Home »

[Lei Lei]

LAW 26

KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN

"Chelm Justice. A great calamity befell the town of Chelm one day. The town cobbler murdered one of his customers. So he was brought before the judge, who sentenced him to die by hanging. When the verdict was read a townsman arose and cried out, "If our honor pleases-you have sentenced to death the town cobbler! He's the only one we've got. If you hang him who will mend our shoes? Who? Who? Cried all the people od Chelm with one voice, The judge nodded in agreement and reconsidered his verdict. Good people of Chelm, he said, what you say is true. Since we have only one cobbler it would be a great wrong against the community to let him die. As there are two roofers in this town let one of them be hanged instead." (Treasury of Jewish Folklore, nathan Ausubel, ed 1948)

One must understand the workings of power. There are usually only three options, apology, excuses or finding a scapegoat. The world that we live in is an unpredictable place. People in power are not over thrown by mistakes but by the way that they deal with them. Excuses and apologies are tools that should not be used very often. Who do excuses satisfy, no one. Who cares, really cares about the excuse, no one. Why? Because at the end of the day, the assignment, the mission is still not completed. Apologies, do nothing for anyone. Take me for example. I usually do not accept apologies, because at the end of the day I can not forgive what I will not forget. I can let certain things ride, but for the most part I always hold it if not in my heart but in the back of my head. And in giving apologies, I know myself, that depending on what action I took, I may say to a person, I apologize for my actions hurting you, but I do not apologize for the actual act, because I know if in the same situation, I would have done it again. Mistakes made also to do not go away with an apology and because of this many people tend to find a scapegoat. A scapegoat can draw attention from yourself, or what parts you may have played in a particular situation.

Being a master power player, you must always move several move ahead. You must be able to set some of the most cleverest traps that you will appear free from involvement and might even look as though you cleaned it up.

Using a scapegoat isn't anything new. The Hebrews used goats to transfer sins of people who had sins to the goats and led the goats to their abandonment in the woods. Scape goats are mainly bred, human or animal to be the response for a mistake or crime committed. Think about it, most in power do not take responsibility for their negative actions. Most of them look for others to blame. Many times a person picks or breeds an innocent victim as a sacrificial goat because they are not powerful enough to fight you and because you know if they make too much protest it works to your advantage because it will seem as though they are guilty. Be mindful however, not to turn them into a martyr. You must always remain the victim, the person in power that was betrayed by incompetent but yet apparently competent to all eyes watching. You must be mindful that if a scapegoat appears too weak his punishment will seem too cruel and you will end up a victim of your own circumstance.

Many people tend to lose a friend or an aid because it was felt that one should sacrifice for the greater good and they probably would have betrayed them anyway.

"Image: The Innocent Goat. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest brings the oat into the temple, places his hands on its head, and confesses the people's sins, transferring guilt to the guiltless beast, which is then led to the wilderness and abandoned, the people's sins and blame vanishing with him."

"Authority: Folly consists not in committing Folly, but in being incapable of concealing it. All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public. Reputation depends more on what is hidden than on what is seen. If you can't be good, be careful. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

Poke with a Stick and Don't Touch Things with Your Hands

"If there is something unpleasant or unpopular that needs to be done, it is far too risky for you to do th e work yourself. You need a "cat's-paw" - someone who does the dirty, dangerous work for you. The cat's paw grabs what you need, hurts whom you need hurt and keeps people from noticing that you are the one responsible. Let someone else be the executioner, or the bearer of bad news, while you bring only joy and glad tidings."

This is a two sided statement. You must know that the same what you can be using a cat's paw so can someone else. Never assume a hit is a direct hit from anyone person in particular. Look a Cleopatra. Through her seductive charms, she got people to do her bidding without even realizing that they were being manipulated. A person in position should never dirty their hands with ugly tasks or in public get blood on their hands. And in this game of power their will be times that the only way to survive is by squashing the enemy. When there is a need for this you must you someone outside your immediate circle, thus they will not be as likely to be suspect. You must learn to use people to clear the field for you. You must learn to know how to select who to feed information too that you know they will spread. You must learn to move people who they themselves have not realized that they are your rivals yet. Most importantly, throughout all of this you must learn how not to ever take a direct hit, and stay clever while saving energy and effort. Learn to plan several moves in advance with the understanding that at times you may want to jump back a little to take giant steps ahead. There will be times when you might need to look at a third party that shares an enemy with you even if it is for different reasons.

You have to learn to be creative. Sometimes people refuse assistance out of pride and or can even get offended. Understand that fronting a favor is never simple: If you are the grantor making a fuss or making things obvious makes the receiver feel burdened and obligated that in turn can be stir up resentment and resistance. Learn to soften the blow of giving assistance and make the rescue clean . Help a person without helping. Or appearing to help.

Always know your place, when you are in power. You can't appear to be working hard. When you are appearing to working hard, to some it might appear that you are incompetent, and you have to do extra to get caught up or it might look as though you do not know how to delegate. The people in power always appear not to be in a hurry. Because they know how to delegate and they get and find the right people to put in the effort. Be creative, sometimes you have to assign what would seem to be impossible tasks. And sometimes to succeed at an impossible task you must think. You have to think about how to bait people into doing the work for you. One of the main ways that you can bait someone to work for you is to disguise your goal, keep it a mystery. When your rivals, enemies, are not sure what you are after they often create a counteraction agains nothing, causing them to create a problema and tip their hand when not necessary. In playing with a cat's paw, you need to use an associate or subordinate to hook up with your primary target. This will shield you from appearing front line. Plant info to your cat's paw and let them spread it to your target. False or planted info is effective because it forces moves, and by playing innocent, yourself is disguised as the source.

Remember, your cat's paw and the scapegoat's purpose is to hide your own involvement in dirty affairs. If you get caught out there you will also be blamed for things that you had no involvement in. Always remember that in using a third party a lot can go wrong. Do not play with a scapegoat too often. Once the truth is revealed, if revealed, events will snowball beyond your control.