The 48 Laws Of Power

2&0 LAW’ 31

The

Shrinking Options.

The

latemineteenth-century

art dealerAm-

broiseVollard

perfected

this

technique.

CustomerswouldcometoVolla.rd’s

shop

toseesomeCézannes.He

wouldshowthree

paintings,

neglect

tomentiona

price,

and

pretend

to

dozeoff.Thevisitorswouldhavetoleavewithout

deciding.They

would

usually

comeback

the

next

day

toseethe

paintingsagain,

butthistime

Vollardwould

pull

outless

interesting

works,

pretending

he

thoughtthey

were

thesameones.Thebaffledcustomerswouldlookatthe

new

offer-

ings,

leavetothinkthem

over,

andreturn

yetagain.

Once

again

thesame

thing

would

happen:

Vollardwouldshow

paintings

oflesser

quality

still.Fi-

nally

the

buyers

would

realize

they

hadbetter

grab

whathewas

showing

them,

becausetomorrow

they

wouldhavetosettle

for

something

worse,

perhaps

ateven

higher

prices.

Avariationonthis

technique

istoraisethe

priceevery

timethe

buyer

hesitatesandanother

day

goes

by.

Thisisanexcellent

negotiating

ploy

to

useonthe

chronically

indecisive,

whowillfallfortheideathat

they

are

get-

ting

a

better

deal

today

thanif

they

wait

till

tomorrow.

TheWeakManonthe

Precipice.

Theweakaretheeasiesttomaneuver

by

controlling

their

options.

Cardinaldo

Retz,

the

great

seventeenth~cen-

turyprovocateur,

servedasanunofficialassistanttotheDukeof

Orléans,

whowas

notoriously

indecisive.

Itwasaconstant

struggle

toconvincethe

duketotakeaction»-—-hewouldhemand

haw,

weigh

the

options,

and

wait

tillthelast

moment,

givingeveryone

aroundhimanulcer.ButRetzdiscov~

ereda

way

tohandlehim:Hewoulddescribeallsortsof

dangers,exaggep

ating

themasmuchas

possible,

untilthedukesawa

yawningabyss

in

every

direction

except

one:theoneRetzwas

pushing

himtotake.

Thistacticissimilarto“Colorthe

Choices,”

but

with

the

weak

you

havetobemore

aggressive.

Workontheiremotions—usefearandterror

to

propel

themintoaction.

Tn:

reasonand

they

will

always

finda

way

to

procrastinate.

BrothersinCrime.

This

is

a

classicconvartist

technique:

Youattract

your

victimstosomecriminal

scheme,

creating

abondofbloodand

guilt

be-

tween

you.Theyparticipate

in

yourdeception,

commitacrime

(or

think

they

do-—-seethe

story

ofSamGeezilinLaw

3),

andare

easilymanipu-

lated.

SergeStavisky,

the

great

Frenchcon

artistofthe

1920s,

so

entangled

the

government

in

hisscamsand

swindlesthat

the

statedidnotdareto

prosecute

him,

and“chose”toleavehimalone.Itisoftenwiseto

implicate

in

yourdeceptions

the

veryperson

whocando

you

themostharmif

you

fail.Theirinvolvementcanbesubtle—-evenahintoftheirinvolvement

willnarrow

their

options

and

buy

theirsilence.

The Horns ofa Dilemma.Thisideawasdemonstrated

by

General

WilliamSherma.n’sinfamousmarch

through

Georgia

during

theAmerican

CivilWar.

Although

theConfederatesknewwhatdirectionShermanwas