The 48 Laws Of Power

This

supplies

thecleverand

cunning

withenormous

opportunities

for

deception.

For

people

whoare

choosing

betweenalternativesfindithard

to
believe

they

are

beingmanipulated

or

deceived;

they

cannotseethat

you

are

allowing

them

a

small

amount

offreewillin

exchange

foramuch

more

powerful

imposition

of

your

ownwill.

Setting

up

anarrow

range

of

choices,then,

should

always

bea

part

of

yourdeceptions.

Thereisa

say-

ing:

If

you

can

get

thebirdtowalkintothe

cage

on

its

own,

itwill

sing

that

muchmore

prettily.

The

following

are

among

themostcommonformsof

“controlling

the

options”:

ColortheChoices.Thiswasafavored

technique

of

HenryKissinger.

As

President

RichardNixon’s

secretary

of

state,

Kissinger

consideredhimself

betterinformed
than
his

boss,

and

believedthatin

most

situationshecould

makethebestdecisiononhisown.Butifhetriedtodetermine

policy,

he

wouldoffendor

perhapsenrage

a

notoriously

insecureman.So

Kissinger

would
propose

threeorfourchoicesofactionforeach

situation,

and

would

present

theminsucha

way

thattheonehe

preferredalways

seemed

the

bestsolution

compared

totheothers.Timeafler

time,

Nixonfellforthe

bait,

never

suspecting

thathewas

moving

where

Kissingerpushed

him.

Thisisanexcellentdevicetouseontheinsecuremaster.

Forcethe
Resistor.
One
ofthemain

problems

faced

by

Dr.MiltonH.Er-

ickson,

a

pioneer

of

hypnosistherapy

inthe

1950s,

was

the

relapse.

His

pa»

tients

might

seemtobe

recoveringrapidly,

buttheir

apparentsusceptibility

tothe

therapy

maskeda

deep

resistance:

They

wouldsoon

relapse

intoold

habits,

blamethe

doctor,

and

stop

coming

toseehim.Toavoid

this,

Ericlo

son

beganordering

some

patients

tohavea

relapse,

tomake

themselvesfeel

asbadaswhen

they

firstcamein—-——to

go

backto

square

one.Facedwith

this
option,

the

patients

would

usually

“choose”toavoidthe

relapse-

which,

of

course,

waswhatErickson

really

wanted.

Thisisa

goodtechnique

touseonchildrenandotherwillful

people

who

enjoydoing

the

opposite

ofwhat

you

askthemto:Pushthemto

“choose”what
you

want

them

to

do

byappearing

to

advocatethe

opposite.

Alterthe
Playing

Field.Inthe

1860s,john

D.Rockefellersetouttocre-

ateanoil

monopoly.

Ifhetriedto

buyup

thesmalleroil

companiesthey

would

figure

outwhathewas

doing

and

fight

back.

Instead,

he

began

se-

cretlybuyingup

the

railwaycompanies

that

transported

the

oil.

Whenhe

then

attempted

totakeovera

particular

company,

andmetwith

resistance,

heremindedthemoftheir

dependence

ontherails.

Refusing

them

ship-

ping,

or

simply

raising

their

fees,

couldruintheirbusiness.Rockefellera.l~

teredthe

playing

fieldsothatthe

onlyoptions

thesmalloil

producers

had

weretheoneshe

gave

them.

In

thistactic

youropponents

knowtheirhandis

being

forced,

butit

doesn’tmatter.The

technique

iseffective

against

thosewhoresistatall

costs.

LAW 31 259