3 LAW 3: CONCEAL YOUR INTENTIONS
JUDGMENT
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue
what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide
them far enough down the wrang path, envelop them in
enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late
PART I: USE DECOYED OBJECTS OF DESIRE AND RED
HERRINGS TO THROW PEO PLE OFF THE SCENT
If at any point in the deception you practice people have the slightest suspicion as to your intentions, alt is lost. Do not give them the chance to sense
what you are up to: Throw them off the scent by dragging red herrings
across the path. Use false sincerity, send ambiguous signals, set up misleading objects of desire. Unable to distinguish the genuine Jrom the false,
they cannot pick out your real goal.
TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW
Over several weeks, Ninon de Lenclos, the most infamous courtesan of
seventeenth-century France, listened patiently as the Marquis de Sevigne
explained his struggles in pursuing a heautiful hut difficult young countess.
Ninon was sixty-two at the time, and more than experienced in matters of
love; the marquis was a lad of twenty-two, handsome, dashing, hut hopelessly inexperienced in romance. At first Ninon was amused to hear the
marquis talk ahout his mistakes, hut finally she had had enough. Unahle to
hear ineptitude in any realm, least of all in seducing a woman, she decided
to take the young man under her wing. First, he had to und understand that this
was war, and that the beautiful countess was a Citadel to which he had to
lay siege as carefully as any general. Every step had to he planned and executed with the utmost attention to detail and nuance.
Instructing the marquis to start over, Ninon told him to approach the
countess with a hit of distance, an air of nonchalance. The next time the
two were alone together, she said, he would confide in the countess as
would a friend hut nota potential lover. This was to throw her off the scent.
The countess was no longer to take his interest in her for granted-perhaps
he was only interested in friendship.
Ninon planned ahead. Once the countess was confused, it would he
time to make her jealous. At the next encounter, at a major fete in Paris, the
marquis would show up with a heautiful young woman at his side. This
heautiful young woman had equally heautiful friends, so that wherever the
countess would now see the marquis, he would he surrounded hy the most
stunning young women in Paris. Not only would the countess he seething
with jealousy, she would come to see the marquis as someone who was desired hy others. It was hard far Ninon to make the marquis understand, hut
she patiently explained that a woman who is interested in a man wants to
see that other women are interested in him, to. Not only does that give
him instant value, it makes it all the more satisfying to snatch him from
their clutches.
Once the countess was jealous hut intrigued, it would he time to he guile her. On Ninon's instructions, the marquis would fail to show up at affairs where the countess expected to see him. Then, suddenly, he would
appear at salons he had never frequented hefore, hut that the countess at
tended often. She would be unable to predict his moves. All of this would
push her into the state of emotional confusion that is a prerequisite for successful seduction.
These moves were executed, and took several weeks. Ninon monitored the marquis's progress: Through her network of spies, she heard how
the countess would laugh a litde harder at his witticisms, listen more
closely to his stories. She heard that the countess was suddenly asking questions about hirn. Her friends told her that at social affairs the countess
would often look up at the marquis, following his steps. Ninon felt certain
that the young woman was falling under his spell. It was a matter of weeks
now, maybe a month or two, but if all went smoothly, the citadel would
fall.
A few days later the marquis was at the countess's horne. They were
alone. Suddenly he was a different man: This time acting on his own impulse, rather than following Ninon's instructions, he took the countess's
hands and told her he was in love with her. The young woman seemed
confused, a reaction he did not expect. She became polite, then excused
herself. For the rest of the evening she avoided his eyes, was not there to
say good-night to hirn. The next few times he visited he was told she was
not at horne. When she finally admitted hirn again, the two feIt awkward
and uncomfortable with each other. The spell was broken.
INTERPRETATION
Ninon de Lenclos knew everything about the art of love. The greatest writers, thinkers, and politicians of the time had been her lovers-men like La
Rochefoucauld, Moliere, and Richelieu. Seduction was a game to her, to be
practiced with skill. As she got older, and her reputation grew, the most important families in France would send their sons to her to be instructed in
matters of love.
Ninon knew that men and women are very different, but when it
comes to seduction they feel the same: Deep down inside, they often sense
when they are being seduced, but they give in because they enjoy the feeling of being led along. It is a pleasure to let go, and to allow the other person to detour you into a strange country. Everything in seduction,
however, depends on suggestion. You cannot announce YOUR intentions or
reveal them direcdy in words. Instead you must throw your targets off the
scent.
To surrender to YOUR guidance they must be appropriately confused.
You have to scramble your signals-appear interested in another man or
woman (the decoy), then hint at being interested in the target, then feign
indifference, on and on. Such patterns not only confuse, they excite.
Imagine this story from the countess's perspective: After a few of the
marquis's moves, she sensed the marquis was playing some sort of game,
but the game delighted her. She did not know where he was leading her,
but so much the better. His moves intrigued her, each of them keeping her
waiting for the next one--she even enjoyed her jealousy and confusion, for
sometimes any emotion is better than the boredom of security. Perhaps the
marquis had uIterior motives; most men do. But she was willing to wait and see, and probably if she had been made to wait long enough, what he was
up to would not have mattered.
The moment the marquis uttered that fatal word "love," however, all
was changed. This was no longer a game with moves, it was an artless show
of passion. His intention was revealed: He was seducing her. This put
everything he had done in a new light. All that before had been charming
now seemed ugly and conniving; the countess feit embarrassed "and used.
A door closed that would never open again.
Do not be held a cheat, even though it is impossible to live today without being one.
Let your greatest cunning lie in covering up what looks like cunning.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW
In 1850 the young Otto von Bismarck, then a thirty-five-year-old deputy in
the Prussian parliament, was at a turning point in his career. The issues of
the day were the unification of the many states (including Prussia) into
which Germany was then divided, and a war against Austria, the powerful
neighbor to the south that hoped to keep the Germans weak and at odds,
even threatening to intervene if they tried to unite. Prince William, next in
line to be Prussia's king, was in favor of going to war, and the parliament
rallied to the cause, prepared to back any mobilization of troops. The only
ones to oppose war were the present king, Frederick William IV, and his
ministers, who preferred to appease the powerful Austrians.
Throughout his career, Bismarck had been a loyal, even passionate
supporter of Prussian might and power. He dreamed of German unification, of going to war against Austria and humiliating the country that for so
long had kept Germany divided. A former soldier, he saw warf are as a glorious business.
This, after all, was the man who years later would say, "The great questions of the time will be decided, not by speeches and resolutions, but
by iron and blood."
Passionate patriot and lover of military glory, Bismarck nevertheless
gave a speech in parliament at the height of the war fever that astonished
all who heard it. "Woe unto the statesman," he said, "who makes war without a reason that will still be valid when the war is over! After the war, you
will all look differently at these questions. Will you then have the courage
to turn to the peasant contemplating the ashes of his farm, to the man who
has been crippled, to the father who has lost his children?" Not only did
Bismarck go on to talk of the madness of this war, but, strangest of all, he
praised Austria and defended her actions. This went against everything he
had stood for. The consequences were immediate. Bismarck was against
the war-what could this possibly mean? Other deputies were confused,
and several of them changed their votes. Eventually the king and his ministers won out, and war was averted.
A few weeks after Bismarck's infamous speech, the king, grateful that
he had spoken for peace, made hirn a cabinet minister. A few years later he
became the Prussian premier. In this role he eventuaIly led his country and
a peace-loving king into a war against Austria, crushing the former empire
and establishing a mighty German state, with Prussia at its head.
INTERPRETATION
At the time of his speech in 1850, Bismarck made several calculations.
First, he sensed that the Prussian military, which had not kept pace with
other European armies, was unready for war-that Austria, in fact, might
very weIl win, a disastrous result for the future. Second, if the war were lost
and Bismarck had supported it, his career would be gravely jeopardized.
The king and his conservative ministers wanted peace; Bismarck wanted
power. The answer was to throw people off the scent by supporting a cause
he detested, saying things he would laugh at if said by another. A whole
country was fooled. It was because of Bismarck's speech that the king made
hirn a minister, a position from which he quickly rose to be prime minister,
attaining the power to strengthen the Prussian military and accomplish
what he had wanted all along: the humiliation of Austria and the unification of Germany under Prussia's leadership.
Bismarck was certainly one of the cleverest statesman who ever lived,
a master of strategy and deception. No one suspected what he was up to in
this case. Had he announced his real intentions, arguing that it was better
to wait now and fight later, he would not have won the argument, since
most Prussians wanted war at that moment and mistakenly believed that
their army was superior to the Austrians. Had he played up to the king,
asking to be made a minister in exchange for supporting peace, he would
not have succeeded either: The king would have distrusted his ambition
and doubted his sincerity.
By being completely insincere and sending misleading signals, however, he deceived everyone, concealed his purpose, and attained everything he wanted. Such is the power of hiding your intentions.
KEYS TO P OWER
Most people are open books. They say what they feel, blurt out their opinions at every opportunity, and constantly reveal their plans and intentions.
They do this for several reasons. First, it is easy and natural to always want
to talk about one's feelings and plans for the future. It takes effort to control
your tongue and monitor what you reveal. Second, many believe that by
being honest and open they are winning people's hearts and showing their
good nature.They are greatly deluded. Honesty is actually a blunt instrument, which bloodies more than it cuts. Your honesty is likely to offend
people; it is much more prudent to tailor your words, telling people what
they want to hear rather than the coarse and ugly truth of what you feel or
think. More important, by being unabashedly open you make yourself so
predictable and familiar that it is almost impossible to respect or fear you,
and power will not accrue to a person who cannot inspire such emotions.
If you yearn for power, quickly lay honesty aside, and train yourself in
the art of concealing your intentions. Master the art and you will always
have the upper hand. Basic to an ability to conceal one's intentions is a
simple truth about human nature: Our first instinct is to always trust appearances. We cannot go around doubting the reality of what we see and
hear-constantly imagining that appearances concealed something else
would exhaust and terrify uso This fact makes it relatively easy to conceal
one's intentions. Simply dangle an object you seem to desire, a goal you
seem to aim for, in front of people's eyes and they will take the appearance
for reality. Once their eyes foeus on the decoy, they will fail to notice what
you are really up to. In seduction, set up conflictin signal , such as desire
and indifference, and you not only throw them off the scent, you inflame
their desire to possess you.
A tactic that is often effective in setting up a red herring is to appear to
support an idea or cause that is actually contrary to your own sentiments.
(Bismarck used this to great effect in his speech in 1850.) Most people will
believe you have experienced a change of heart, since it is so unusual to
play so lightly with something as emotional as one's opinions and values.
The same applies for any decoyed object of desire: Seem to want something in which you are actually not at all interested and your enemies will
be throWll off the scent, making all kinds of errors in their calculations.
During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1711, the Duke of Marlborough, head of the English army, wanted to destroy a key French fort, because it proteeted a vital thoroughfare into Franee. Yet he knew that if he
destroyed it, the French would realize what he wanted-to advance down
that road. Instead, then, he merely captured the fort, and garrisoned it with
some of his troops, making it appear as if he wanted it for some purpose of
his OWN. The French attacked the fort and the duke let them reeapture it.
Once they had it back, though, they destroyed it, figuring that the duke had
wanted it for some important reason. Now that the fort was gone, the road
was unprotected, and Marlborough could easily march into France.
Use this tactie in the following manner: Hide your intentions not by
closing up (with the risk of appearing secretive, and making people suspicious) but by talking endlessly about your desires and goals-just not your
real ones. You will kill three birds with one stone: You appear friendly,
open, and trusting; you conceal your intentions; and you send your rivals
on time-consuming wild-goose ehases.
Another powerful tool in throwing people off the scent is false sincerity. People easily mistake sincerity for honesty. Remember-their first instinet is to trust appearances, and sinee they value honesty and want to
believe in the honesty of those around them, they will rarely doubt you or
see through your facade. Seeming to believe what you say gives your words
great weight. This is how Iago deceived and destroyed: Given the
depth of his emotions, the apparent sincerity of his coneems about Desdemona supposed infidelity, how eould Othello distrust hirn? This is also
how the great con artist Yellow Kid Weil pulled the wool over suckers'
eyes: Seeming to believe so deeply in the deeoyed object he was dangling
in front of them (aphony stock, a touted racehorse), he made its reality
hard to doubt. It is important, of course, not to go too far in this area. Sincerity is a tricky tool: Appear overpassionate and you raise suspicions. Be measured and believable or your ruse will seem the put-on that it iso
To make your false sincerity an effective weapon in concealing your
intentions, espouse a belief in honesty and forthrightness as important social values. Do this as publicly as possible. Emphasize your position on this
subject by occasionally divulging some heartfelt thought-though only one
that is actually meaningless or irrelevant, of course. Napoleon's minister
Talleyrand was a master at taking people into his confidence by revealing
some apparent secret. This feigned confidence-a decoy-would then
elicit a real confidence on the other person's part.
r Remember: The best deceivers do everything they can to cloak their
roguish qualities. They cultivate an air of honesty in one area to disguise
I their dishonesty in others. Honesty is merely another decoy in their arsenal of weapons.
PART II: USE SMOKE SCREENS TO
DISGUISE YOUR ACTIONS
Deception is always the best strategy, but the best deceptions require a screen
of smoke to distract people's attention from your real pur pose. The bland
exterior-like the unreadable poker face-is often the perfect smoke screen,
hiding your intentions behind the comfortable and familiar. If you lead the
sucker down a familiar path, he won 't catch on when you lead him into a
trap.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW I
In 1910, a Mr. Sam Geezil of Chicago sold his warehouse business for close
to $1 million. He settled down to semiretirement and the managing of his
many properties, but deep inside he itched for the old days of deal-making.
One day a young man namedJoseph Weil visited his office, wanting to buy
an apartment he had up for sale. Geezil explained the terms: The price was
$8,000, but he only required a down payment of $2,000. Weil said he
would sleep on it, but he came back the following day and offered to pay
the full $8,000 in cash, if Geezil could wait a couple of days, until a deal
Weil was working on came through. Even in semiretirement, a clever businessman like Geezil was curious as to how Weil would be able to come up
with so much cash (roughly $ 150,000 today) so quickly. Weil seemed reluctant to say, and quickly changed the subject, but Geezil was persistent. Finally, after assurances of confidentiality, Weil told Geezil the following
story.
Weil's uncle was the secretary to a coterie of multimillionaire financiers. These wealthy gentlemen had purchased a hunting lodge in
Michigan ten years ago, at a cheap price. They had not used the lodge for a
few years, so they had decided to seIl it and had asked Weil's uncle to get
whatever he could for it. For reasons-good reasons-of his own, the uncle
had been nursing a grudge against the millionaires for years; this was his
chance to get back at them. He would seIl the property for $35,000 to a setup man (whom it was Weil's job to find). The financiers were too wealthy to
worry about this low price. The set-up man would then turn around and
seIl the property again for its real price, around $155,000. The uncle, Weil,
and the third man would split the profits from this second sale. It was all
legal and for a good cause-the uncle's just retribution.
Geezil had heard enough: He wanted to be the set-up buyer. Weil was
reluctant to involve hirn, but Geezil would not back down: The idea of a
large profit, plus a little adventure, had hirn champing at the bit. Weil explained that Geezil would have to put up the $35,000 in cash to bring the
deal off. Geezil, a millionaire, said he could get the money with a snap of
his fingers. Weil finally relented and agreed to arrange a meeting between
the uncle, Geezil, and the financiers, in the town of Galesburg, Illinois.
On the train ride to Galesburg, Geezil met the uncle-an impressive man, with whom he avidly discussed business, Weil also brought along a companion, a somewhat paunchy man named George Gross. Weil explained to Geezil that he hirnself was a boxing trainer, that Gross was one
of the promising prizefighters he trained, and that he had asked Gross to
come along to make sure the fighter stayed in shape. For a promising
fighter, Gross was unimpressive looking-he had gray hair and a beer
belly-but Geezil was so excited about the deal that he didn't really think
ab out the man's flabby appearance.
Once in Galesburg, Weil and his uncle went to fetch the financiers
while Geezil waited in a hotel room with Gross, who promptly put on his
boxing trunks. As Geezil half watched, Gross began to shadowbox. Distracted as he was, Geezil ignored how badly the boxer wheezed after a few
minutes of exercise, although his style seemed real enough. An hour later,
Weil and his uncle reappeared with the financiers, an impressive, intimidating group of men, all wearing fancy suits. The meeting went well and the financiers agreed to sell the lodge to Geezil, who had already had the
$35,000 wired to a local bank.
This minor business now settled, the financiers sat back in their chairs
and began to banter about high finance, throwing out the name 'J.P. Morgan" as if they knew the man. Finally one of them noticed the boxer in the
corner of the room. Weil explained what he was doing there. The financier
countered that he too had a boxer in his entourage, whom he named. Weil
laughed brazenly and exclaimed that his man could easily knock out their
man. Conversation escalated into argument. In the heat of passion, Weil
challenged the men to a bet. The financiers eagerly agreed and left to get
their man ready for a fight the next day.
As soon as they had left, the uncle yelled at Weil, right in front of
Geezil: They did not have enough money to bet with, and once the financiers discovered this, the uncle would be fired. Weil apologized for getting him in this mess, but he had a plan: He knew the other boxer well, and
with a little bribe, they could fix the fight. But where would the money
come from for the bet? the uncle replied. Without it they were as good as
dead. Finally Geezil had heard enough. Unwilling to jeopardize his deal
with any ill will, he offered his own $35,000 cash for part of the bet. Even if
he lost that, he would wire for more money and still make a profit on the
sale of the lodge. The uncle and nephew thanked hirn. With their own
$15,000 and Geezil's $35,000 they would manage to have enough for the
bet. That evening, as Geezil watched the two boxers rehearse the fix in
the hotel room, his mind reeled at the killing he was going to make from both
the boxing match and the sale of the lodge.
The fight took place in a gym the next day. Weil handled the cash,
which was placed for security in a locked box. Everything was proceeding as planned in the hotel room. The financiers were looking glum at
how badly their fighter was doing, and Geezil was dreaming about the easy
money he was about to make. Then, suddenly, a wild swing by the financier's fighter hit Gross hard in the face, knocking hirn down. When he
hit the canvas, blood spurted from his mouth. He coughed, then lay still.
One of the financiers, a former doctor, checked his pulse; he was dead. The
millionaires panicked: Everyone had to get out before the police arrived they could all be charged with murder.
Terrified, Geezil hightailed it out of the gym and back to Chicago, leaving behind his $35,000 which he was only too glad to forget, for it seemed
a small price to pay to avoid being implicated in a crime. He never wanted
to see Weil or any of the others again.
After Geezil scurried out, Gross stood up, under his own steam. The
blood that had spurted from his mouth came from a ball filled with chicken
blood and hot water that he had hidden in his cheek. The whole affair had
been masterminded by Weil, better known as "the Yellow Kid," one of the
most creative con artists in history. Weil split the $35,000 with the financiers and the boxers (all fellow con artists)-a nice little profit for a few days' work.
Interpretation
The Yellow Kid had staked out Geezil as the perfect sucker long before he
set up the con. He knew the boxing-match scam would be the perfect ruse
to separate Geezil from his money quickly and definitively. But he also
knew that if he had begun by trying to interest Geezil in the boxing match,
he would have failed miserably. He had to conceal his intentions and
switch attention, create a smoke screen-in this case the sale of the lodge.
On the train ride and in the hotel room Geezil's mind had been completely occupied with the pending deal, the easy money, the chance to
hobnob with wealthy men. He had failed to notice that Gross was out of
shape and middle-aged at best. Such is the distracting power of a smoke
screen. Engrossed in the business deal, Geezil's attention was easily diverted to the boxing match, but only at a point when it was already too late
for hirn to notice the details that would have given Gross away. The match,
after all, now depended on a bribe rather than on the boxer's physical condition. And Geezil was so distracted at the end by the illusion of the boxer's death
that he completely forgot about his money.
Learn from the Yellow Kid: The familiar, inconspicuous front is the
perfect smoke screen. Approach your mark with an idea that seems ordinary enough-a business deal, financial intrigue. The sucker's mind is distracted, his suspicions allayed. That is when you gently guide hirn onto the
second path, the slippery slope down which he slides helplessly into your
trap.
OBSERVANCE OF THE LAW 11
In the mid-1920s, the powerful warlords of Ethiopia were coming to the realization that a young man of the nobility named Haile Selassie, also
known as Ras Tafari, was outcompeting them all and nearing the point
where he could prodaim hirnself their leader, unifying the country for the
first time in decades. Most of his rivals could not understand how this
wispy, , quiet, mild-mannered man had been able to take control. Yet in
1927, Selassie was able to summon the warlords, one at a time, to come to
Addis Ababa to declare their loyalty and recognize bim as leader.
Some hurried, some hesitated, but only one, Dejazmach Balcha of
Sidamo, dared defy Selassie totally. A blustery man, Balcha was a great
warrior, and he considered the new leader weak and unworthy. He pointedly stayed away from the capital. Finally Selassie, in his gentle but stern
way, commanded Balcha to come. The warlord decided to obey, but in
doing so he would turn the tables on this pretender to the Ethiopian
throne: He would come to Addis Ababa at his own speed, and with an
army of 10,000 men, a force large enough to defend hirnself, perhaps even
start a civil war. Stationing this formidable force in a valley three rniles
from the capital, he waited, as a king would. Selassie would have to come
to bim.
Selassie did indeed send emissaries, asking Balcha to attend an afternoon banquet in his honor. But Balcha, no fool, knew history-he knew
that previous kings and lords of Ethiopia had used banquets as a trap.
Once he was there and full of drink, Selassie would have hirn arrested or
murdered. To signal his understanding of the situation, he agreed to come
to the banquet, but only if he could bring his personal bodyguard-600 of
bis best soldiers, all armed and ready to defend hirn and themselves. To
Balcha's surprise, Selassie answered with the utmost politeness that he
would be honored to play host to such warriors.
On the way to the banquet, Balcha warned his soldiers not to get
drunk and to be on their guard. When they arrived at the palace, Selassie
was his charrning best. He deferred to Balcha, treated hirn as if he desperately needed his approval and cooperation. But Balcha refused to be
charmed, and he warned Selassie that if he did not return to his camp by
nightfall, his army had orders to attack the capital. Selassie reacted as if
hurt by his mistrust. Over the meal, when it came time for the traditional
singing of songs in honor of Ethiopia's leaders, he made a point of allowing
only songs honoring the warlord of Sidamo. It seemed to Balcha that Selassie was scared, intimidated by this great warrior who could not be outwitted. Sensing the change, Balcha believed that he would be the one to
call the shots in the days to come.
At the end of the afternoon, Balcha and his soldiers began their march
back to camp arnidst cheers and gun salutes. Looking back to the capital
over his shoulder, he planned his strategy-how his own soldiers would
march through the capital in triumph within weeks, and Selassie would be
put in his place, his place being either prison or death. When Balcha came
in sight of bis camp, however, he saw that something was terribly wrong.
Where before there had been colorful tents stretching as far as the eye
could see, now there was nothing, only smoke from doused fires. What
devil's magie was this?
A witness told Balcha what had happened. During the banquet, a large
army, commanded by an ally of Selassie's, had stolen up on Balcha's encampment by a side route he had not seen. This army had not come to
fight, however: Knowing that Balcha would}lave heard a noisy battle and
hurried back with his 600-man bodyguard, Selassie had ,armed his own
troops with baskets of gold and cash. They had sUITounded Balcha's army
and proceeded to purchase every last one of their weapons. Those who refused were easily intimidated. Within a few hours, Balcha's entire force had
been disarmed and scattered in all directions.
Realizing his danger, Balcha decided to march south with his 600 soldiers to regroup, but the same army that had disarmed his soldiers blocked
his way. The other way out was to march on the capital, but Selas sie had set
a large army to defend it. Like a chess player, he had predicted Balcha's
moves, and had checkrnated hirn. For the first time in his life, Balcha surrendered. To repent his sins of pride and ambition, he agreed to enter a
monastery.
Interpretation
Throughout Selassie's long reign, no one could quite figure hirn out.
Ethiopians like their leaders fierce, but Selassie, who wore the front of a
gentle, peace-loving man, lasted longer than any of them. Never angry or
impatient, he lured his victims with sweet smiles, lulling them with charm
and obsequiousness before he attacked. In the case of Balcha, Selassie
played on the man's wariness, his suspicion that the banquet was a trap-
which in fact it was, but not the one he expected. Selassie's way of allaying
Balcha's fears-letting him bring his bodyguard to the banquet, giving hirn
top billing there, making him feel in control--created a thick smoke screen,
concealing the real action three miles away.
Remember: The paranoid and wary are often the easiest to deceive.
Win their trust in one area and you have a smoke screen that blinds their
view in another, letting you creep up and level them with a devastating
blow. A helpful or apparently honest ge sture, or one that implies the other
person's superiority-these are perfect diversionary devices.
Properly set up, the smoke screen is a weapon of great power. It enabled the gentle Selassie to totally destroy his enemy, without firing a single
bullet.
Do not underestimate the power of Tafari. He creeps
like a mouse hut he has jaws like a lion.
KEYS TO POWER
If you believe that deceivers are colorful folk who mislead with elaborate
lies and tall tales, you are greatly mistaken. The best deceivers utilize a
bland and inconspicuous front that calls no attention to themselves. They
know that extravagant words and ge stures immediately raise suspicion. Instead, they envelop their mark in the familiar, the banal, the harmless. In
Yellow Kid Weil's dealings with Sam Geezil, the familiar was a business
deal. In the Ethiopian case, it was Selassie's misleading obsequiousness exactly what -Balcha would have expected from a weaker warlord. Once you have lulled your suckers' attention with the familiar, they
will not notice the deception being perpetrated behind their backs. This
derives from a simple truth: people can only focus on one thing at a time. It
is really too difficult for them to imagine that the bland and harmless person they are dealing with is simultaneously setting up something else. The
grayer and more uniform the smoke in your smoke screen, the better it
conceals your intentions. In the decoy and red herring devices discussed in
Part I, you actively distract people; in the smoke screen, you lull your victims, drawing them into your web. Because it is so hypnotic, this is often
the best way of concealing your intentions.
The simplest form of smoke screen is facial expression. Behind a bland,
unreadable exterior, all sorts of mayhem can be planned, without detection.
This is a weapon that the most powerful men in history have learned to perfect. It was said that no one could read Franklin D. Roosevelt's face. Baron
James Rothschild made a lifelong practice of disguising his real thoughts behind bland smiles and nondescript looks. Stendhal wrote of Talleyrand,
"Never was a face less of a barometer." Henry Kissinger would bore his opponents around the negotiating table to tears with his monotonous voice,
his blank look, his endless recitations of details; then, as their eyes glazed
over, he would suddenly hit them with a list of bold terms. Caught offguard, they would be easily intimidated. As one poker manual explains it,
"While playing his hand, the good player is seldom an actor. Instead he
practices a bland behavior that minimizes readable patterns, frustrates and
confuses opponents, permits greater concentration."
An adaptable concept, the smoke screen can be practiced on a number of levels, all playing on the psychological principles of distraction and
misdirection. One of the most effective smoke screens is the noble gesture.
People want to believe apparently noble gestures are genuine, for the belief
is pleasant. They rarely notice how deceptive these gestures can be.
The art dealer Joseph Duveen was once confronted with a terrible problem. The millionaires who had paid so dearly for Duveen's paintings were
running out of wall space, and with inheritance taxes getting ever higher, it
seemed unlikely that they would keep buying. The solution was the National
Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., which Duveen helped create in 1937 by
getting Andrew Mellon to donate his collection to it. The National Gallery
was the perfect front for Duveen. In one gesture, his clients avoided taxes,
cleared wall space for new purchases, and reduced the number of paintings
on the market, maintaining the upward pressure on their prices. All this
while the donors created the appearance of being public benefactors.
Another effective smoke screen is the pattern, the establishment of a series of actions that seduce the victim into believing you will continue in the
same way. The pattern plays on the psychology of anticipation: Our behavior conforms to patterns, or so we like to think.
In 1878 the American robber baronJay Gould created a company that
began to threaten the monopoly of the telegraph company Western Union.
The directors of Western Union decided to buy Gould's company up
they had to spend a hefty sum, but they figured they had managed to rid
themselves of an irritating competitor. A few months later, though, Gould
was it at again, complaining he had been treated unfairly. He started up a
second company to compete with Western Union and its new acquisition.
The same thing happened again: Western Union bought hirn out to shut
hirn up. Soon the pattern began for the third time, but now Gould went for
the jugular: He suddenly staged a bloody takeover struggle and managed
to gain complete control of Western Union. He had established a pattern
that had tricked the company's directors into thinking his goal was to be
bought out at a handsome rate. Once they paid hirn off, they relaxed and
failed to notice that he was actually playing for higher stakes. The pattern is
powerful in that it deceives the other person into expecting the opposite of
what you are really doing.
Another psychological weakness on which to construct a smoke screen
is the tendency to mistake appearances for reality-the feeling that if someone seems to belong to your group, their belonging must be real. This habit
makes the seamless blend a very effective front. The trick is simple: You simply blend in with those around you. The better you blend, the less suspicious you become. During the Cold War of the 1950s and '60s, as is now
notorious, a slew of British civil servants passed secrets to the Soviets. They
went undetected for years because they were apparently decent chaps, had
gone to all the right schools, and fit the old-boy network perfectly. Blending in is the perfect smoke screen for spying. The better you do it, the better you can conceal your intentions.
Remember: It takes patience and humility to dull your brilliant colors,
to put on the mask of the inconspicuous. Do not despair at having to wear
such a bland mask-it is often your unreadability that draws people to you
and makes you appear a person of power.
Image: A Sheep's Skin.
A sheep never marauds,
a sheep never deceives,
a sheep is magnificently
dumb and docile. With a
sheepskin on his back,
a fox can p ass right
into the chicken coop.
Authority: Have you ever heard of a skillful general, who intends to
surprise a citadel, announcing his plan to his enemy? Conceal your
purpose and hide your progress; do not disclose the extent of your
designs until they cannot be opposed, until the combat is over. Win
the victory before you declare the war. In a word, imitate those warlike people whose designs are not known except by the ravaged country through which they have passed. (Ninon de Lenclos, 1623-1706)
REVERSAL
No s moke sc reen, red herring, fals e s inc erity, or any other divers ionary device will s ucc eed in c onc ealing y our intentions if y ou already have an establis hed reputation for dec eption. And as you get older and achieve
success, it often bec omes increasngly difficult to disguise your cunning.
Every one knows you prac tic e dec eption; persistent playing naive and you
run the ris k of s eeming the rankes t hy poc rite, which will s everely limit
your room to maneuver. In s uch c as es it is better to own up, to appear the
hones rogue, or, better, the repentant rogue. Not only will you be admired
for y our frankness, but, most wonderful and str ange of all, y ou will be able
to continue y our str atagems.
As P.T. Barn um, the nineteenth-c entury king of humbuggery, grew
older, he learned to embrac e his reputation as a grand dec eiver. At one
point he organized a buffalo hunt in New Jers ey, complete with Indians
and a few imported buffalo. He public ized the hunt as genuine, but it c ame
off as so c ompletely fak e that the c rowd, ins tead of getting a ngry and as king for their money back, was greatly amus ed. They knew Barnum pulled
tricks all the time; that was the s ec ret of his success, and they loved him for
it. Learning a less on from this affair, Barnum s topped c onc ealing all of his
devic es, even revealing his dec eptions in a tell- all autobiography. As
Kierkegaard wrote, " The world wants to be deceived."
Finally, although it is wis er to divert attention from y our purpos es by
presenting a bland, familiar exterior, there are times when the colorful,
c ons pic uous ges ture is the right divers visonary tactic. The great charlatan
mountebanks of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe us ed humor
and entertai nment to dec eive their audienc es . Dazzled by a great s how, the
public would not notic e the c harlatans ' real intentions. Thus the s tar c harlatan hims elf would appea r in town in a night- black coach drawn by black
horses . Clowns, tightrope walkers, and s tar entertainers would accompany
him, pulling people in to his demonstr ations of elixirs and quac k potions .
The c harlatan made enterta inment s eem like the bus iness of the day ; the
bus iness of the day was ac tually the s ale of the elixirs and quac k potions.
Spec tac le and entertainment, clearly, are excellent devices to conceal
your intentions, but they c annot be us ed indefinitely. The public grows
tired and s us picious, and eventually catches on to the trick. And indeed the charlatans had to move quickly from town to town, before word spread that the potions were us eless a nd the entertai nment a trick. Powerful peopIe with bland exteriors, on the other hand- the Talley rands, the Rothsc hilds, the Selassies can practice their deceptions in the same place
throughout their lifetimes. Their act never wears thin, and rarely causes
suspicion. The colorful smoke screen should becaed cautiously, then, and
only when the occasion is right.
