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Law 11 – Learn To Keep People Dependant On You
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Transgression Of The Law
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (a condottiere) saved the town on Siena from a foreign aggressor, and the citizens of the town were trying to decide how to reward him. No amount of money or honour could compare in value to the preservation of a city’s liberty, so they decided to kill him and worship him as the city’s patrol saint.
The Count of Carmagnola was one of the bravest and most successful of the condottiere, and in 1442, late on in his life, he was employed by the city of Venice, which had long been at war with the city of Florence. One day he was recalled to Venice, and was received by the people there will honour and splendour, and that evening he was to dine with the doge himself, in the doge’s palace.
On the way to the palace, however, he noticed that the guards were leading him in a different direction from usual, and when they crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs, he suddenly realized they were taking him to the dungeon. He was convicted of dubious charges and the next day in the Piazza San Marco, before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had suddenly changed so drastically, he was beheaded.
Interpretation
Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered the same fate as these two men – they won battle after battle for their employers only to find themselves banished, imprisoned, and usually executed. The problem here is not ingratitude, it was that there were so many more condottieri as able and as valiant as they were. They were replaceable, and nothing was lost by killing them. As they grew older and won more battles their power had increased, and they wanted more money for their services. Their employees thought it would be much better to do away with them and hire younger, equally skilled mercenaries, for a much cheaper price, so that it what they did.
This is the fate (to a less violent degree) of those who do not make others dependant on them. Sooner or later someone comes along who can do the job just as well as they can – someone younger, fresher, less expensive, and less threatening to the employer. You need to make sure that you are the only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of those who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly get rid of you, otherwise sooner or later you will be forced to cross your own Bridge of Sighs.
Observance Of The Law
When Otto von Bismarck became a deputy in the Prussian parliament in 1847, he was 32 years old and had no allies or friends. Looking at the people now around him, he decided that the side to ally himself with was not the parliament’s liberals or conservatives, nor any particular minister, but the King, Frederick William 4th. This was a very odd choice, as the kind was at a low point in his power, was a weak and indecisive man, and stood for much the Bismarck disliked, both personally and politically. Yet Bismarck courted Frederick day and night, and when people attacked him for his ineptness, only Bismarck stood by him.
Finally it all paid off, and in 1851 Bismarck was made a minister in the king’s cabinet. Now he went to work, forcing the king’s hand to do what Bismarck wanted, getting him to build up the military and stand up to the liberals. He worked on the king’s insecurities, challenging him to be firm with people and to rule with pride, and the king’s power slowly increased until once again he was the most powerful force in Prussia.
When Frederick died in 1861 his brother William assumed the throne. William hated Bismarck and had no intention of keeping him around, but he had inherited the same problem his brother had – enemies galore who wanted to chip away at his power. At one point things got so bad that he considered abdicating, but Bismarck was waiting in the wings again.
He stood by the new king and urged him into firm and decisive action, and the king soon became dependant on Bismarck’s strong-arm tactics to keep his enemies at bay, and even though he intensely disliked the man he soon made Bismarck his new prime minister. The two often quarrelled over policy, as Bismarck was much more conservative than the king, but each time Bismarck threatened to resign the king gave into him as he knew he couldn’t do without him, and it was in fact Bismarck, and not the king, who was now setting state policy.
Years later Bismarck’s actions as prime minster led the various German states to be united into one country, and now Bismarck convinced the king to crown himself emperor of Germany. Even though by title William was the most powerful man in Germany, it was really Bismarck who was the most powerful in reality. As the right-hand man of the emperor, and as imperial chancellor and knighted prince, Bismarck was the one who pulled all the levers.
Interpretation
Most young and ambitious politicians looking out at the political landscape of 1840’s Germany would have tried to build a power base among those who had the most power. Bismarck had other ideas however, as joining forces with the powerful can be foolish, as they will swallow you up, just as the doge of Venice did with the Count of Carmagnola. No-one will come to depend on you if they are already strong, so if you are ambitious it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You become their strength and their intelligence, and hold a huge amount of power, as if they get rid of you they would collapse.
Necessity rules the world, and people rarely act unless compelled to do so, and if you create no need for yourself then you will be done away with at the first opportunity. On the other hand if you make others dependant on you for their welfare, if you can counteract their weaknesses with your own “iron and blood,”, then you will survive your masters as Bismarck did, and you will have all the benefits of power without the hassles that come from being a master.
“Thus a wise prince will think of ways to keep his citizens of every sort and under every circumstance dependant on the state and on him; and then they will always be trustworthy.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)
Keys To Power
The ultimate power is to get people to do as you wish. When you can do this without having to force people or to hurt them, they will grant you what you desire, and your power is untouchable, and the best way to achieve this is to create a relationship of dependence. The master required your services, as he is weak, or unable to function without you, and you have enmeshed yourself with him so deeply that doing away with you would bring him great difficulties.
Once such a relationship is established you have the upper hand, the leverage to make your master do as you wish. Bismarck did not have to bully either Frederick or William into doing his bidding, he simply made it clear that unless he got what he wanted he would walk away, leaving the king at the mercy of his enemies, and soon both kings were dancing to Bismarck’s tune.
Do not be one of the many people who mistakenly believe that the ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a relationship between people, and you will always need others as allies, pawns, or even weak masters who serve as your front. The completely independent man would live in a cabin deep in the woods, he would have total freedom to come and go as he wished, but he would have no power. The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence – their need for you frees you.
Louis 11th (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer, who he would consult on a daily basis, and admired him greatly, until one day he predicted that a lady of the court would die within 8 days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that the astrologer had either murdered the lady to prove his accuracy in predicting the future, or that he was such an expert in his field that he threatened Louis himself. In either case Louis decided that he had to be killed.
One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in his castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal, they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window, and throw him out, hundreds of feet to the ground. The astrologer arrived, but before giving the signal Louis decided to ask him one more question: “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”
The astrologer replied, “I shall die just 3 days before Your Majesty”, the king’s signal was never given, and the astrologer’s life was spared. Louis not only protected the astrologer for as long as he was alive, but also he had him lavished with the finest of gifts and had him tended to by the finest doctors in the land. The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his prophecy that he would die three days before the king, but proving that he was a master of power.
This is the model Make others dependent on you, as to get rid of you might mean disaster, even death, and your master dares not tempt fate by finding out if this is true or not. There are many ways to obtain such a position, and foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced.
During the Renaissance, the major obstacle to an artist’s success was finding the right patron. Michelangelo did this better than anyone else, as his patron was Pope Julius 2nd, but they quarrelled over the pope’s marble tomb and Michelangelo left Rome in disgust. To everyone’s amazement not only did the pope not fire Michelangelo, but he sought him out and begged the artists to return to Rome, as he knew that Michelangelo could easily find another patron, but the pope would never be able to find another Michelangelo.
You do not have to have the talent of Michelangelo, but you do have to have a skill that sets you apart from the crowd. You should create a situation in which you can always latch onto another master or patron, but your master or patron cannot find another person with your particular talent, and if you are not indispensible you need to find a way to make it look like you are. Having the appearance of a specialist skill or knowledge gives you leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking that they cannot do without you, and real dependence on your master’s part leaves him more vulnerable to you than the faked variety, and it is always within your power to make your skills indispensible.
This is what is meant by the intertwining of fates: Like creeping ivy, you have wrapped yourself around the source of power, so that it would cause great trauma to cut you away. And you do not necessarily have to entwine yourself around the master – any person will do, so long as he or she too is indispensible in the chain.
One day in 1951 Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, was visited in his office by a gloomy group of his executives. This was the year of the famous witch-hunt against Communists in Hollywood, carried out by the US Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee. The executives had bad news, as one of their screenwriters, John Howard Lawson, had been singled out as a Communist, so they had to get rid of him or feel the wrath of the committee.
Harry Cohn was no liberal, and was in fact a die-hard Republican. His favourite politician was Benito Mussolini, who he had met in the past, and whose framed photo took pride of place behind Cohn on his office wall, but to the executive’s amazement Cohn refused to fire Lawson. He didn’t keep the screenwriter on because he was a superb writer, and anyway there were hundreds of excellent screenwriters in Hollywood, he kept him on because he was Humphrey Bogart’s writer, and Bogart was Columbia’s star man. If Cohn fired Lawson he would ruin a hugely successful and profitable relationship, and that was worth infinitely more to him than the bad publicity that would come about when people found out he refused to fire Lawson.
Henry Kissinger managed to survive in the Nixon White House not because he was the best diplomat that Nixon could find, nor because the two got on so well, nor was it because they shared the same political ideologies, as there were diplomats just as good as Kissinger, Nixon and Kissinger didn’t get on with each other, and they shared different political ideologies. The reason Kissinger survived was because he had entrenched himself in so many areas of the political structure that to get rid of him would have caused instant chaos.
Michelangelo’s power was intensive, and depended on one skill, his ability as an artist, where as Kissinger’s was extensive, as he had gotten himself deeply involved in a wide range of affairs that his involvement became a card in his hand. It also made him many allies, and if you can also get yourself into this position then getting rid of you becomes extremely dangerous, as all sorts of interdependencies will unravel. The intensive form of power, however, is much more powerful than the extensive, because those who have it depend on no particular master, or position of power, for their security.
To make others dependent on you, one route you can take is the secret-intelligence tactic, as by knowing other people’s secrets, by holding information that other people don’t want broadcast, you seal your fate with theirs, and are untouchable. Ministers of secret police have held this position for centuries, and they can make or break a king in an instant, or, in the case of J Edgar Hoover, a president. But the role is so full of insecurities and paranoia that the power it provides almost cancels itself out, you cannot rest at ease, and what good is power if it brings you no peace?
One last warning – do not imagine that your master’s dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you, but as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved, as you can control fear but never control love. Depending on an emotion as subtle and changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure, so it is better to have others depend on you out of the fear of the consequences of losing you than out of the love of your company.
Image: Vines With Many Thorns
Below, the roots grow deep and wide. Above, the vines push through bushes, entwine themselves around trees and poles and window ledges. To get rid of them would cost such toil and blood, it is easier to let them climb.
Authority
Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst, immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever in need of you. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Reversal
The weakness of making others dependent on you is that you are in some measure dependent on them, but trying to move beyond that point means getting rid of those above you – it means standing alone, depending on no-one. Such is the monopolistic drive of a JP Morgan or a John D Rockefeller, who aim to drive out all competition, and to be in complete control. If you can corner the market, so much the better.
No such independence comes without a price, as you are forced to isolate yourself. Monopolies often turn inwards and destroy themselves from the internal pressure, and they also stir up powerful resentment, making their enemies join together to fight them, and the drive for complete control is often ruinous and fruitless. Interdependence remains the law, and independence is often a rare and fatal exception.
It is better therefore to place yourself in a position of mutual dependence, and to follow this critical law rather than look for its reversal, as you will not have the unbearable pressure of being on top, and the master above you will in effect be your slave, for he will depend on you.
My Opinion
In one of my previous jobs there was a woman in the office who could literally do everyone else’s job, as she had worked for the company for well over 20 years and knew the ins and outs of it like the back of her hand. She was in a middle-management position, and had aspirations of moving up to a senior management position, but whenever she applied for a promotion was always knocked back, even though she was perfect for the job.
Everyone knew why – it was because to move her from her current job would mean that the office where she currently worked would find it extremely difficult to run as it currently was without her, and eventually she got fed up and made it known that she was looking for a job with another company.
Within a week a restructuring exercise had taken place, and even though she remained in the office where she currently was she was given much more responsibility and a hefty pay rise, and everyone knew that the news of her intending to move to another company had filtered through to the senior management, who knew they couldn’t do without her, so they had in effect created a new role for her so that she would be satisfied and stay with the company, which she did.
The tone of the Law is again one of coercion and manipulation which is wrong. If people become dependent on you then you should take it as a compliment and do good for them instead of trying to manipulate them with the fear of leaving them in the lurch, and if you don’t want the burden of someone being dependent on you then you should either teach them how to become independent, or, if that’s not possible, move them onto someone who is willing to take on the responsibility.
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Transgression Of The Law
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (a condottiere) saved the town on Siena from a foreign aggressor, and the citizens of the town were trying to decide how to reward him. No amount of money or honour could compare in value to the preservation of a city’s liberty, so they decided to kill him and worship him as the city’s patrol saint.
The Count of Carmagnola was one of the bravest and most successful of the condottiere, and in 1442, late on in his life, he was employed by the city of Venice, which had long been at war with the city of Florence. One day he was recalled to Venice, and was received by the people there will honour and splendour, and that evening he was to dine with the doge himself, in the doge’s palace.
On the way to the palace, however, he noticed that the guards were leading him in a different direction from usual, and when they crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs, he suddenly realized they were taking him to the dungeon. He was convicted of dubious charges and the next day in the Piazza San Marco, before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had suddenly changed so drastically, he was beheaded.
Interpretation
Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered the same fate as these two men – they won battle after battle for their employers only to find themselves banished, imprisoned, and usually executed. The problem here is not ingratitude, it was that there were so many more condottieri as able and as valiant as they were. They were replaceable, and nothing was lost by killing them. As they grew older and won more battles their power had increased, and they wanted more money for their services. Their employees thought it would be much better to do away with them and hire younger, equally skilled mercenaries, for a much cheaper price, so that it what they did.
This is the fate (to a less violent degree) of those who do not make others dependant on them. Sooner or later someone comes along who can do the job just as well as they can – someone younger, fresher, less expensive, and less threatening to the employer. You need to make sure that you are the only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of those who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly get rid of you, otherwise sooner or later you will be forced to cross your own Bridge of Sighs.
Observance Of The Law
When Otto von Bismarck became a deputy in the Prussian parliament in 1847, he was 32 years old and had no allies or friends. Looking at the people now around him, he decided that the side to ally himself with was not the parliament’s liberals or conservatives, nor any particular minister, but the King, Frederick William 4th. This was a very odd choice, as the kind was at a low point in his power, was a weak and indecisive man, and stood for much the Bismarck disliked, both personally and politically. Yet Bismarck courted Frederick day and night, and when people attacked him for his ineptness, only Bismarck stood by him.
Finally it all paid off, and in 1851 Bismarck was made a minister in the king’s cabinet. Now he went to work, forcing the king’s hand to do what Bismarck wanted, getting him to build up the military and stand up to the liberals. He worked on the king’s insecurities, challenging him to be firm with people and to rule with pride, and the king’s power slowly increased until once again he was the most powerful force in Prussia.
When Frederick died in 1861 his brother William assumed the throne. William hated Bismarck and had no intention of keeping him around, but he had inherited the same problem his brother had – enemies galore who wanted to chip away at his power. At one point things got so bad that he considered abdicating, but Bismarck was waiting in the wings again.
He stood by the new king and urged him into firm and decisive action, and the king soon became dependant on Bismarck’s strong-arm tactics to keep his enemies at bay, and even though he intensely disliked the man he soon made Bismarck his new prime minister. The two often quarrelled over policy, as Bismarck was much more conservative than the king, but each time Bismarck threatened to resign the king gave into him as he knew he couldn’t do without him, and it was in fact Bismarck, and not the king, who was now setting state policy.
Years later Bismarck’s actions as prime minster led the various German states to be united into one country, and now Bismarck convinced the king to crown himself emperor of Germany. Even though by title William was the most powerful man in Germany, it was really Bismarck who was the most powerful in reality. As the right-hand man of the emperor, and as imperial chancellor and knighted prince, Bismarck was the one who pulled all the levers.
Interpretation
Most young and ambitious politicians looking out at the political landscape of 1840’s Germany would have tried to build a power base among those who had the most power. Bismarck had other ideas however, as joining forces with the powerful can be foolish, as they will swallow you up, just as the doge of Venice did with the Count of Carmagnola. No-one will come to depend on you if they are already strong, so if you are ambitious it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You become their strength and their intelligence, and hold a huge amount of power, as if they get rid of you they would collapse.
Necessity rules the world, and people rarely act unless compelled to do so, and if you create no need for yourself then you will be done away with at the first opportunity. On the other hand if you make others dependant on you for their welfare, if you can counteract their weaknesses with your own “iron and blood,”, then you will survive your masters as Bismarck did, and you will have all the benefits of power without the hassles that come from being a master.
“Thus a wise prince will think of ways to keep his citizens of every sort and under every circumstance dependant on the state and on him; and then they will always be trustworthy.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)
Keys To Power
The ultimate power is to get people to do as you wish. When you can do this without having to force people or to hurt them, they will grant you what you desire, and your power is untouchable, and the best way to achieve this is to create a relationship of dependence. The master required your services, as he is weak, or unable to function without you, and you have enmeshed yourself with him so deeply that doing away with you would bring him great difficulties.
Once such a relationship is established you have the upper hand, the leverage to make your master do as you wish. Bismarck did not have to bully either Frederick or William into doing his bidding, he simply made it clear that unless he got what he wanted he would walk away, leaving the king at the mercy of his enemies, and soon both kings were dancing to Bismarck’s tune.
Do not be one of the many people who mistakenly believe that the ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a relationship between people, and you will always need others as allies, pawns, or even weak masters who serve as your front. The completely independent man would live in a cabin deep in the woods, he would have total freedom to come and go as he wished, but he would have no power. The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence – their need for you frees you.
Louis 11th (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer, who he would consult on a daily basis, and admired him greatly, until one day he predicted that a lady of the court would die within 8 days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that the astrologer had either murdered the lady to prove his accuracy in predicting the future, or that he was such an expert in his field that he threatened Louis himself. In either case Louis decided that he had to be killed.
One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in his castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal, they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window, and throw him out, hundreds of feet to the ground. The astrologer arrived, but before giving the signal Louis decided to ask him one more question: “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”
The astrologer replied, “I shall die just 3 days before Your Majesty”, the king’s signal was never given, and the astrologer’s life was spared. Louis not only protected the astrologer for as long as he was alive, but also he had him lavished with the finest of gifts and had him tended to by the finest doctors in the land. The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his prophecy that he would die three days before the king, but proving that he was a master of power.
This is the model Make others dependent on you, as to get rid of you might mean disaster, even death, and your master dares not tempt fate by finding out if this is true or not. There are many ways to obtain such a position, and foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced.
During the Renaissance, the major obstacle to an artist’s success was finding the right patron. Michelangelo did this better than anyone else, as his patron was Pope Julius 2nd, but they quarrelled over the pope’s marble tomb and Michelangelo left Rome in disgust. To everyone’s amazement not only did the pope not fire Michelangelo, but he sought him out and begged the artists to return to Rome, as he knew that Michelangelo could easily find another patron, but the pope would never be able to find another Michelangelo.
You do not have to have the talent of Michelangelo, but you do have to have a skill that sets you apart from the crowd. You should create a situation in which you can always latch onto another master or patron, but your master or patron cannot find another person with your particular talent, and if you are not indispensible you need to find a way to make it look like you are. Having the appearance of a specialist skill or knowledge gives you leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking that they cannot do without you, and real dependence on your master’s part leaves him more vulnerable to you than the faked variety, and it is always within your power to make your skills indispensible.
This is what is meant by the intertwining of fates: Like creeping ivy, you have wrapped yourself around the source of power, so that it would cause great trauma to cut you away. And you do not necessarily have to entwine yourself around the master – any person will do, so long as he or she too is indispensible in the chain.
One day in 1951 Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, was visited in his office by a gloomy group of his executives. This was the year of the famous witch-hunt against Communists in Hollywood, carried out by the US Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee. The executives had bad news, as one of their screenwriters, John Howard Lawson, had been singled out as a Communist, so they had to get rid of him or feel the wrath of the committee.
Harry Cohn was no liberal, and was in fact a die-hard Republican. His favourite politician was Benito Mussolini, who he had met in the past, and whose framed photo took pride of place behind Cohn on his office wall, but to the executive’s amazement Cohn refused to fire Lawson. He didn’t keep the screenwriter on because he was a superb writer, and anyway there were hundreds of excellent screenwriters in Hollywood, he kept him on because he was Humphrey Bogart’s writer, and Bogart was Columbia’s star man. If Cohn fired Lawson he would ruin a hugely successful and profitable relationship, and that was worth infinitely more to him than the bad publicity that would come about when people found out he refused to fire Lawson.
Henry Kissinger managed to survive in the Nixon White House not because he was the best diplomat that Nixon could find, nor because the two got on so well, nor was it because they shared the same political ideologies, as there were diplomats just as good as Kissinger, Nixon and Kissinger didn’t get on with each other, and they shared different political ideologies. The reason Kissinger survived was because he had entrenched himself in so many areas of the political structure that to get rid of him would have caused instant chaos.
Michelangelo’s power was intensive, and depended on one skill, his ability as an artist, where as Kissinger’s was extensive, as he had gotten himself deeply involved in a wide range of affairs that his involvement became a card in his hand. It also made him many allies, and if you can also get yourself into this position then getting rid of you becomes extremely dangerous, as all sorts of interdependencies will unravel. The intensive form of power, however, is much more powerful than the extensive, because those who have it depend on no particular master, or position of power, for their security.
To make others dependent on you, one route you can take is the secret-intelligence tactic, as by knowing other people’s secrets, by holding information that other people don’t want broadcast, you seal your fate with theirs, and are untouchable. Ministers of secret police have held this position for centuries, and they can make or break a king in an instant, or, in the case of J Edgar Hoover, a president. But the role is so full of insecurities and paranoia that the power it provides almost cancels itself out, you cannot rest at ease, and what good is power if it brings you no peace?
One last warning – do not imagine that your master’s dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you, but as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved, as you can control fear but never control love. Depending on an emotion as subtle and changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure, so it is better to have others depend on you out of the fear of the consequences of losing you than out of the love of your company.
Image: Vines With Many Thorns
Below, the roots grow deep and wide. Above, the vines push through bushes, entwine themselves around trees and poles and window ledges. To get rid of them would cost such toil and blood, it is easier to let them climb.
Authority
Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst, immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever in need of you. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Reversal
The weakness of making others dependent on you is that you are in some measure dependent on them, but trying to move beyond that point means getting rid of those above you – it means standing alone, depending on no-one. Such is the monopolistic drive of a JP Morgan or a John D Rockefeller, who aim to drive out all competition, and to be in complete control. If you can corner the market, so much the better.
No such independence comes without a price, as you are forced to isolate yourself. Monopolies often turn inwards and destroy themselves from the internal pressure, and they also stir up powerful resentment, making their enemies join together to fight them, and the drive for complete control is often ruinous and fruitless. Interdependence remains the law, and independence is often a rare and fatal exception.
It is better therefore to place yourself in a position of mutual dependence, and to follow this critical law rather than look for its reversal, as you will not have the unbearable pressure of being on top, and the master above you will in effect be your slave, for he will depend on you.
My Opinion
In one of my previous jobs there was a woman in the office who could literally do everyone else’s job, as she had worked for the company for well over 20 years and knew the ins and outs of it like the back of her hand. She was in a middle-management position, and had aspirations of moving up to a senior management position, but whenever she applied for a promotion was always knocked back, even though she was perfect for the job.
Everyone knew why – it was because to move her from her current job would mean that the office where she currently worked would find it extremely difficult to run as it currently was without her, and eventually she got fed up and made it known that she was looking for a job with another company.
Within a week a restructuring exercise had taken place, and even though she remained in the office where she currently was she was given much more responsibility and a hefty pay rise, and everyone knew that the news of her intending to move to another company had filtered through to the senior management, who knew they couldn’t do without her, so they had in effect created a new role for her so that she would be satisfied and stay with the company, which she did.
The tone of the Law is again one of coercion and manipulation which is wrong. If people become dependent on you then you should take it as a compliment and do good for them instead of trying to manipulate them with the fear of leaving them in the lurch, and if you don’t want the burden of someone being dependent on you then you should either teach them how to become independent, or, if that’s not possible, move them onto someone who is willing to take on the responsibility.
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Law 11 – Learn To Keep People Dependant On You
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Transgression Of The Law
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (a condottiere) saved the town on Siena from a foreign aggressor, and the citizens of the town were trying to decide how to reward him. No amount of money or honour could compare in value to the preservation of a city’s liberty, so they decided to kill him and worship him as the city’s patrol saint.
The Count of Carmagnola was one of the bravest and most successful of the condottiere, and in 1442, late on in his life, he was employed by the city of Venice, which had long been at war with the city of Florence. One day he was recalled to Venice, and was received by the people there will honour and splendour, and that evening he was to dine with the doge himself, in the doge’s palace.
On the way to the palace, however, he noticed that the guards were leading him in a different direction from usual, and when they crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs, he suddenly realized they were taking him to the dungeon. He was convicted of dubious charges and the next day in the Piazza San Marco, before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had suddenly changed so drastically, he was beheaded.
Interpretation
Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered the same fate as these two men – they won battle after battle for their employers only to find themselves banished, imprisoned, and usually executed. The problem here is not ingratitude, it was that there were so many more condottieri as able and as valiant as they were. They were replaceable, and nothing was lost by killing them. As they grew older and won more battles their power had increased, and they wanted more money for their services. Their employees thought it would be much better to do away with them and hire younger, equally skilled mercenaries, for a much cheaper price, so that it what they did.
This is the fate (to a less violent degree) of those who do not make others dependant on them. Sooner or later someone comes along who can do the job just as well as they can – someone younger, fresher, less expensive, and less threatening to the employer. You need to make sure that you are the only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of those who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly get rid of you, otherwise sooner or later you will be forced to cross your own Bridge of Sighs.
Observance Of The Law
When Otto von Bismarck became a deputy in the Prussian parliament in 1847, he was 32 years old and had no allies or friends. Looking at the people now around him, he decided that the side to ally himself with was not the parliament’s liberals or conservatives, nor any particular minister, but the King, Frederick William 4th. This was a very odd choice, as the kind was at a low point in his power, was a weak and indecisive man, and stood for much the Bismarck disliked, both personally and politically. Yet Bismarck courted Frederick day and night, and when people attacked him for his ineptness, only Bismarck stood by him.
Finally it all paid off, and in 1851 Bismarck was made a minister in the king’s cabinet. Now he went to work, forcing the king’s hand to do what Bismarck wanted, getting him to build up the military and stand up to the liberals. He worked on the king’s insecurities, challenging him to be firm with people and to rule with pride, and the king’s power slowly increased until once again he was the most powerful force in Prussia.
When Frederick died in 1861 his brother William assumed the throne. William hated Bismarck and had no intention of keeping him around, but he had inherited the same problem his brother had – enemies galore who wanted to chip away at his power. At one point things got so bad that he considered abdicating, but Bismarck was waiting in the wings again.
He stood by the new king and urged him into firm and decisive action, and the king soon became dependant on Bismarck’s strong-arm tactics to keep his enemies at bay, and even though he intensely disliked the man he soon made Bismarck his new prime minister. The two often quarrelled over policy, as Bismarck was much more conservative than the king, but each time Bismarck threatened to resign the king gave into him as he knew he couldn’t do without him, and it was in fact Bismarck, and not the king, who was now setting state policy.
Years later Bismarck’s actions as prime minster led the various German states to be united into one country, and now Bismarck convinced the king to crown himself emperor of Germany. Even though by title William was the most powerful man in Germany, it was really Bismarck who was the most powerful in reality. As the right-hand man of the emperor, and as imperial chancellor and knighted prince, Bismarck was the one who pulled all the levers.
Interpretation
Most young and ambitious politicians looking out at the political landscape of 1840’s Germany would have tried to build a power base among those who had the most power. Bismarck had other ideas however, as joining forces with the powerful can be foolish, as they will swallow you up, just as the doge of Venice did with the Count of Carmagnola. No-one will come to depend on you if they are already strong, so if you are ambitious it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You become their strength and their intelligence, and hold a huge amount of power, as if they get rid of you they would collapse.
Necessity rules the world, and people rarely act unless compelled to do so, and if you create no need for yourself then you will be done away with at the first opportunity. On the other hand if you make others dependant on you for their welfare, if you can counteract their weaknesses with your own “iron and blood,”, then you will survive your masters as Bismarck did, and you will have all the benefits of power without the hassles that come from being a master.
“Thus a wise prince will think of ways to keep his citizens of every sort and under every circumstance dependant on the state and on him; and then they will always be trustworthy.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)
Keys To Power
The ultimate power is to get people to do as you wish. When you can do this without having to force people or to hurt them, they will grant you what you desire, and your power is untouchable, and the best way to achieve this is to create a relationship of dependence. The master required your services, as he is weak, or unable to function without you, and you have enmeshed yourself with him so deeply that doing away with you would bring him great difficulties.
Once such a relationship is established you have the upper hand, the leverage to make your master do as you wish. Bismarck did not have to bully either Frederick or William into doing his bidding, he simply made it clear that unless he got what he wanted he would walk away, leaving the king at the mercy of his enemies, and soon both kings were dancing to Bismarck’s tune.
Do not be one of the many people who mistakenly believe that the ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a relationship between people, and you will always need others as allies, pawns, or even weak masters who serve as your front. The completely independent man would live in a cabin deep in the woods, he would have total freedom to come and go as he wished, but he would have no power. The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence – their need for you frees you.
Louis 11th (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer, who he would consult on a daily basis, and admired him greatly, until one day he predicted that a lady of the court would die within 8 days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that the astrologer had either murdered the lady to prove his accuracy in predicting the future, or that he was such an expert in his field that he threatened Louis himself. In either case Louis decided that he had to be killed.
One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in his castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal, they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window, and throw him out, hundreds of feet to the ground. The astrologer arrived, but before giving the signal Louis decided to ask him one more question: “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”
The astrologer replied, “I shall die just 3 days before Your Majesty”, the king’s signal was never given, and the astrologer’s life was spared. Louis not only protected the astrologer for as long as he was alive, but also he had him lavished with the finest of gifts and had him tended to by the finest doctors in the land. The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his prophecy that he would die three days before the king, but proving that he was a master of power.
This is the model Make others dependent on you, as to get rid of you might mean disaster, even death, and your master dares not tempt fate by finding out if this is true or not. There are many ways to obtain such a position, and foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced.
During the Renaissance, the major obstacle to an artist’s success was finding the right patron. Michelangelo did this better than anyone else, as his patron was Pope Julius 2nd, but they quarrelled over the pope’s marble tomb and Michelangelo left Rome in disgust. To everyone’s amazement not only did the pope not fire Michelangelo, but he sought him out and begged the artists to return to Rome, as he knew that Michelangelo could easily find another patron, but the pope would never be able to find another Michelangelo.
You do not have to have the talent of Michelangelo, but you do have to have a skill that sets you apart from the crowd. You should create a situation in which you can always latch onto another master or patron, but your master or patron cannot find another person with your particular talent, and if you are not indispensible you need to find a way to make it look like you are. Having the appearance of a specialist skill or knowledge gives you leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking that they cannot do without you, and real dependence on your master’s part leaves him more vulnerable to you than the faked variety, and it is always within your power to make your skills indispensible.
This is what is meant by the intertwining of fates: Like creeping ivy, you have wrapped yourself around the source of power, so that it would cause great trauma to cut you away. And you do not necessarily have to entwine yourself around the master – any person will do, so long as he or she too is indispensible in the chain.
One day in 1951 Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, was visited in his office by a gloomy group of his executives. This was the year of the famous witch-hunt against Communists in Hollywood, carried out by the US Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee. The executives had bad news, as one of their screenwriters, John Howard Lawson, had been singled out as a Communist, so they had to get rid of him or feel the wrath of the committee.
Harry Cohn was no liberal, and was in fact a die-hard Republican. His favourite politician was Benito Mussolini, who he had met in the past, and whose framed photo took pride of place behind Cohn on his office wall, but to the executive’s amazement Cohn refused to fire Lawson. He didn’t keep the screenwriter on because he was a superb writer, and anyway there were hundreds of excellent screenwriters in Hollywood, he kept him on because he was Humphrey Bogart’s writer, and Bogart was Columbia’s star man. If Cohn fired Lawson he would ruin a hugely successful and profitable relationship, and that was worth infinitely more to him than the bad publicity that would come about when people found out he refused to fire Lawson.
Henry Kissinger managed to survive in the Nixon White House not because he was the best diplomat that Nixon could find, nor because the two got on so well, nor was it because they shared the same political ideologies, as there were diplomats just as good as Kissinger, Nixon and Kissinger didn’t get on with each other, and they shared different political ideologies. The reason Kissinger survived was because he had entrenched himself in so many areas of the political structure that to get rid of him would have caused instant chaos.
Michelangelo’s power was intensive, and depended on one skill, his ability as an artist, where as Kissinger’s was extensive, as he had gotten himself deeply involved in a wide range of affairs that his involvement became a card in his hand. It also made him many allies, and if you can also get yourself into this position then getting rid of you becomes extremely dangerous, as all sorts of interdependencies will unravel. The intensive form of power, however, is much more powerful than the extensive, because those who have it depend on no particular master, or position of power, for their security.
To make others dependent on you, one route you can take is the secret-intelligence tactic, as by knowing other people’s secrets, by holding information that other people don’t want broadcast, you seal your fate with theirs, and are untouchable. Ministers of secret police have held this position for centuries, and they can make or break a king in an instant, or, in the case of J Edgar Hoover, a president. But the role is so full of insecurities and paranoia that the power it provides almost cancels itself out, you cannot rest at ease, and what good is power if it brings you no peace?
One last warning – do not imagine that your master’s dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you, but as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved, as you can control fear but never control love. Depending on an emotion as subtle and changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure, so it is better to have others depend on you out of the fear of the consequences of losing you than out of the love of your company.
Image: Vines With Many Thorns
Below, the roots grow deep and wide. Above, the vines push through bushes, entwine themselves around trees and poles and window ledges. To get rid of them would cost such toil and blood, it is easier to let them climb.
Authority
Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst, immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever in need of you. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Reversal
The weakness of making others dependent on you is that you are in some measure dependent on them, but trying to move beyond that point means getting rid of those above you – it means standing alone, depending on no-one. Such is the monopolistic drive of a JP Morgan or a John D Rockefeller, who aim to drive out all competition, and to be in complete control. If you can corner the market, so much the better.
No such independence comes without a price, as you are forced to isolate yourself. Monopolies often turn inwards and destroy themselves from the internal pressure, and they also stir up powerful resentment, making their enemies join together to fight them, and the drive for complete control is often ruinous and fruitless. Interdependence remains the law, and independence is often a rare and fatal exception.
It is better therefore to place yourself in a position of mutual dependence, and to follow this critical law rather than look for its reversal, as you will not have the unbearable pressure of being on top, and the master above you will in effect be your slave, for he will depend on you.
My Opinion
In one of my previous jobs there was a woman in the office who could literally do everyone else’s job, as she had worked for the company for well over 20 years and knew the ins and outs of it like the back of her hand. She was in a middle-management position, and had aspirations of moving up to a senior management position, but whenever she applied for a promotion was always knocked back, even though she was perfect for the job.
Everyone knew why – it was because to move her from her current job would mean that the office where she currently worked would find it extremely difficult to run as it currently was without her, and eventually she got fed up and made it known that she was looking for a job with another company.
Within a week a restructuring exercise had taken place, and even though she remained in the office where she currently was she was given much more responsibility and a hefty pay rise, and everyone knew that the news of her intending to move to another company had filtered through to the senior management, who knew they couldn’t do without her, so they had in effect created a new role for her so that she would be satisfied and stay with the company, which she did.
The tone of the Law is again one of coercion and manipulation which is wrong. If people become dependent on you then you should take it as a compliment and do good for them instead of trying to manipulate them with the fear of leaving them in the lurch, and if you don’t want the burden of someone being dependent on you then you should either teach them how to become independent, or, if that’s not possible, move them onto someone who is willing to take on the responsibility.
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Transgression Of The Law
Sometime in the Middle Ages, a mercenary soldier (a condottiere) saved the town on Siena from a foreign aggressor, and the citizens of the town were trying to decide how to reward him. No amount of money or honour could compare in value to the preservation of a city’s liberty, so they decided to kill him and worship him as the city’s patrol saint.
The Count of Carmagnola was one of the bravest and most successful of the condottiere, and in 1442, late on in his life, he was employed by the city of Venice, which had long been at war with the city of Florence. One day he was recalled to Venice, and was received by the people there will honour and splendour, and that evening he was to dine with the doge himself, in the doge’s palace.
On the way to the palace, however, he noticed that the guards were leading him in a different direction from usual, and when they crossed the famous Bridge of Sighs, he suddenly realized they were taking him to the dungeon. He was convicted of dubious charges and the next day in the Piazza San Marco, before a horrified crowd who could not understand how his fate had suddenly changed so drastically, he was beheaded.
Interpretation
Many of the great condottieri of Renaissance Italy suffered the same fate as these two men – they won battle after battle for their employers only to find themselves banished, imprisoned, and usually executed. The problem here is not ingratitude, it was that there were so many more condottieri as able and as valiant as they were. They were replaceable, and nothing was lost by killing them. As they grew older and won more battles their power had increased, and they wanted more money for their services. Their employees thought it would be much better to do away with them and hire younger, equally skilled mercenaries, for a much cheaper price, so that it what they did.
This is the fate (to a less violent degree) of those who do not make others dependant on them. Sooner or later someone comes along who can do the job just as well as they can – someone younger, fresher, less expensive, and less threatening to the employer. You need to make sure that you are the only one who can do what you do, and make the fate of those who hire you so entwined with yours that they cannot possibly get rid of you, otherwise sooner or later you will be forced to cross your own Bridge of Sighs.
Observance Of The Law
When Otto von Bismarck became a deputy in the Prussian parliament in 1847, he was 32 years old and had no allies or friends. Looking at the people now around him, he decided that the side to ally himself with was not the parliament’s liberals or conservatives, nor any particular minister, but the King, Frederick William 4th. This was a very odd choice, as the kind was at a low point in his power, was a weak and indecisive man, and stood for much the Bismarck disliked, both personally and politically. Yet Bismarck courted Frederick day and night, and when people attacked him for his ineptness, only Bismarck stood by him.
Finally it all paid off, and in 1851 Bismarck was made a minister in the king’s cabinet. Now he went to work, forcing the king’s hand to do what Bismarck wanted, getting him to build up the military and stand up to the liberals. He worked on the king’s insecurities, challenging him to be firm with people and to rule with pride, and the king’s power slowly increased until once again he was the most powerful force in Prussia.
When Frederick died in 1861 his brother William assumed the throne. William hated Bismarck and had no intention of keeping him around, but he had inherited the same problem his brother had – enemies galore who wanted to chip away at his power. At one point things got so bad that he considered abdicating, but Bismarck was waiting in the wings again.
He stood by the new king and urged him into firm and decisive action, and the king soon became dependant on Bismarck’s strong-arm tactics to keep his enemies at bay, and even though he intensely disliked the man he soon made Bismarck his new prime minister. The two often quarrelled over policy, as Bismarck was much more conservative than the king, but each time Bismarck threatened to resign the king gave into him as he knew he couldn’t do without him, and it was in fact Bismarck, and not the king, who was now setting state policy.
Years later Bismarck’s actions as prime minster led the various German states to be united into one country, and now Bismarck convinced the king to crown himself emperor of Germany. Even though by title William was the most powerful man in Germany, it was really Bismarck who was the most powerful in reality. As the right-hand man of the emperor, and as imperial chancellor and knighted prince, Bismarck was the one who pulled all the levers.
Interpretation
Most young and ambitious politicians looking out at the political landscape of 1840’s Germany would have tried to build a power base among those who had the most power. Bismarck had other ideas however, as joining forces with the powerful can be foolish, as they will swallow you up, just as the doge of Venice did with the Count of Carmagnola. No-one will come to depend on you if they are already strong, so if you are ambitious it is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You become their strength and their intelligence, and hold a huge amount of power, as if they get rid of you they would collapse.
Necessity rules the world, and people rarely act unless compelled to do so, and if you create no need for yourself then you will be done away with at the first opportunity. On the other hand if you make others dependant on you for their welfare, if you can counteract their weaknesses with your own “iron and blood,”, then you will survive your masters as Bismarck did, and you will have all the benefits of power without the hassles that come from being a master.
“Thus a wise prince will think of ways to keep his citizens of every sort and under every circumstance dependant on the state and on him; and then they will always be trustworthy.” (Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527)
Keys To Power
The ultimate power is to get people to do as you wish. When you can do this without having to force people or to hurt them, they will grant you what you desire, and your power is untouchable, and the best way to achieve this is to create a relationship of dependence. The master required your services, as he is weak, or unable to function without you, and you have enmeshed yourself with him so deeply that doing away with you would bring him great difficulties.
Once such a relationship is established you have the upper hand, the leverage to make your master do as you wish. Bismarck did not have to bully either Frederick or William into doing his bidding, he simply made it clear that unless he got what he wanted he would walk away, leaving the king at the mercy of his enemies, and soon both kings were dancing to Bismarck’s tune.
Do not be one of the many people who mistakenly believe that the ultimate form of power is independence. Power involves a relationship between people, and you will always need others as allies, pawns, or even weak masters who serve as your front. The completely independent man would live in a cabin deep in the woods, he would have total freedom to come and go as he wished, but he would have no power. The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence – their need for you frees you.
Louis 11th (1423-1483), the great Spider King of France, had a weakness for astrology. He kept a court astrologer, who he would consult on a daily basis, and admired him greatly, until one day he predicted that a lady of the court would die within 8 days. When the prophecy came true, Louis was terrified, thinking that the astrologer had either murdered the lady to prove his accuracy in predicting the future, or that he was such an expert in his field that he threatened Louis himself. In either case Louis decided that he had to be killed.
One evening Louis summoned the astrologer to his room, high in his castle. Before the man arrived, the king told his servants that when he gave the signal, they were to pick the astrologer up, carry him to the window, and throw him out, hundreds of feet to the ground. The astrologer arrived, but before giving the signal Louis decided to ask him one more question: “You claim to understand astrology and to know the fate of others, so tell me what your fate will be and how long you have to live.”
The astrologer replied, “I shall die just 3 days before Your Majesty”, the king’s signal was never given, and the astrologer’s life was spared. Louis not only protected the astrologer for as long as he was alive, but also he had him lavished with the finest of gifts and had him tended to by the finest doctors in the land. The astrologer survived Louis by several years, disproving his prophecy that he would die three days before the king, but proving that he was a master of power.
This is the model Make others dependent on you, as to get rid of you might mean disaster, even death, and your master dares not tempt fate by finding out if this is true or not. There are many ways to obtain such a position, and foremost among them is to possess a talent and creative skill that simply cannot be replaced.
During the Renaissance, the major obstacle to an artist’s success was finding the right patron. Michelangelo did this better than anyone else, as his patron was Pope Julius 2nd, but they quarrelled over the pope’s marble tomb and Michelangelo left Rome in disgust. To everyone’s amazement not only did the pope not fire Michelangelo, but he sought him out and begged the artists to return to Rome, as he knew that Michelangelo could easily find another patron, but the pope would never be able to find another Michelangelo.
You do not have to have the talent of Michelangelo, but you do have to have a skill that sets you apart from the crowd. You should create a situation in which you can always latch onto another master or patron, but your master or patron cannot find another person with your particular talent, and if you are not indispensible you need to find a way to make it look like you are. Having the appearance of a specialist skill or knowledge gives you leeway in your ability to deceive those above you into thinking that they cannot do without you, and real dependence on your master’s part leaves him more vulnerable to you than the faked variety, and it is always within your power to make your skills indispensible.
This is what is meant by the intertwining of fates: Like creeping ivy, you have wrapped yourself around the source of power, so that it would cause great trauma to cut you away. And you do not necessarily have to entwine yourself around the master – any person will do, so long as he or she too is indispensible in the chain.
One day in 1951 Harry Cohn, president of Columbia Pictures, was visited in his office by a gloomy group of his executives. This was the year of the famous witch-hunt against Communists in Hollywood, carried out by the US Congress’s House Un-American Activities Committee. The executives had bad news, as one of their screenwriters, John Howard Lawson, had been singled out as a Communist, so they had to get rid of him or feel the wrath of the committee.
Harry Cohn was no liberal, and was in fact a die-hard Republican. His favourite politician was Benito Mussolini, who he had met in the past, and whose framed photo took pride of place behind Cohn on his office wall, but to the executive’s amazement Cohn refused to fire Lawson. He didn’t keep the screenwriter on because he was a superb writer, and anyway there were hundreds of excellent screenwriters in Hollywood, he kept him on because he was Humphrey Bogart’s writer, and Bogart was Columbia’s star man. If Cohn fired Lawson he would ruin a hugely successful and profitable relationship, and that was worth infinitely more to him than the bad publicity that would come about when people found out he refused to fire Lawson.
Henry Kissinger managed to survive in the Nixon White House not because he was the best diplomat that Nixon could find, nor because the two got on so well, nor was it because they shared the same political ideologies, as there were diplomats just as good as Kissinger, Nixon and Kissinger didn’t get on with each other, and they shared different political ideologies. The reason Kissinger survived was because he had entrenched himself in so many areas of the political structure that to get rid of him would have caused instant chaos.
Michelangelo’s power was intensive, and depended on one skill, his ability as an artist, where as Kissinger’s was extensive, as he had gotten himself deeply involved in a wide range of affairs that his involvement became a card in his hand. It also made him many allies, and if you can also get yourself into this position then getting rid of you becomes extremely dangerous, as all sorts of interdependencies will unravel. The intensive form of power, however, is much more powerful than the extensive, because those who have it depend on no particular master, or position of power, for their security.
To make others dependent on you, one route you can take is the secret-intelligence tactic, as by knowing other people’s secrets, by holding information that other people don’t want broadcast, you seal your fate with theirs, and are untouchable. Ministers of secret police have held this position for centuries, and they can make or break a king in an instant, or, in the case of J Edgar Hoover, a president. But the role is so full of insecurities and paranoia that the power it provides almost cancels itself out, you cannot rest at ease, and what good is power if it brings you no peace?
One last warning – do not imagine that your master’s dependence on you will make him love you. In fact, he may resent and fear you, but as Machiavelli said, it is better to be feared than loved, as you can control fear but never control love. Depending on an emotion as subtle and changeable as love or friendship will only make you insecure, so it is better to have others depend on you out of the fear of the consequences of losing you than out of the love of your company.
Image: Vines With Many Thorns
Below, the roots grow deep and wide. Above, the vines push through bushes, entwine themselves around trees and poles and window ledges. To get rid of them would cost such toil and blood, it is easier to let them climb.
Authority
Make people depend on you. More is to be gained from such dependence than courtesy. He who has slaked his thirst, immediately turns his back on the well, no longer needing it. When dependence disappears, so does civility and decency, and then respect. The first lesson which experience should teach you is to keep hope alive but never satisfied, keeping even a royal patron ever in need of you. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)
Reversal
The weakness of making others dependent on you is that you are in some measure dependent on them, but trying to move beyond that point means getting rid of those above you – it means standing alone, depending on no-one. Such is the monopolistic drive of a JP Morgan or a John D Rockefeller, who aim to drive out all competition, and to be in complete control. If you can corner the market, so much the better.
No such independence comes without a price, as you are forced to isolate yourself. Monopolies often turn inwards and destroy themselves from the internal pressure, and they also stir up powerful resentment, making their enemies join together to fight them, and the drive for complete control is often ruinous and fruitless. Interdependence remains the law, and independence is often a rare and fatal exception.
It is better therefore to place yourself in a position of mutual dependence, and to follow this critical law rather than look for its reversal, as you will not have the unbearable pressure of being on top, and the master above you will in effect be your slave, for he will depend on you.
My Opinion
In one of my previous jobs there was a woman in the office who could literally do everyone else’s job, as she had worked for the company for well over 20 years and knew the ins and outs of it like the back of her hand. She was in a middle-management position, and had aspirations of moving up to a senior management position, but whenever she applied for a promotion was always knocked back, even though she was perfect for the job.
Everyone knew why – it was because to move her from her current job would mean that the office where she currently worked would find it extremely difficult to run as it currently was without her, and eventually she got fed up and made it known that she was looking for a job with another company.
Within a week a restructuring exercise had taken place, and even though she remained in the office where she currently was she was given much more responsibility and a hefty pay rise, and everyone knew that the news of her intending to move to another company had filtered through to the senior management, who knew they couldn’t do without her, so they had in effect created a new role for her so that she would be satisfied and stay with the company, which she did.
The tone of the Law is again one of coercion and manipulation which is wrong. If people become dependent on you then you should take it as a compliment and do good for them instead of trying to manipulate them with the fear of leaving them in the lurch, and if you don’t want the burden of someone being dependent on you then you should either teach them how to become independent, or, if that’s not possible, move them onto someone who is willing to take on the responsibility.