staking out Geezil long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing match scam would be a perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money permanently, but he also knew that to try and interest him in a boxing match would have failed miserably. He needed something to conceal his real intentions, and came up with the idea of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil’s mind had been completely occupied with the impending deal, the easy money resulting from it, and the chance to hobnob with wealthy men who knew JP Morgan personally. Such is the power of the smoke screen, even though in passing he had noticed Gross was a poor specimen for a boxer he hadn’t given it a second thought as he was so focused on the lodge deal.
Once the boxing match scam had been set up it was too late for Geezil to back out but now the match, after all, had been fixed and Geezil thought he couldn’t lose. When Gross had been declared “dead” by the retired doctor financier he was so distracted again that he completely forgot about his money and just wanted to stop himself from going to jail for a long time.
Learn from The Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your victim with an idea that seems ordinary enough, such as a financial deal, to distract his mind and calm his suspicions. Once this is done you gently guide him onto your second path, down the slippery slope into your awaiting trap.
Keys To Power
If you believe that deceivers are colourful folk who mislead with elaborate lies and tales you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers use a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves, as they know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. In The Yellow Kid’s dealing with Geezil, the familiar was a business deal.
Once you have lulled your target’s attention with the familiar, they will not notice the deception going on behind their backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It is too difficult for them to imagine that the bland person they are dealing with is setting up something else.
The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned without detection. Henry Kissinger used this tactic and would bore his opponents around the negotiating table with his monotonous voice, blank look, and endless repeating of the same details. As soon as he sensed they were losing interest he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms, and caught off-guard they would be easily intimidated.
As an adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective is the noble gesture, as people want to believe these are genuine and rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be. The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for his paintings were running out of wall space and with inheritance tax getting higher and higher it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. In 1937 Duveen hit upon the idea of creating a National Gallery in Washington DC, and got Andrew Mellon to donate his large collection to it.
The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen, as in one noble gesture he had helped his clients to avoid paying inheritance tax on the paintings, cleared their wall space for them to buy more paintings, and reduced the number of paintings that were on the market, pushing up the prices of the ones that were. He also increased the collectors reputations as they were opening up their collections for all to see.
Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the same way. This plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behaviour conforms to patterns, or so we like to think. In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a company that began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided the best thing to do would be to buy Gould’s company up, and even though it cost them a hefty sum they had managed to rid themselves of a threatening competitor.
A few months later Gould started up an identical new company and the same thing happened. Soon after this he did it again for a third time, but this time he went for the jugular and staged an aggressive takeover and managed to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern and had tricked the company’s directors into thinking his goal was to be bought out at a handsome rate, and after they had done this a second time they relaxed and failed to notice he was actually after taking over their company. The pattern strategy is powerful in that it deceived the other person into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.
Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality – the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you, and the better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War in the 1950’s and 60’s a group of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets, and managed to go undetected for years because they were decent chaps, had gone to all the right expensive schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colours and to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to appear so bland, as it is usually your unreadibility that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
Image: A Sheep’s Skin
A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.
Authority
Have you ever heard of a skilful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plans to the enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those war-like people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)
Reversal
No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. In this case it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or even better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but most wonderful and strangest of all, you will be able to continue your deceptions.
As PT Barnum, the 19th century king of deception, grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey with a few imported buffalo, and publicized the hunt as genuine. However it came off as totally fake, but instead of getting angry and demanding their money back, the crowd were highly amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time and loved him for it, and from this Barnum learned a lesson and stopped concealing all of his devices, even revealing the secrets of some of his deceptions in his autobiography.
Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when a colourful, conspicuous gesture is the right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of 17th and 18th century Europe used humour and entertainment to deceive their audiences, and dazzled by the great show, the audience would not notice the charlatan’s real intentions. Thus the star charlatan would appear in town in a black night-coach drawn by black horses, and clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people into his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions.
Spectacle and entertainment are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely, as the public will quickly catch on to the trick, and indeed the charlatans used to move regularly from town to town looking for new victims before people realised the potions were useless.
Powerful people with bland exteriors however can practice the same deceptions throughout their lifetimes in the same place, and their act will never wear thin and rarely cause suspicion. The colourful smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when the occasion is right.
My Opinion
This law, especially part 2 on smoke screens, is just pure deception. If you take the advice given in this law you are basically a con-man taking advantage of people and deserve everything you get if hopefully you get caught out.
This law is just trying to teach people how to be underhand and snide in their dealings to get whatever they want, at whatever the cost. Following this law might get you what you want, but when people figure you out, which they will do in the end, you’ll be a very lonely person.
Law 3 – Conceal Your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you’re up to, they cannot prepare a defence. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelop them in enough smoke, and by the time they realise your intentions, it will be too late.
Part 1 – Use Decoyed Objects Of Desire And Red Herrings To Throw People Off The Scent
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, all is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine from the false, they cannot pick out your real goal.
Transgression Of The Law
Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of 17th century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigne explained his struggles in pursuing a beautiful but difficult young countess. Ninon was 62 and experienced, the marquis was 22 and hopeless in romance. Finally, unable to bear his ineptitude in seducing a woman, she decided to take the marquis under her wing, and explained the first step to seduction was that every step had to be planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail.
Ninon told the marquis to approach the countess with a bit of distance and an air of nonchalance, saying the next time the two were alone together he would confide in the countess as a friend but not as a potential lover. The reason for this was to throw the countess off the scent, as she would no longer be able to take his interest for granted – maybe he was only interested in friendship and nothing more?
Ninon then planned ahead. Once the countess was confused as to whether the marquis wanted her as a friend or as a lover, it would be time to make her jealous. At their next encounter she had the marquis show up with a beautiful young woman at his side, who also had equally beautiful friends, so when the countess saw him he would be surrounded by the most stunning women in Paris. Now not only would the countess be seething with jealousy, but she would also see him as someone who is desired by others, and this instant value he gained would make it all the more satisfying for the countess to snatch him from their clutches.
When the countess became intrigued, it was now time to beguile her. Ninon told the marquis to fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him, and then suddenly appear at places he had never been seen before but that the countess attended. This would have the effect of pushing her into a state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.
Over the next several weeks this is what he did, and Ninon’s friends reported back to her that the countess was taking a closer interest in the marquis, laughing harder at his jokes, listening closely at his stories, and asking questions about him. She was also following him around the room, and Ninon felt that in a month or so she would succumb to him.
A few days later the marquis was alone with the countess at her home. Rather than acting on the instructions given to him he acted on impulse, took the countess’s hand, and told her he loved her. The young woman became confused, a reaction he didn’t expect, and excused herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided him and did not say goodbye when he left. The next few times he visited he was told she was not at home, and when they finally came into contact again the two felt very uncomfortable and awkward around each other. The spell was broken.
Interpretation
Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. Some of the greatest men of her time had been her lover, and as her reputation grew the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in matters of love. Ninon knew that men and women are different, but that when it comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along.
Everything in seduction depends on suggestion. You cannot announce your intentions or reveal them directly in words, instead you must throw your target off the scent. You have to scramble your signals – appear to be interested in another man or woman as a decoy, then hint at being interested in your target, then feign indifference, and repeat. Such patterns will not only confuse your target, it will excite them as well.
From the countess’s perspective after a few moves she sensed the marquis was playing a game but it delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her, and his moves intrigued her, each one keeping her waiting for the next one. Perhaps the marquis had ulterior motives, but she was willing to wait and see.
The moment the marquis revealed his true feelings everything changed. It was no longer a game, just a pure show of passion, and his intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put everything he’d done in the past into a new light, and all he’d done now seemed ugly and conniving. The countess felt embarrassed and used, and the door was closed on any possible romance between the two of them.
“Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one. Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.” (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Observance Of The Law
In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, a 35 year old deputy in the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of the day were the unification of the many states into which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful neighbour to the south that kept the Germans weak and threatened to stop Germany trying to reunite. Prince William, next in line to be the Prussian king, was in favour of war, and parliament backed him, but the current king, Frederick William 4th, and his ministers preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.
Throughout his career Bismarck had been a loyal and passionate supporter of Prussian might and power, dreaming of German unification and going to war against Austria. He then stunned everybody by giving a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever by talking of the madness of war, and strangest of all praised Austria and defended her actions, which went against everything he had stood for. The consequences of this speech were immediate. Bismarck was against the war – what could this mean? A number of people now changed their vote on going to war from yes to no and the war was averted.
A few weeks after Bismarck’s speech the king, grateful that he had spoken for peace, made Bismarck a cabinet minister. A few years later he became the Prussian premier, and in this role he led his country and king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.
Interpretation
At the time of his speech in 1850 Bismarck sensed that the Prussian military was not ready for war and that a defeat by Austria would be the end of Prussia. He also knew that if he supported a war and it was lost he would be ruined. The king wanted peace, Bismarck wanted power, so the answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause he detested. It was because of the speech he made that the king made him a cabinet minister, where he rose to become Prime Minister, attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplishing what he had wanted all along – the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia’s leadership.
Bismarck was a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to, and had he announced his real intentions of making peace now and fighting later he would have lost the argument as most Prussians wanted war and mistakenly believed the Prussian army was superior to the Austrian one. Had he played up to the king and asked to be made a cabinet minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would not have succeeded as the king would have distrusted his ambition and doubted his sincerity.
By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.
Keys To Power
Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions. They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to want to talk about your feelings and plans for the future, and much harder to hold your tongue and control what you want to reveal.
Second, by opening up people believe they are winning people’s hearts and showing their good nature, but they are deluded, and honesty is a blunt instrument which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what they want to hear rather than the ugly truth of what you really feel and think. Most importantly, by being open you make yourself predictable and familiar and it becomes almost impossible to respect or fear you, and power will not come to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.
If you yearn for power you need to put honesty to one side and train yourself to conceal your true intentions, as our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and hear as it would exhaust and terrify us, and this fact makes it relatively easy to conceal your intentions. All you need to do is to dangle an object you seem to desire in front of people’s eyes and they will take it as reality, and once you have achieved this they will focus on this decoy and fail to notice what you are really up to. In the case of seduction, set up conflicting signals, such as desire and then indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you also inflame their desire to possess you.
A tactic that is effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments. Most people will believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is unusual to play so lightly with something as precious as your opinions and values. The same applied for any decoyed object or desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will be thrown off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.
During the War of the Spanish succession, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort that protected a vital through passage that led deeper into France. He knew that if he went and destroyed it the French would immediately realise what he wanted to do – to get down that road. What he did instead was to capture the fort and garrison it with some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it to use as his own. The French attacked the fort and the duke let then recapture it, and thinking that the duke wanted it for some important tactical reason they destroyed it. The way was now clear for the duke and his troops to march further on into France.
Use this tactic as follows: Hide your intentions not by closing up and going all secretive, which will make people suspicious, but talk endlessly about your goals and desires – just not your real ones. In this way you appear friendly, open, and trusting, you conceal your real intentions, and you send your rivals on a wild goose chase.
Another powerful took used to throw people off the scent is false sincerity, as people easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words great weight, and this is how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over people’s eyes. He seemed to believe so deeply in the decoyed object he was dangling in front of his victims, such as phoney stock, that he made its reality hard to doubt. It is of vital importance however not to go over the top, as doing so will raise suspicions. Be measured and keep it believable otherwise your ruse will appear as the put-on that it really is.
To back up your false sincerity make sure that people believe that you believe honesty and openness are important social values, doing it as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this by occasionally giving away some heartfelt thought, though one that is meaningless and irrelevant.
Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their sinister qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely a another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
Part 2 – Use Smoke Screens To Disguise Your Actions
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen of smoke to distract people’s attention from your real purpose. The bland exterior – like the unreadable poker face – if often the perfect smoke screen, hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won’t catch on when you lead him into a trap.
Observance Of The Law 1
In 1910, Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for $1 million and settled down into semi-retirement managing his many properties, but deep down he still yearned for the old days of deal making. One day a young man named Joseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy an apartment that was for sale. Geezil explained the terms – the price was £8,000 with a deposit of $2,000, and Weil said he would sleep on it.
The next day Weil came back and said he could pay the full $8,000 in cash if he could have a couple more days until a deal he was working on came through. Geezil was of course curious as to how Weil could come up with so much cash (about $200,000 today) so quickly, but Weil was reluctant to say and quickly changed the subject. Geezil’s curiosity wouldn’t let go however, and after persisting Weil told him the following story.
Weil’s uncle was the secretary to a group of multi-millionaire financiers, and 10 years ago they had purchased a hunting lodge in Michigan at a cheap price. They had not bothered to use the lodge for a few years and so had decided to sell it, and had turned to Weil’s uncle to get whatever he could for it. For reasons of his own, which were not disclosed, Weil’s uncle had been nursing a grudge against the financiers for a number of years, and this was his chance to get back at them.
The plan was to sell the property for $35,000 to a set-up man, whom it was Weil’s job to find, and as the financiers were so wealthy they wouldn’t be worried about this low price. The set-up man would then re-sell the lodge for its true price, around $155,000, and the $120,000 profit would be split 3 ways between Weil, his uncle, and the set-up man. What they were doing was all legal and above board and all in the name of a good cause – the uncle’s revenge.
Geezil immediately jumped at the chance to be the set-up buyer. Weil was reluctant, but Geezil would not back down, as the idea of a large profit and the return to a little adventure was too good to miss. Weil explained that to pull the deal off Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash, and being a millionaire Geezil said he could get the money with a snap of his fingers. Weil finally gave in and arranged a meeting between his uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in Galesburg, Illinois.
On the train ride there Geezil met the uncle – an impressive man with whom he enthusiastically discussed business with. Weil also brought along a man called George Gross, and explained that he was a boxing trainer and Gross was one of his up and coming fighters who he had asked to come along so they could continue his training regime. Geezil noticed that for an up and coming boxer Gross was unimpressive – overweight and scruffy and with greying hair, but he was so excited about the deal he didn’t think any more about it.
When they got to Galesburg Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who changed into his boxing trunks and began shadow boxing. With his mind on the deal, Geezil noticed that after only a few minutes Gross was wheezing but again didn’t give it another thought. An hour later Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive looking group wearing expensive suits and carrying an air of authority. The meeting went perfectly, and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil for $35,000, who said he had already had the money wired to a local bank.
The business now being settled, the men all sat back into their armchairs and began some informal chatting about high finance, throwing in the name JP Morgan as if he were a personal friend of theirs. Finally one of them noticed the boxer sitting on his own in the corner of the room, and Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier replied that he too had a boxer in his entourage and named him, and Weil arrogantly laughed and said that his boxer could easily knock out the financier’s boxer. The conversation got heated, and ended with Weil challenging the financier to a $50,000 bet, which he accepted and then left to get his man ready for the fight the next day.
As soon as the financiers had left, the uncle started screaming at Weil, right in front of Geezil. They didn’t have enough money to cover the bet, and if the financiers found out he would be fired. Weil apologized profusely for getting his uncle into this situation, but said that he knew the other boxer well and with a little bribe could fix the fight. The uncle replied this was all well and good but where would they get the money from?
At this point Geezil jumped in, and unwilling to jeopardize his deal with the financiers offered his own $35,000 cash to cover part of the bet. Weil and his uncle thanked him, and said that with their own $15,000 they would be able to cover the whole of the bet. That night Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in the hotel room, his mind hardly believing the killing he was going to make from the lodge and fixed boxing match.
The fight took place the next day in a gym. Weil handled the cash, and everything proceeded as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at the way their man was performing, and Geezil was dreaming of the easy money he was about to make. Suddenly however the financier’s boxer made a wild swing and hit Gross hard in the face, after which he fell down to the canvas and banged his head, resulting in blood spurting out of his mouth and him laying motionless on the floor.
One of the financiers, a retired doctor, jumped into the ring to check on Gross, and then stated he was dead. The millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out now before the police arrived as they could all be charged with murder. A terrified Geezil fled the gym and went straight back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000, which he was only too glad to forget to avoid being implicated in a murder. He never wanted to see Weil, his uncle, the financiers, or the boxers again.
After Geezil has fled, Gross got up, and removed a plastic bag from his cheek that had been filled with chicken’s blood mixed with hot water. The whole scam had been masterminded by Weil, better known as “The Yellow Kid”, and one of the most creative con artists in history. The $35,000 was split between Weil, his uncle, the “financiers”, and the “boxers” (all fellow con artists of course), which wasn’t a bad return for a few days work.
Interpretation
The Yellow Kid had been staking out Geezil long before he set up the con. He knew the boxing match scam would be a perfect ruse to separate Geezil from his money permanently, but he also knew that to try and interest him in a boxing match would have failed miserably. He needed something to conceal his real intentions, and came up with the idea of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil’s mind had been completely occupied with the impending deal, the easy money resulting from it, and the chance to hobnob with wealthy men who knew JP Morgan personally. Such is the power of the smoke screen, even though in passing he had noticed Gross was a poor specimen for a boxer he hadn’t given it a second thought as he was so focused on the lodge deal.
Once the boxing match scam had been set up it was too late for Geezil to back out but now the match, after all, had been fixed and Geezil thought he couldn’t lose. When Gross had been declared “dead” by the retired doctor financier he was so distracted again that he completely forgot about his money and just wanted to stop himself from going to jail for a long time.
Learn from The Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the perfect smoke screen. Approach your victim with an idea that seems ordinary enough, such as a financial deal, to distract his mind and calm his suspicions. Once this is done you gently guide him onto your second path, down the slippery slope into your awaiting trap.
Keys To Power
If you believe that deceivers are colourful folk who mislead with elaborate lies and tales you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers use a bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves, as they know that extravagant words and gestures immediately raise suspicion. In The Yellow Kid’s dealing with Geezil, the familiar was a business deal.
Once you have lulled your target’s attention with the familiar, they will not notice the deception going on behind their backs. This derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It is too difficult for them to imagine that the bland person they are dealing with is setting up something else.
The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland, unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned without detection. Henry Kissinger used this tactic and would bore his opponents around the negotiating table with his monotonous voice, blank look, and endless repeating of the same details. As soon as he sensed they were losing interest he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms, and caught off-guard they would be easily intimidated.
As an adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on distraction and misdirection. One of the most effective is the noble gesture, as people want to believe these are genuine and rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be. The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for his paintings were running out of wall space and with inheritance tax getting higher and higher it seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. In 1937 Duveen hit upon the idea of creating a National Gallery in Washington DC, and got Andrew Mellon to donate his large collection to it.
The National Gallery was the perfect front for Duveen, as in one noble gesture he had helped his clients to avoid paying inheritance tax on the paintings, cleared their wall space for them to buy more paintings, and reduced the number of paintings that were on the market, pushing up the prices of the ones that were. He also increased the collectors reputations as they were opening up their collections for all to see.
Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the same way. This plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behaviour conforms to patterns, or so we like to think. In 1878 the American robber baron Jay Gould created a company that began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union. The directors of Western Union decided the best thing to do would be to buy Gould’s company up, and even though it cost them a hefty sum they had managed to rid themselves of a threatening competitor.
A few months later Gould started up an identical new company and the same thing happened. Soon after this he did it again for a third time, but this time he went for the jugular and staged an aggressive takeover and managed to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern and had tricked the company’s directors into thinking his goal was to be bought out at a handsome rate, and after they had done this a second time they relaxed and failed to notice he was actually after taking over their company. The pattern strategy is powerful in that it deceived the other person into expecting the opposite of what you are really doing.
Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality – the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you, and the better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War in the 1950’s and 60’s a group of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets, and managed to go undetected for years because they were decent chaps, had gone to all the right expensive schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colours and to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to appear so bland, as it is usually your unreadibility that draws people to you and makes you appear a person of power.
Image: A Sheep’s Skin
A sheep never marauds, a sheep never deceives, a sheep is dumb and docile. With a sheepskin on his back, a fox can pass right into the chicken coop.
Authority
Have you ever heard of a skilful general, who intends to surprise a citadel, announcing his plans to the enemy? Conceal your purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those war-like people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)
Reversal
No smoke screen, red herring, false sincerity, or any other diversionary device will succeed in concealing your intentions if you already have an established reputation for deception. And as you get older and achieve success, it becomes increasingly difficult to disguise your cunning. In this case it is better to own up, to appear the honest rogue, or even better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired for your frankness, but most wonderful and strangest of all, you will be able to continue your deceptions.
As PT Barnum, the 19th century king of deception, grew older, he learned to embrace his reputation as a grand deceiver. At one point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jersey with a few imported buffalo, and publicized the hunt as genuine. However it came off as totally fake, but instead of getting angry and demanding their money back, the crowd were highly amused. They knew Barnum pulled tricks all the time and loved him for it, and from this Barnum learned a lesson and stopped concealing all of his devices, even revealing the secrets of some of his deceptions in his autobiography.
Finally, although it is wiser to divert attention from your purposes by presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when a colourful, conspicuous gesture is the right diversionary tactic. The great charlatan mountebanks of 17th and 18th century Europe used humour and entertainment to deceive their audiences, and dazzled by the great show, the audience would not notice the charlatan’s real intentions. Thus the star charlatan would appear in town in a black night-coach drawn by black horses, and clowns, tightrope walkers, and star entertainers would accompany him, pulling people into his demonstrations of elixirs and quack potions.
Spectacle and entertainment are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely, as the public will quickly catch on to the trick, and indeed the charlatans used to move regularly from town to town looking for new victims before people realised the potions were useless.
Powerful people with bland exteriors however can practice the same deceptions throughout their lifetimes in the same place, and their act will never wear thin and rarely cause suspicion. The colourful smoke screen should be used cautiously, then, and only when the occasion is right.
My Opinion
This law, especially part 2 on smoke screens, is just pure deception. If you take the advice given in this law you are basically a con-man taking advantage of people and deserve everything you get if hopefully you get caught out.
This law is just trying to teach people how to be underhand and snide in their dealings to get whatever they want, at whatever the cost. Following this law might get you what you want, but when people figure you out, which they will do in the end, you’ll be a very lonely person.