The 48 Laws Of Power

I26 LAW 17

tempt

to

put

theinitiativeonhissideandto

keepSpassl-Ly

offibalance.

Clearly

theendless

waiting

hadaneffecton

Spassky’spsyche.

Most

power-

fulof

all,

though,

wereFischer’sdeliberateblundersandhis

appearance

of

having

noclear

strategy.

In

fact,

he was

doingeverything

he

could

to

scramble

his

old

patterns,

even

if

itmeant

losing

thefirstmatchandforfeit-

ing

thesecond.

Spassky

wasknownforhis

sangfroid

and

levelheadedness,

butforthe

firsttimeinhislifehecouldnot

figure

outhis

opponent.

He

slowly

melted

down,

untilattheendhewastheonewhoseemedinsane.

Chesscontainstheconcentratedessenceoflife:

First,

becausetowin

you

havetobe

supremelypatient

and

farseeing;

and

second,

becausethe

game

isbuilton

patterns,

whole

sequences

ofmovesthathavebeen

played

beforeandwillbe

playedagain,

with

slight

alterations,

in

any

onematch

Your

opponentanalyzes

the

patternsyou

are

playing

andusesthemto

try

toforesee

your

moves.

Allowing

him

nothingpredictable

tobasehisstrat-

egy

on

gives

you

a

bigadvantage.

Inchessasin

life,

when

people

cannot

figure

outwhat

you

are

doing,they

are

kept

inastateof

terror—waiting,

uncertain,

confused,

Life

at

court

isa

serious,

melancholygameof

chess,

which

requires

us

to

draw

up

our

pieces

and

batteries,

form

a

plan,pursue

it,

parry

that

of

our

adversary.

Sometimes,however,

itisbettertotakerisks

and

play

themost

capricious,unpredictable

mave.

lean

(1rI.a

Bruyéw,

I/545-1696

KEYSTOPOWER

Nothing

ismore

terrifying

thanthesuddenand

unpredictable.

Thatis

why

weareso

frightenedbyearthquakes

andtornadoes:Wedonotknowwhen

they

willstrike.Alter

one

has

occurred,

wewaitin

terror

forthe

nextone.

To

a

lesser

degree,

this

is

theeffectthat

unpredictable

humanbehaviorhas

onus.

Animalsbehaveinset

patterns,

whichis

why

weareabletohuntand

killthem.

Only

manhasthe

capacity

to

consciously

alterhis

behavior,

to

improvise

andovercomethe

weight

ofroutineandhabit.Yetmostmendo

notrealizethis

power.Theyprefer

the

comfortsof

routine,

of

giving

into

theanimal

naturethathasthem

repeating

thesame

compulsive

actions

timeandtime

again.

They

dothisbecauseit

requires

no

effort,

andbe-

cause

theymistakenly

believethatif

they

donotunsettle

others,

they

will

beleftalone.Understand:A

person

of

power

instillsakindoffear

by

delib-

eratelyunsettling

thosearoundhimto

keep

theinitiativeonhisside.You

sometimesneedtostrikewithout

waming,

tomakeotherstremblewhen

they

least

expect

it.Itisadevicethatthe

powerful

haveusedforcenturies.

Filippo

Maria,

thelastoftheViscontidukesofMilan infifteenth»

centuryItaly,consciously

didthe

opposite

ofwhat

everyoneexpected

of

him.For

instance,

he

mightsuddenly

showera

courtier

with

attention,

and

then,

oncethemanhadcometo

expect

a

promotion

to

higher

office,