https://illimitablemen.com/2017/03/31/machiavellian-maxims-part-5/

As usual, the first 25 maxims are here, the rest are on the blog. Enjoy!

  1. – Cull the fickle, insolent, and disloyal, for even if it injures you in the short-term, it will benefit you in the long.

  2. – Being likeable is a conflict avoidance strategy.

  3. – When dealing with pedants, jobsworths and fault finders, use subjunctives such as “if”, “perhaps” and “maybe”, so they can’t nail you down to a position. Anything that can be misconstrued, will be, plausible deniability is thus paramount.

  4. – Trust is a self-fulfilling prophecy, the less you trust the other party, the less they’ll trust you. The inverse is also true; the more you trust the other party, the likelier they’ll trust you.

  5. – When people don’t like you, they look for flaws in your methods in an attempt to discredit you. Give them something non life-threatening to chew on.

  6. – Faced by a lion, most will step back, not forward.

  7. – Egotists will underestimate you, cowards will overestimate you.

  8. – Projection: most people posit the opinion they hold of themselves as a notable exception for generality in counterargument.

  9. – When you describe a man to himself in accurate yet unflattering detail, you deal a crippling blow to his psyche.

  10. – The waiting game is a necessary game, as such, it is strategically optimal to outwait those who would test your patience.

  11. – If power is defined as one’s ability to impose their will onto the world, then money is the commodification of power in physical form.

  12. – The more words you use, the less they’ll like what you say.

  13. – Misdirection: if they say a lot of words without communicating a bottom line, they’re deceiving you.

  14. – War is everything. All the time, everywhere, war rages constantly. It has different forms, intensities, and appearances, but it persists perpetually, eternally.

  15. – Competition is not war per se, but rather, its predicate. One can compete indirectly and without maliciousness of intent. War on the other hand is wilful violation, for it is less distant, more immediate, and manifests itself as conflict or sabotage.

  16. – Frames are a war of propaganda. Do not absorb the other side’s frame, have them absorb yours. Whoever absorbs first, loses. If neither side concedes, stalemate. Caveat: satire.

  17. – Intelligent energy allocation is a fundamental principle of effective strategy, for bereft energy, there is nothing.

  18. – Pragmatism is king, doubly so when one is suffering.

  19. – Strong ethics are oft the superficial purview of the elite and the substantive limiter of the loser.

  20. – The middle class are confined to methodologically unsound moral codes, for it ensures they’re neither a threat nor a factor in the game of power.

  21. – The poorest and the richest tend to be the least moral, for the poor have dire need, whereas the rich possess excess power; desperation and domination alike lend themselves to immorality.

  22. – The immoral rich are unvirtuous on a greater scale than the immoral poor, for they have greater means with which to impose their ethics. The immoral poor in turn justify their immorality based on the actions of the immoral rich, people they’d likely mimic given the same resources.

  23. – For the rich it’s easy to be moral because they can afford to be, for the poor, it’s easy to be moral because there’s little power to tempt them.

  24. – The method necessary to win and it’s associated reputation are entirely distinct entities. Method is effectiveness, reputation is perception.

  25. – If you want to sell someone, lie to them. If you want to help them, hit them with the truth. A spoonful of humour helps the medicine go down.