When we can no longer change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. That is why man is even ready to suffer, on the condition that his suffering has meaning.

He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how

To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in suffering. If there is a purpose in life, there must be a purpose in suffering and dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself and accept his answer's responsibility.All the familiar goals in life are snatched away. What alone remains is "the last of human freedoms".If hundreds of thousands of people reach out for a book whose very title promises to deal with the question of a meaning to life, it must be a question that burns under their fingernails. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/mans-search-for-meaning/">Read The Full Article Here.</a><a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join the Community.</a>

How was everyday life in a concentration camp reflected in the mind of the average prisoner?Most of the events described here did not occur in the large and famous camps but in the small ones where most extermination occurred.For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one's dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself.

Experiences in a Concentration Camp

A definite number of prisoners had to go with each transport. It did not matter which since each was nothing but a number. Therefore, each prisoner had had an opportunity to claim a fictitious name or profession; for various reasons, many did this. The authorities were interested only in the captives' numbers.

Numbered Lives

There was neither time nor desire to consider moral or ethical issues. Every man was controlled by one thought: to keep himself alive for the family waiting for him at home and save his friends. Therefore, he would not hesitate to arrange for another prisoner, another "number", to take his place in the transport.

A Prisoner's Morals

On average, only those prisoners could keep alive who, after years of trekking from camp to camp, had lost all scruples in their fight for existence; were prepared to use every means, honest and otherwise, even brutal force, theft, and betrayal of their friends, to save themselves. We know: the best of us did not return.

The Best of Us Did Not Return

The engine's whistle had an uncanny sound, like a cry for help sent out in commiseration for the low load destined to lead into perdition. With the progressive dawn, the outliers of an immense camp became visible: long stretches of several rows of barbed wire fences; watch towers; searchlights; and long columns of ragged human figures, grey in the greyness of dawn, trekking along the straight desolate roads, to what destination we did not know.

Psychopathology of the Masses

The condemned man, immediately before his execution, gets the illusion that he might be reprieved at the very last minute. We, too, clung to shreds of hope and believed to the last moment that it would not be so bad. Just the sight of the red cheeks and round faces of those prisoners was a great encouragement.Nearly everyone in our transport lived under the illusion that he would be reprieved, that everything would be well. We did not realize the meaning behind the scene that was to follow presently.

Delusion of Reprieve

SS men appeared and spread out blankets into which we had to throw all our possessions, watches, and jewelry. There were still naive prisoners among us who asked, to the amusement of the more seasoned ones who were there as helpers, if they could keep a wedding ring, a media, or a good-luck piece. No one could yet grasp the fact that everything would be taken away. Remember: shave, stand, and walk smartly; you need not fear gas.

Textbooks Tell Lies

Some things must cause you to lose your reason or have none to lose.At first, the prisoner looked away if he saw the punishment parades of another group; he could not bear to see fellow prisoners march up and down for hours in their mire, their movements directed by blows. I watched without any emotional upset the following scene, which was repeated repeatedly with each death. One by one, the prisoners approached the still-warm body. One grabbed the remains of a messy meal of potatoes; another decided that the corpse's wooden shoes were an improvement on his own and exchanged them.

A Prisoner's School of Thought

It is not the physical pain that hurts the most; it is the mental agony caused by the injustice, the unreasonableness of it all. That, to me, seemed the way to attract the attention of a beast, to call a domestic animal back to its job, a creature with which you have so little in common that you do not even punish it.Apathy, the main symptom of the second phase, was a necessary self-defense mechanism. Reality dimmed, and all efforts and all emotions were centered on one task: preserving one's life and that of the other fellow—a retreat to a more primitive form of mental energy.

Where it Hurts Most

What did the prisoner dream about most frequently? Of bread, cake, cigarettes, and nice warm baths. No dream, no matter how horrible, could be as bad as the reality of the camp which surrounded us and two which I was about to recall him. Is it not wrong to provoke the organism with such detailed and practical pictures of delicacies when it has somehow managed to adapt itself to minimal rations and low calories? Though it may afford momentary psychological relief, it is an illusion that physiologically must not be without danger. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/mans-search-for-meaning/">Read The Full Article Here.</a><a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join the Community.</a>

Primitive Desires

The truth—is that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understand how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only briefly in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way— an honorable way—in such a position, man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.

Love and Suffering

The intensification of inner life helped the prisoner find a refuge from his existence's emptiness, desolation, and spiritual poverty by letting him escape into the past. When given free rein, his imagination played with past events, often not important ones but minor happenings and trifling.The attempt to develop a sense of humour and to see things in a humorous light is a trick learned while mastering the art of living. Thus suffering ultimately fills the human soul and conscious mind, no matter whether the suffering is great or little. Therefore, the size of human suffering is relative.

Finding Refuge in Suffering

Everything not connected with the immediate task of keeping oneself and one's closest friends alive lost its value. Everything was sacrificed to this end. Under the influence of a world that no longer recognized the value of human life and human dignity, which had robbed a man of his will and had made him an object to be exterminated. Under this influence, the personal ego finally suffered a loss of values.

Judgement 

It is well known that an enforced community life, in which attention is paid to everything one does at all times, may result in an irresistible urge to get away, at least for a short while. The prisoner craved to be alone with himself and his thoughts. He yearned for privacy and solitude.

Solitude

It is challenging for an outsider to grasp how little value was placed on human life in the camp. The camp inmate was hardened but possibly became more conscious of this complete disregard for human existence when a convoy of sick men was arranged. The emaciated bodies of the sick were thrown on two-wheeled carts drawn by prisoners for many miles, often through snowstorms, to the next camp. If one of the sick men had died before the carriage left, he was thrown on anyway—the list had to be correct!

The Value of Human Life

This escape from commitment was most apparent when a prisoner decided for or against an escape attempt. In those minutes in which he had to make up his mind—and it was always a question of minutes—he suffered the tortures of Hell. Should he attempt to flee? Should he take the risk?The consciousness of one's inner value is anchored in higher, more spiritual things and cannot be shaken by camp life. But how many free men, let alone prisoners? His surroundings completely and unavoidably influence the human being.

Human Liberty

"There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.

If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must be a meaning in suffering. How a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails and takes up his cross gives him ample opportunity—even under the most challenging circumstances—to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified, and unselfish. Or, in the bitter fight for self-preservation, he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man to forgo opportunities to attain the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him.

Finding Meaning in Suffering

New arrivals usually knew nothing about the conditions at a camp. Those who had returned from other camps were obliged to keep silent; from some camps, no one had returned. With the end uncertainty, there came the anticipation of the end.A man who could not see the end of his "provisional existence" could not aim at an ultimate goal in life. He ceased living for the future, unlike a man in ordinary life. The limitlessness of the term of imprisonment was most acutely felt; in space, the narrow limits of the prison. Anything outside the barbed wire became out of reach and, in a way, unreal.

Provisional Existence of Unknown Limit

We all feared this moment—not for ourselves, which would have been pointless, but for our friends. Any attempt to restore a man's inner strength in the camp had first to show him some future goal.It did not matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life and instead think of ourselves as those being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the correct answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which constantly sets itself for each individual.

Fear of the Unknown

Long ago, we had passed the stage of asking what was the meaning of life, a naive query that understands life as attaining some aim through the active creation of something of value. For us, the importance of life embraced the broader cycles of life and death, suffering and dying. We refused to minimize or alleviate the camp's tortures by ignoring them, harboring false illusions, and entertaining artificial optimism.

Changing What it Means to Live Through Suffering

How much suffering there is to get through! Rilke spot of "getting through suffering" as others would talk of "getting through work". In both cases, it was a question of getting them to realize that life was still expecting something from them; something in the future was expected of them.

Wie viel ist aufzuleiden!

How could men of flesh and blood treat others as so many prisoners say they have been treated?<ol><li>The presence of sadists</li><li>A severe detachment of guards</li><li>Ever-increasing doses of brutality</li></ol>It was the human "something" that this man also gave me—the word and look that accompanied the gift.Life in a concentration camp tore open the human soul and exposed its depths. Is it surprising that in those depths, we again found only human qualities which, in their very nature, were a mixture of good and evil?

A Rare Case of Humility

"Freedom"—we repeated to ourselves, yet we could not grasp it. We had said this word so often during all the years we dreamed about it that it had lost its meaning. Its reality did not penetrate our consciousness; we could not grasp that freedom was ours.

Depersonalization

When he heard the exact phrases everywhere—"We did not know about it," and "We, too, have suffered," he asked himself, have they nothing to say to me? A man who for years had thought he had reached the absolute limit of all possible suffering now found that grief has no boundaries and that he could suffer more and more intensely.He had to be reminded that life still awaited him, that a human being awaited his return. But after liberation? Some men found that no one awaited them.

Disillusionment

Logotherapy focuses on the future and defocuses all the vicious-circle formations and feedback mechanisms. Striving to find meaning in one's life is the primary motivational force in man. This meaning is unique and specific in that it must and can be fulfilled alone; only then does it achieve a significance that will satisfy his own will to meaning.

Logotherapy in a Nutshell

Mental health is based on the tension between what one has already achieved and what one should accomplish or the gap between what one is and should become. Man needs not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for a worthwhile goal, a freely chosen taskNo instinct tells him what he has to do, and no tradition tells him what he ought to do; sometimes, he does not even know what he wishes to do. Instead, he either wishes to do what other people do (conformism) or what other people want him to do (totalitarianism).

The Existential Vacuum

"Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!" Imagine first that the present is past and, second, that the past may yet be changed and amended. Logotherapy attempts to make the patient fully aware of his responsibility; therefore, it must leave him the option for what, to what, or to whom he understands himself to be responsible.

The Essence of Existence

"The question which beset me was, 'Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning' For if not, then ultimately, there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose purpose depends upon such a happenstance—as whether one escapes or not—ultimately would not be worth living at all."

A human being is not one thing among others; things determine each other, but man is ultimately self-determining. What he becomes—within the limits of endownment and environment—he has made out of himself. We watched and witnesses some of our comrades behave like swine while others behaved like saints. Man has both potentialities within himself; which one is actualized depends on decisions but not on conditions.<a href="https://www.justologist.com/mans-search-for-meaning/">Read The Full Article Here.</a><a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join the Community.</a>

In A Nutshell

To live is to suffer; to survive is to find meaning in suffering. If there is a purpose in life, there must be a purpose in suffering and dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself and accept his answer's responsibility.

Over 16 million copies sold worldwide 'Every human being should read this book' Simon Sinek One of the outstanding classics to emerge from the Holocaust, Man's Search for Meaning is Viktor Frankl's story of his struggle for survival in Auschwitz and other Nazi concentration camps. Today, this remarkable tribute to hope offers us an avenue to finding greater meaning and purpose in our own lives.

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A prominent Viennese psychiatrist before the war, Viktor Frankl was uniquely able to observe the way that he and other inmates coped with the experience of being in Auschwitz. He noticed that it was the men who comforted others and who gave away their last piece of bread who survived the longest - and who offered proof that everything can be taken away from us except the ability to choose our attitude in any given set of circumstances. The sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not of camp influences alone. Only those who allowed their inner hold on their moral and spiritual selves to subside eventually fell victim to the camp's degenerating influence - while those who made a victory of those experiences turned them into an inner triumph. Frankl came to believe that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. This outstanding work offers us all a way to transcend suffering and find significance in the art of living.

Viktor Emil Frankl M.D., Ph.D., was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as a Holocaust survivor. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy, which is a form of Existential Analysis, the "Third Viennese School" of psychotherapy.His book Man's Search for Meaning (first published under a different title in 1959: From Death-Camp to Existentialism. Originally published in 1946 as Ein Psycholog erlebt das Konzentrationslager) chronicles his experiences as a concentration camp inmate and describes his psychotherapeutic method of finding meaning in all forms of existence, even the most sordid ones, and thus a reason to continue living. He was one of the key figures in existential therapy.

Viktor E. Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

Everyone has insecurities. Those who attain high standing in life want to feel secure in their positions, and superior to those around them.<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Commit harmless mistakes that will not hurt you in the long run but will give you the chance to ask for his help.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Make it clear that your advice is merely an echo of his advice.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">You cannot worry about upsetting every person you come across but you must be selectively cruel. If he is very weak and ready to fall, let nature takes its course.</li></ul> Key to Power: Never take your position for granted. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/the-48-laws-of-power/">Read The Full Article Here</a>.<a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join the Community</a>.

Law 1: Never Outshine The Master.

<ul><li>People forget the favors they have received and imagine they have earned their success on their own merits.</li><li>While a friend expects more and more favors and seethes with jealousy, these former enemies expect nothing and got everything.</li></ul> Key to Power: Judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

Law 2: Never Put Too Much Trust In Friends, Learn To Use Enemies.

Part I: Use Red Herrings.<ul><li>Our first instinct is to always trust appearances.</li><li>Cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise dishonesty in other.</li><li>Kill three birds with one stone: appear friendly, conceal your intentions, and send your rivals on time-consuming wild-goose chases.</li></ul> Part II: Use Smoke Screens.<ul><li>The paranoid and wary are often the easiest to deceive.</li><li>Win their trust in one area, and you have a smoke screen that blinds them in another.</li><li>The best deception is bland and inconspicuous, which calls no attention.</li></ul> Key to Power: If you keep people off the balance, they can't counter your efforts

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions.

<ul><li>Power is, in many ways, a game of appearance, and when you say less than necessary, you inevitably appear more powerful than you are.</li><li>Once the words are out, you cannot take them back.</li><li>Short answers and silences will put people on the defensive, nervously filling the silence with all kinds of comments that will reveal valuable information about them and their weaknesses.</li></ul> Key to Power: The less you say, the more intimidating you are.

Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary.

<ul><li>Establish a reputation for one outstanding quality that sets you apart and gets other people to talk about you.</li><li>A solid reputation increases your presence and exaggerates your strengths without having to spend much energy.</li><li>It is wise to associate with someone whose image counteracts your own, using their good name to whitewash and elevate yours.</li></ul> Key to Power: When you have a solid reputation, you can undermine your opponent's efforts with ridicule.

Law 5: So Much Depends On Reputation—Guard It With Your Life.

<ul><li>Every crowd has a silver lining and they tend to act in conjunction.</li><li>Attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people.</li><li>Attack the most visible, most famous, most powerful person you can find.</li><li>The quality of attention is irrelevant.</li><li>An element of mystery can give you an intimidating presence as a leader.</li></ul> Key to Power: Play against people's expectations and welcome negative attention.  <a href="https://www.justologist.com/the-48-laws-of-power/">Read The Full Article Here.</a><a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join The Community.</a>

Law 6: Court Attention At All Cost.

<ul><li>The credit for an invention or creation is as important, if not more important, than the invention itself.</li><li>Keep your creation quiet until you can be sure there are no vultures circling overhead.</li><li>Learn to take advantage of other people’s work to further your own cause.</li><li>Use the past, a vast storehouse of knowledge and wisdom to build on the achievement of others.</li></ul> Key to Power: Don't waste time and energy, when you can simply wait for the right moment, then take others' lunch.

Law 7: Get Others To Do The Work For You, But Always Take The Credit.

<ul><li>Master your anger yet play on people’s natural tendency to react angrily when pushed and baited.</li></ul> Key to Power: Keep the initiative, to get others to react to your moves and keep them on the defensive.

Law 8: Make Other People Come To You—Use Bait If Necessary.

<ul><li>When you argue with someone, even if they seem to agree with you, you can never be certain how they will react.</li><li>Demonstrating your point is more effective and powerful. </li></ul> Key to Power: Learn to demonstrate the correctness of your ideas indirectly.

Law 9: Win Through Your Actions, Never Through Argument.

<ul><li>People are highly susceptible to the emotions and pathologies of those they spend time with.</li><li>The most damaging types of infectors are those who are perpetually dissatisfied and aggrieved.</li></ul> Key to Power: Choose who you are associated with carefully.

Law 10: Infection — Avoid The Unhappy And Unlucky.

<ul><li>Do not mistake independence for power; power requires a relationship.</li><li>Fear you can control; love, never. Better to have others depend on you out of fear of the consequences of losing you than out of love for your company.</li><li>Make yourself so indispensable that your superior is afraid to find out what their life would be like without you. </li></ul> Key to Power: Cultivate an irreplaceable talent or skill

Law 11: Learn To Keep People Dependent On You.

<ul><li>Give before you take.</li><li>Selective honesty is best employed on your first encounter with someone.</li><li>Calculated acts of kindness can turn a Capone into a gullible child.</li><li>Exceptions: When you have a history of deceit behind you, no generosity will fool people.</li></ul> Key to Power: Win people's hearts and you can set up your scheme without being noticed.

Law 12: Use Selective Honesty And Generosity to Disarm Your Victim.

<ul><li>Achieving power often requires seeking help from those above you.</li><li>To succeed in getting what you want, you need to understand their motives and tie them in with yours.</li></ul> Key to Power: Understand the person you are dealing with, and not confuse your needs with theirs.

Law 13: When Asking For Help, Appeal To People’s Self-Interest, Never To Their Mercy or Gratitude.

<ul><li>Use spies or be a spy yourself.</li><li>Pay attention at social gatherings where people's guards are downs.</li><li>Share a fake confession and someone else will give you a real one.</li></ul> Key to Power: Suppress oneself in the conversation, to make others talk endlessly about themselves and inadvertently reveal their intentions and plans.

Law 14: Pose As A Friend, Work As A Spy.

<ul><li>Chinese history abounds with examples of leaders who left their enemies alive out of mercy but returned to haunt them.</li><li>Recognize that you will accumulate enemies who you cannot bring over to your side, and that to leave them any escape will mean you are never secure.</li><li>When we sympathize with our enemies, we only strengthen their hate, and they will someday take revenge.</li></ul> Key to Power: Annihilate your enemy. Do not show leniency.

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally.

<ul><li>Preserve and enhance your status by withdrawing at the right moment, just before people start getting tired of you.</li><li>Make yourself less accessible to increase your value in others' minds.</li><li>Image: The Sun. It can only be appreciated in its absence. The longer the days of rain, the more the sun is craved. But too many hot days and the sun overwhelms.</li></ul> Key to Power: Scarcity increases value. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/the-48-laws-of-power/">Read The Full Article Here.</a><a href="https://www.justologist.com/#/portal/signup">Join The Community.</a>

Law 16: Use Absence to Increase Honor and Respect.

<ul><li>Nothing is more terrifying than the sudden and unpredictable. We do not know when they will strike. After one has occurred, we wait in terror for the next one.</li><li>Unpredictability draws attention and gets people talking, especially if you are the underdog. </li></ul> Key to Power: Instill a kind of fear by deliberately unsettling those around him to keep the initiative on his side.

Law 17: Keep Others in Suspended Terror—Cultivate An Air of Unpredictability.

<ul><li>Maintaining power requires social interaction.</li><li>An isolated person is an easy target with limited access to information.</li><li>Choose isolation only as a last resort. </li></ul> Key to Power: When faced with threats, resist the urge to isolate yourself.

Law 18: Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself—Isolation is Dangerous.

The Arrogant and Proud Man: Any perceived slight will lead to a vengeance of overwhelming violence. Flee these people.The Hopelessly Insecure Man: Attack you in small bites that will take forever to get big enough for you to notice. Do not stay around him.Mr.Suspicion: Sees the worse in others and imagines that everyone is after him. Easy to deceive — get him to turn on others. Key to Power: Never trust appearances or only rely on your instincts when judging someone; instead gather concentrated knowledge.

Law 19: Know Who You’re Dealing With — Do Not Offend the Wrong Person.

Part I: Be Courted By All.Play the Virgin Queen: Give them hope but never satisfaction.<ul><li>Put yourself in the middle between competing powers.</li><li>Lure one side with the promise of your help; the other side, always wanting to outdo its enemy, will pursue you as well.</li></ul> Part II: Stay Above The Fray.When the fighting parties are good and tired they will be ripe for the picking.<ul><li>People who rush to the support of others tend to gain little respect, for their help is so easily obtained.</li></ul> Key to Power: Keep yourself free of commitments and obligations—they are the device of another to get you into his power.

Law 20: Do Not Commit To Anyone.

<ul><li>Intelligence, taste, and sophistication are all things you can downplay to reassure others they are more advanced than you.</li><li>The easier they think it is to prey on you, the more easily you can turn the tables.</li></ul> Key to Power: If you make other people feel smarter than you, they'll let down their guard and fail to notice your motives.

Law 21: Play A Sucker to Catch A Sucker — Seem Dumber Than Your Mark

<ul><li>When you are weak, there is nothing to be gained by fighting a useless fight. No one comes to help the weak.</li><li>People trying to make a show of their authority are easily deceived by the surrender tactic: inwardly you stay firm, but outwardly you bend.</li><li>Your outward sign of submission makes them feel important; satisfied that you respect them, they become easier targets for a later counterattack.</li></ul> Key to Power: Lulling the enemy into complacency gives you time to recoup, time to undermine, and time for revenge. Never sacrifice that time in exchange for honor in a battle that you cannot win.

Law 22: Use The Surrender Tactic — Transform Weakness into Power

<ul><li>Drunk with success and sick with ambition, empires expand to grotesque proportions and meet a ruin that is total.</li><li>Concentrate on a single goal and beat it into submission.</li><li>Extent alone never rises above mediocrity, and it is the misfortune of men with wide general interests that while they would like to have their finger in every pie, they have one in none.</li></ul> Key to Power: Prioritize intensity over extensity.

Law 23: Concentrate Your Forces

The Laws of Court Politics<ul><li>Avoid Ostentation: modesty is always preferable.</li><li>Practice Nonchalance: your talent must appear to flow naturally, with ease.</li><li>Be Frugal with Flattery: flatter indirectly by being modest.</li><li>Arrange to be Noticed: pay attention to your appearance, and find a way to create a subtly distinctive style and image.</li><li>Never Be the Bearer of Bad News: the messenger is always killed. Bring only glad news.</li><li>Do Not Be the Court Cynic: express admiration for the good work of others.</li></ul> Key to Power: Play by the rules of the environment and thrive in any situation.

Law 24: Play the Perfect Courtier

<ul><li>Forge a new identity, one of your own making, one that has had no boundaries assigned to it.</li><li>Develop self-awareness to take control of your appearances and emotions.</li><li>Create a memorable character that compels attention.</li></ul> Key to Power: Know how to be all things to all men. That is the art of winning over everyone, for like attracts like.

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself.

Part I: Have a Scapegoat to Take The Blame.Our good name and reputation depend more on what we conceal than on what we reveal.<ul><li>Shift the guilt and sin to an outside figure—object, animal, or man—which is banished.</li><li>Set up the “Fall of the Favorite” — why would the king sacrifice him unless he were guilty?</li></ul> Part II: Use A Cat’s Paw.You need a cat’s paw—someone who does the dirty, dangerous work for you.<ul><li>Do everything pleasant yourself, everything unpleasant through third parties.</li></ul> Key to Power: All men make mistakes, but the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public.

Law 26: Keep Your Hands Clean.

<ul><li>Keep it Vague; Keep it Simple: Most people want to hear that a simple solution will cure their problems.</li><li>Emphasize the Visual and the Sensual over the Intellectual: Create a spectacle.</li><li>Borrow the Forms of Organized Religion: Organise followers into a hierarchy, rank them in grades of sanctity, and give them titles.</li><li>Set Up an Us-Verses-Them Dynamic: Unified by your goals, manufacture the notion of a common enemy out to ruin you all.</li></ul> Key to Power: People have a desperate need to believe in something, and belong to a cause. Become the magnet, the invisible force that attracts people's imaginations.

Law 27: Play On People’s Need to Believe to Create A Cult-Like Following.

<ul><li>The Bolder The Better: Ask for the moon and you’ll be surprised how often you get it. The largeness of scale deceives the human eye.</li><li>Lions Circle the Hesitant Prey: Everything depends on perception, and once you demonstrate a willingness to compromise, you will be pushed around without mercy.</li><li>Boldness Strikes Fear; Fear Creates Authority: When you are as small and obscure as David was, you must find a Goliath to attack. The larger the target, the more attention you gain.</li></ul> Key to Power: Root out the habit of timidity and replace it with boldness.

Law 28: Enter Action With Boldness.

<ul><li>The ending is everything that determines the glory, the money, the prize.</li><li>Overcome the natural tendency to react to things as they happen, and instead train oneself to step back.</li><li>So much of power is not what you do but what you do not do—the rash and foolish actions that you refrain from before they get you into trouble.</li></ul> Key to Power: Begin with an end in mind.

Law 29: Plan All The Way To The End.

<ul><li>Research and practice endlessly before appearing in public.</li><li>Conceal the effort behind one’s work. One never sees the source of a god’s power revealed; one only sees its effects.</li><li>Revealing tricks lets others use them against you.</li><li>The more mystery surrounds your actions, the more awesome your power seems—the appearance of having an exclusive gift.</li></ul> Key to Power: Make it seem easy.

Law 30: Make Your Accomplishments Seem Effortless.

<ul><li>Withdrawal and disappearance are classic ways of controlling the options.</li><li>Give people a sense of how things will fall apart without you, and you offer them a “choice”: I stay away, and you suffer the consequences, or I return under circumstances that I dictate.</li><li>Color the Choices: Propose multiple solutions but always present the favored option as the best compared to the others.</li><li>The Shrinking Options: Raise the price every time the buyer hesitates and another day goes by.</li></ul> Key to Power: Control the options to disguise yourself as an agent of power and punishment.

Law 31: Control the Options — Get Others To Play With The Cards You Deal.

<ul><li>The Reality: Change is slow and gradual. It requires hard work, a bit of luck, a fair number of sacrifices, and a lot of patience.</li><li>The Fantasy: A sudden transformation will bring a total change in one’s fortunes, bypassing work, luck, self-sacrifice, and time in one fantastic stroke.</li><li>Image: The Moon. Unattainable, always changing shape, disappearing and reappearing. We look at it, imagine, wonder, and pine—never familiar, continuous provoker of dreams. Do not offer the obvious. Promise the moon.</li></ul> Key to Power: Promise the moon at the right moment, when spirits are low.

Law 32: Play to People’s Fantasies.

<ul><li>Find the Helpless Child: Most weaknesses begin in childhood before the self builds up compensatory defenses.</li><li>Find the Weak Link: Win the favor of those behind the scenes and you indirectly influence the king. Find the one person who will bend under pressure.</li><li>Fill the Void: Insecurity and unhappiness.</li><li>Feed on Uncontrollable Emotions: Passions and obsessions that cannot be controlled—Lust, Greed, Vanity, Hatred. People’s need for validation and recognition, their need to feel important, is the best kind of weakness to exploit.</li></ul> Key to Power: Exploit others' weaknesses.

Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew.

<ul><li>It is within your power to set your own price.</li><li>Ask for less and that is just what you will get. Ask for more, however, and you send a signal that you are worth a king’s ransom.</li><li>The Strategy of the Crown: If we believe we are destined for great things, our belief will radiate outward, just as a crown creates an aura around a king.</li><li>The David and Goliath Strategy: By choosing a great opponent, you create the appearance of greatness.</li><li>The Patreon Strategy: Give a gift to those above you.</li></ul> Key to Power: Do not wait for a coronation; the greatest emperors crown themselves.

Law 34: Be Royal In Your Own Fashion: Act Like A King to Be Treated Like One.

<ul><li>Power rarely ends up in the hands of those who start a revolution; power sticks to those who bring a conclusion.</li><li>Long Time: Have remarkable patience, control your emotions, and take advantage of opportunities when they arise.</li><li>Forced Time: Upset the timing of our opponents.</li><li>End Time: Recognize the spirit of times and act decisively. Bring things to a swift and definitive conclusion.</li></ul> Key to Power: Be patient and wait for your moment. Recognize when the time is right and act decisively.

Law 35: Master the Art of Timing.

<ul><li>You choose to let things bother you. Turn your back on what cannot harm you in the long run.</li><li>If there is something you want but that you realize you cannot have, the worse thing you can do is draw attention to your disappointment by complaining about it.</li><li>Treat your mistakes lightly.</li></ul> Key to Power: Learn to distinguish between the potentially disastrous and the nuisance. Most small troubles will vanish on their own if you leave them be.

Law 36: Disdain Things You Cannot Have — Ignoring Them Is The Best Revenge.

<ul><li>Words stir up arguments and division; images, which bypass rational thought, create powerful emotional associations.</li><li>Use symbols to rally, excite, and unify your followers.</li><li>If you have to explain yourself your power is already in question.</li></ul> Key to Power: People do not always want words or rational explanations; they want an immediate appeal to their emotions.

Law 37: Create Compelling Spectacles.

<ul><li>Most unconventional people learn to blend in with others and to share their differing views only with like-minded people.</li><li>Display conventional behavior and mouth conventional ideas without having to believe in them.</li><li>Once you have established yourself in a position of power, you can try to convince a wider circle of the correctness of your ideas.</li><li>Play the clever fox and feign the common touch.</li></ul> Key to Power: Recognize the invaluable ability to be all things to all people.

Law 38: Think As You Like But Behave Like Others.

<ul><li>When the waters are still, your opponents have the time and space to plot against you. So stir the waters, force the fish to the surface, get them to act before they are ready, and steal the initiative.</li><li>Play on uncontrollable emotions: pride, vanity, love, and hate.</li><li>Tantrums neither intimidate nor inspire loyalty. They only create doubts and uneasiness about your power.</li><li>Look at the emotional outburst as a disguised power move, an attempt to control or punish you cloaked in the form of hurt feelings and anger.</li></ul> Key to Power: Keep your head while others are losing theirs.

Law 39: Stir Up Waters to Catch Fish.

<ul><li>What is offered free often comes with a psychological price tag.</li><li>Everything must be judged by its cost, and everything has a price.</li><li>Value the strategic generosity — “give when you are about to take” and put the recipient under obligation.</li><li>Be flexible with your wealth, putting it to work, not to buy objects, but to win people’s hearts.</li><li>Humans instill objects with meaning and value—these are what make them worth having.</li></ul> Key to Power: Use money as a tool of power to strategically enhance your reputation.

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch.

<ul><li>Many successors struggle when they have to succeed a great leader parent.</li><li>The father most often manages to amass his fortune, his kingdom, because he begins with little or nothing.</li><li>When a man like this has a son, he becomes domineering and oppressive, imposing his lessons on the son, who is starting off life in different circumstances than him.</li><li>The son will never step out of his father’s shadow unless he disparages the past and creates his own kingdom.</li></ul> Key to Power: Never let yourself be seen as following your predecessor’s path. Establish a style and symbolism that sets you apart.

Law 41: Avoid Stepping into A Great Man’s Shoes.

<ul><li>In every group, there is a person who controls the power, determining the group's effectiveness. </li><li>Find the source and isolate them: physically, politically, or psychologically.</li><li>Lure him away from their power base at the critical moment.</li><li>Image: A Flock of Fatted Sheep. Do not waste precious time trying to steal a sheep or two. Aim at the shepherd. Lure him away and the dogs will follow. Strike him down and the flock will scatter—you can pick them off one by one.</li></ul> Key to Power: Strike the one head that matters the most—the person with willpower, smarts, or most important of all, charisma.

Law 42: Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep Will Scatter.

<ul><li>The key to persuasion is working on people's emotions and playing on their intellectual weaknesses.</li><li>Play on Contrasts: Push people to despair, then give them relief. If they expect pain and you give them pleasure, you win their hearts.</li><li>A great cause may capture minds, but once the first flush of excitement is over, interest will flag—unless there is something to be gained.</li></ul> Key to Power: Win hearts and minds through people's emotions and weaknesses.

Law 43: Work On the Hearts and Minds of Others.

<ul><li>The Neutralizing Effect: Do what your enemies do, following their actions as best you can, and they cannot see what you are up to—they are blinded by your mirror.</li><li>The Narcissus Effect: Reflect their desires, values, and tastes.</li><li>The Moral Effect: Give them a taste of their own medicine.</li><li>The Hallucinatory Effect: Create a perfect copy of an object, a place, a person, that people take for the real thing.</li></ul> Key to Power: Use mirror effects to disturb others, giving you the power to manipulate and seduce them.

Law 44: Disarm and Infuriate With the Mirror Effect.

<ul><li>Humans are creatures of habit and change upsets our routines.</li><li>The man who initiates strong reforms often becomes the scapegoat for any kind of dissatisfaction.</li><li>Preach change, but maintain the comforting appearance of familiar traditions.</li></ul> Key to Power: Say the right things, make a show of conformity, and meanwhile let your theories do their radical work.

Law 45: Preach the Need for Change, But Never Reform Too Much At Once.

Never Underestimate the Power of Envy:<ul><li>Once success happens, the people to fear the most are those in your own circle, the friends and acquaintances you have left behind.</li><li>Beware signs of envy: excessive praise, hypercritical people, public slandering.</li><li>Either dampen your brilliance occasionally, purposefully revealing a defect, or attribute your success to luck.</li></ul> Key to Power: Occasionally admit to harmless vices to deflect envy.

Law 46: Never Appear Too Perfect.

<ul><li>You must be guided by reason. To let a momentary thrill or an emotional victory influence or guide your movies will prove fatal.</li><li>History is littered with ruins of victorious empires and corpses of leaders who could not learn to stop and consolidate their gains.</li><li>Good luck is more dangerous than back luck, as it deludes you into thinking your own brilliance is the reason for your success.</li><li>The powerful vary their rhythms and patterns, change course, adapt to circumstances, and learn to improvise.</li></ul> Key to Power: Begin with an end in mind (Law 29) and be guided by reason, not emotion.

Law 47: Do Not Go Past the Mark You Aimed For; In Victory, Learn When to Stop.

<ul><li>The powerful are not locked into a single system; they are constantly adapting their systems to suit their needs.</li><li>Learning to adapt to each new circumstance means seeing events through your own eyes and often ignoring the advice that people constantly peddle your way.</li><li>When you find yourself in conflict with someone stronger and more rigid, allow them a momentary victory—conform on the surface while breaking down your enemy from the inside.</li></ul> Key to Power: Be flexible, fluid, and unpredictable. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/newsletter/">Subscribe Here to the Justologist Newsletter for more Book Notes!</a>

Law 48: Assume Formlessness.

Learn the Game of Power: Master your emotions. Play with appearances. Shift your perspective on the world. Learn from those who came before you.

THE MILLION COPY INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER Drawn from 3,000 years of the history of power, this is the definitive guide to help readers achieve for themselves what Queen Elizabeth I, Henry Kissinger, Louis XIV and Machiavelli learnt the hard way. Law 1: Never outshine the master Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends; learn how to use enemies Law 3: Conceal your intentions Law 4: Always say less than necessary. The text is bold and elegant, laid out in black and red throughout and replete with fables and unique word sculptures. The 48 laws are illustrated through the tactics, triumphs and failures of great figures from the past who have wielded - or been victimised by - power. ___________________________________ (From the Playboy interview with Jay-Z, April 2003) PLAYBOY: Rap careers are usually over fast: one or two hits, then styles change and a new guy comes along. Why have you endured while other rappers haven't? JAY-Z: I would say that it's from still being able to relate to people. It's natural to lose yourself when you have success, to start surrounding yourself with fake people. In The 48 Laws of Power, it says the worst thing you can do is build a fortress around yourself. I still got the people who grew up with me, my cousin and my childhood friends. This guy right here (gestures to the studio manager), he's my friend, and he told me that one of my records, Volume Three, was wack. People set higher standards for me, and I love it.

business

Business

Amoral, cunning, ruthless, and instructive, this multi-million-copy New York Times bestseller is the definitive manual for anyone interested in gaining, observing, or defending against ultimate control – from the author of The Laws of Human Nature. In the book that People magazine proclaimed “beguiling” and “fascinating,” Robert Greene and Joost Elffers have distilled three thousand years of the history of power into 48 essential laws by drawing from the philosophies of Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, and Carl Von Clausewitz and also from the lives of figures ranging from Henry Kissinger to P.T. Barnum.   Some laws teach the need for prudence (“Law 1: Never Outshine the Master”), others teach the value of confidence (“Law 28: Enter Action with Boldness”), and many recommend absolute self-preservation (“Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally”). Every law, though, has one thing in common: an interest in total domination. In a bold and arresting two-color package, The 48 Laws of Power is ideal whether your aim is conquest, self-defense, or simply to understand the rules of the game.

Robert Greene is an American author of books on strategy, power, and seduction. He has written six international bestsellers, including The 48 Laws of Power, The Art of Seduction, The 33 Strategies of War, The 50th Law, Mastery, and The Laws of Human Nature.

Robert Greene

The 48 Laws of Power

The 48 Laws Of Power

<ul><li>Successful people find value in the most unexpected places. They think in terms of principles, not formulas.</li><li>Refining an existing idea moves the world from 1 to n, but to move from 0 to 1, we must create something new.</li><li>Progress comes from Monopoly, not competition. </li></ul>

Every moment in business happens only once

A start-up is the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future. <ul><li>Big organisations are risk adverse</li><li>A brilliant loner does not have the means to create a new industry</li></ul>It takes multiple people to create new technology, but also smallness for momentum and flexibility.

Why Start-ups?

The first and most crucial decision is whom to start it with.<ul><li>Ownership: who will run the company's equity</li><li>Possession: who will run the company's routine</li><li>Control: who will govern the company</li></ul>

Building a Strong Foundation

<ol><li>Proprietary Technology: 10x Better than next best alternative.</li><li>Network Effects: Provide immediate value to early adopters.</li><li>Economies of Scale: Cost per unit declines as production increases.</li><li>Branding: A reputation that differentiates itself from competitors and guarantees quality.</li></ol>

Monopoly Characteristics

<ol><li>It's better to be bold than inconsequential</li><li>A Bad Plan is better than none</li><li>Don't Compete: competition destroys profits</li><li>Sales Strategy matters as much as product</li></ol>

Lessons of the Dot-Com Bubble

Small changes have disproportionate results."The secret in venture funding is that the top investment equals or exceeds the rest of the fund combined." <ul><li>One market will bring the greatest success</li><li>One distribution strategy will outperform all others</li><li>Some moments will count more than others</li><li>What's more important probably is not obvious</li></ul>

The Power Law

The best place to find secrets is to ask questions no one is asking and look where no one else is looking. <ul><li>"What important truth do few people agree with you on?"</li><li>"What valuable company is nobody building?"</li></ul>The best entrepreneurs know this: every successful business is built around a secret that's hidden from the outside. A great company is a conspiracy to change the world; when you share your secret, the recipient becomes a fellow conspirator. <a href="https://www.justologist.com/newsletter/">Subscribe to my Newsletter to Learn More!</a>

Finding Secrets

'Zero to One' is one of my all-time favorite books. Peter Thiel discusses how successful companies are built around a strong foundation, secrets, and monopolies. This book is for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors who want to build a valuable business that creates new things, rather than develop on existing ideas. 

WHAT VALUABLE COMPANY IS NOBODY BUILDING? The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin wonâe(tm)t make a search engine. If you are copying these guys, you arenâe(tm)t learning from them. Itâe(tm)s easier to copy a model than to make something new: doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. Every new creation goes from 0 to 1. This book is about how to get there. âe~Peter Thiel has built multiple breakthrough companies, and Zero to One shows how.âe(tm) ELON MUSK, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla âe~This book delivers completely new and refreshing ideas on how to create value in the world.âe(tm) MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO of Facebook âe~When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times. This is a classic.âe(tm) NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB, author of The Black Swan

Man's Search for Meaning

The 48 Laws Of Power

Zero to One

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Justin Chau