The 48 Laws Of Power

120 LAW 16

Themoment

you

allow

yourself

tobetreatedlike

anyone

else,

itistoo

late--you

areswallowedand

digested

To

prevent

this

you

needtostarve

theother

poison

of

your

presence.

Forcetheir

respectbythreatening

them

withthe

possibility

that

they

willlose

you

for

good;

createa

pattern

of

pres-

enceandabsence.

Once

you

die,

everything

about

you

willseemdifferent.Youwillbe

surrounded

by

aninstantauraof

respect.People

willremembertheircriti~

cismsof

you,

their

arguments

with

you,

andwillbefilledwith

regret

and

guilt.They

are

missing

a

presence

that

willneverreturn.But

you

donot

havetowaituntil

you

die:

Bycompletelywithdrawing

for

a

while,

you

cre-

ateakindofdeathbeforedeath.Andwhen

you

come

back,

itwillbeasif

you

hadcomebackfromthedead--anairofresuirectionwill

cling

to

you,

and

people

willberelievedat

your

return.ThisishowDeiocesmadehim~

self

king.

Napoleon

was

recognizing

thelawofabsence

and

presence

when

he

said,

“IfIamoftenseenatthe

theater,

people

willceasetonoticeme.”

Today,

inaworldinundatedwith

presence

through

thefloodof

images,

the

game

ofwithdrawalisallthemore

powerful.

We

rarely

knowwhento

withdraw

anymore,

and

nothing

seems

private,

soweareawed

byanyone

whoisableto

disappearby

choice.Novelists

J.

D.

Salinger

andThomas

Pynchon

havecreatedcultlike

followingsbyknowing

when

to

disappear.

Another,

more

everyday

sideofthis

law,

butonethatdemonstrates

itstrutheven

further,

isthelawof

scarcity

inthescienceofeconomics.

Bywithdrawingsomething

fromthe

market,

you

createinstantvalue.In

seventeenth-century

Holland,

the

upper

classeswantedtomakethe

tulip

morethan

just

abeautiful

flower——they

wantedittobeakindofstatus

sym~

bol.

Making

theflower

scarce,

indeedalmost

impossible

to

obtain,

they

sparked

whatwaslatercalled

tulipomania.

A

single

flowerwasnowworth

morethanits

weight

in

gold.

Inourown

century,similarly,

theartdealer

Joseph

Duveeninsistedon

making

the

paintings

hesoldasscarceandrare

as

possible.

To

keep

their

prices

elevatedandtheirstatus

high,

he

boughtup

wholecollectionsandstoredtheminhisbasement.The

paintings

thathe

soldbecamemorethan

justpaintings-—t.hey

werefetish

objects,

theirvalue

increased

by

their

rarity.

“Youcan

get

allthe

picturesyou

wantat

fifty

thou-

sanddollars

apiece~—-that’seasy,”

heoncesaid.“Butto

getpictures

ata

quarter

ofamillion

apiece—that

wants

doing!”

I Ina

g

e:

TheSun.Itcan

only

be

appreciatedby

itsabsence.

The

longer

the

days

of

rain,

the

morethesuniscraved.Buttoo

many

hot

days

andthesun overwhelms.

Learnto

keepyourself

obscureand

make

people

demand

your

return