KEYS TO POWER
Power is in many ways a game of appearances, and when you say less than
necessary, you inevitably appear greater and more powerful than you are.
YOUf silence will make other people uncomfortable. Humans are machines
of interpretation and explanation; they have to know what you are thinking. When you carefully control what you reveal, they cannot pierce yOUf
intentions or your meaning.
YOUf short answers and silences will put them on the defensive, and
they will jump in, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments
that will reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses.
They will leave a meeting with you feeling as if they had been robbed, and
they will go horne and ponder YOUf every word. This extra attention to
YOUf brief comments will only add to your power.
Saying less than necessary is not for kings and statesmen only. In most
areas of life, the less you say, the more profound and mysterious you appear. As a young man, the artist Andy Warhol had the revelation that it was
generally impossible to get people to do what you wanted them to do by
talking to them. They would turn against you, subvert YOUf wishes, disobey
you out of sheer perversity. He once told a friend, "I leamed that you actually have more power when you shut up.
"
In his later life Warhol employed this strategy with great success. His
interviews were exercises in oracular speech: He would say something
vague and ambiguous, and the interviewer would twist in circles trying to
figure it out, imagining there was something prafound behind his often
meaningless phrases. Warhol rarely talked ab out his work; he let others do
the interpreting. He claimed to have leamed this technique from that master of enigma Marcel Duchamp, another twentieth-century artist who realized early on that the less he said about his work, the more people talked
about it. And the more they talked, the more valuable his work became.
By saying less than necessary you create the appearance of meaning
and power. Also, the less you say, the less risk you run of saying something
foolish, even dangeraus. In 1825 a new czar, Nicholas I, ascended the
throne of Russia. A rebellion immediately broke out, led by liberals demanding that the country modernize-that its industries and civil structures catch up with the rest of Europe. Brutally crushing this rebellion (the
Decembrist Uprising), Nicholas I sentenced one of its leaders, Kondraty
Ryleyev, to death. On the day of the execution Ryleyev stood on the gallows, the noose around his neck. The trapdoor opened-but as Ryleyev
dangled, the rape brake, dashing hirn to the ground. At the time, events
like this were considered signs of providence or heavenly will, and a man
saved from execution this way was usually pardoned. As Ryleyev got to his
feet, bruised and dirtied but believing his neck had been saved, he called
out to the crowd, "You see, in Russia they don't know how to do anything
properly, not even how to make rape!"
A messenger immediately went to the Winter Palace with news of the
failed hanging. Vexed by this disappointing turnabout, Nicholas I nevertheless began to sign the pardon. But then: "Did Ryleyev say anything after
this miracle?" the czar asked the messenger. "Sire," the messenger replied,
"he said that in Russia they don't even know how to make rope."
"In that case," said the Czar, "let us prove the contrary," and he tore
up the pardon. The next day Ryleyev was hanged again. This time the
rope did not break.
Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back.
Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The moLAW 4 35
36 LAW 4
mentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by
the price you pay.
Ima g e :
The Orade at Delphi.
When vi si tors consulted the
Orade, the priestess would utter
a few enigmatic words that seemed
full of meaning and import.
No one
disobeyed the words of the Oraclethey held p ower over life and death.
Authority: Never start moving your own lips and teeth before
the subordinates do. The longer I keep quiet, the sooner others
move their lips and teeth. As they move their lips and teeth, I
can thereby understand their real intentions .... If the sovereign
is not mysterious, the ministers will find opportunity to take
and take. (Han-fei-tzu, Chinese philosopher, third century B.C.)
REVERSAL
There are times when it is unwise to be silent. Silence can arouse suspicion
and even insecurity, especially in your superiors; a vague or ambiguous
comment can open you up to interpretations you had not bargained for. Silence and saying less than necessary must be practiced with caution, then,
and in the right situations. It is occasionally wiser to imitate the court jester,
who plays the fool but knows he is smarter than the king. He talks and talks
and entertains, and no one suspects that he is more than just a foo1.
Also, words can sometimes act as a kind of smoke screen for any deception you might practice. By bending your listener's ear with talk, you
can distract and mesmerize them; the more you talk, in fact, the less suspicious of you they become. The verbose are not perceived as sly and manipulative but as helpless and unsophisticated. This is the reverse of the
silent policy employed by the powerful: By talking more, and making
yourself appear weaker and less intelligent than your mark, you can practice deception with greater ease.
