Political Theory

The How, Why, When & Where

Marcus Rotten

If you are planning to be a political or diplomatic figure you should really read this book. Just as all those other successful rulers and counselors have done. If you just want to know a little more about what is going on, try the excerpts you find below.

Preface

Even in a world so diverse as ours is, being adept in practicing politics is always useful and worthwhile. Even under the rule of the most nefarious dictator, it is the politicians who accomplish the most. They have the skill, the attitude and the soothing nature that may convince anyone to see things their way.

Those who consider politicians in a negative way, disgusted by the manipulative wording, the smugness of their successes, the turn of events opposite to their wishes, are just jealous. It is the approach that belongs to the lazy and uninterested masses that can't be moved to make changes themselves and for that reason expect others to make the changes for them. Once those changes are different from their wishes, they blame the people who did what they did not. They are narrow minded and pathetic people we ought not to pay any attention to.

Make sure then to do whatever is in your power, disregarding all obstacles as insignificant nuisances, trample down your opponents, deaf to their arguments, and reach for your goals. This work will firmly set you on your path to success.

Gathering Information

Tied for first place in good political strategy is the gathering of information. This can count on multiple levels. One can need information simply to know which topics are currently under negotiation. But of course, usually someone already has his own topic to put on the agenda. In that case, one logically needs information on this topic in particular. But there are many forms of information, all of them useful in their own way. For instance, one should not dismiss the importance of information on what your opponents are planning to do.

Of course the use of spies has ever been and will always be a good and trustworthy way to gain information. But there are some very serious drawbacks. In some circles spies are seen as unfair or even illegal. Your spies may be caught, leading to a lapse in your information in the best case, and even a certain level of judicial repercussions as an accomplice in the worst case. What many forget to take into account however, is that the spies may be turned. Someone may offer them a good sum of money, or a dismissal of charges, if they will offer you false information, spy on their own behalf, or even do both. In what ways you want to discover this, or prevent this from happening, I leave to your own discretion. But it might at least be wise to have spies spy on your spies.

The use of information on getting information works as follows. Imagine you have information on a problem that an employee of your opponent is facing. You can use this information to help this employee out of his problems, and then use his gratitude to supply you with the answers to some pressing questions you may have.

Making sure you move around in the right circles is not limited to parties and gathering of the important and influential people of society. You would be amazed at the amount of information a good conversationalist or sharp listener may pick up in inns and taverns, church squares, markets and other places where the common folk gather and gossip. People like sharing information with others, so we should be like pigeons picking up the scraps.

Memberships and Social Interaction

The other part of good politics that shares its first place in importance with information gathering, is being a member of the right groups. Being a good politician means spending a good deal of your time interacting with a large variety of social groups, preferably from all walks of life. Not surprisingly these two first place position are extensions of each other.

Be a member of some charitable organization, be a part of a church gathering or better yet, of several, take up leisure activities, sign up for clubs, unions and associations. The more the merrier is your watchword. To move around in different circles means oodles of information. Not just in small talk and casual conversation, but also in the possibility of talking to someone in private conversation and aiming straight for the bullseye.

Now one should not overlook the advantages in even being friendly with groups and individuals you hate and loathe. If you are one of those idiots that do not want to deal with those who do not agree with you, not only will you miss out on a significantly large portion of information on them, but also you will have a harder time influencing them when the need arises. Be a friend to your foes.

Lastly, understand that money is power, and power is influence. Such that money ultimately is influence. An important thing to know in politics. Become an ally to the biggest enterprises and the richest houses in your town, city, region or country. Help them to get laws approved that aid them, and stop those that stand in their way. Make you sure you make them bigger and richer, and fiercely fight their competition. Barring the moment that it appears unavoidable that their competition is going to overtake them in power, wealth in influence. That would be the moment you switch sides before going down with the losers. You will see that rich and powerful individuals and organizations know how to be thankful far better than the poor and powerless. They will return the favor, when you are in a pickle, when you need to be reelected, and ultimately when you end your political career and are looking for a comfortable retirement.

Preparing your Information

Once you have access to all the information you might need to be productive in your political activities, you need to carefully put everything in order. What information has come from which source? Are there several sources for your information, or just one? What kind of information does it concern? Can you use if for yourself, or might it help your opponent? And so on.

Once you have a good store of useful information to support your own case, make sure to prove all the snippets you plan to use in political discourse. Little things are so damaging as using an argument to defend your side of an argument, only to have it disproved by the opposition.

Have you found out all or most of the information your opponent has gathered, you can use this to start predicting what your opponent is going to do with this. Are there threads he might use, which you could disprove as untrue, lies or perversions? Good, making your opponent seem like an idiot, untrustworthy, a liar, or any such insidious character will do more to win your case, than any information you may have found to argue in favor of your side.

Prepare rebuttals tailor made to the arguments your opponent is probably going to use, based on the information he is working with. Presenting counter information, other viewpoints on subjective matter, questionable character of sources, all can be used to weaken the weaponry of your opponent. And not least of all, most audiences are easily bored by long political discourse. They will often forget most of what has been said, remembering mainly the last thing they heard. So if you manage to silence your opponent by your interruption, most often caused by presenting him with a question he has no answer to, you will be able to leave the audience with just your counter arguments.

Do you know of information that might help your opponent, but has not yet reached his ears? All is fair in war and politics. Shun no action aimed at annihilating the information that is best kept from your opponent. Make sure the source goes away, bribe witnesses, burn books, wreck objects, rebuild wrecks, and most of all, be creative. Dangerous information can't be made harmless. It should be eliminated wholly. Ideally, even those who know that the now lost information once existed, should be got rid of.

Preparing your Statements

Now that we have our information selected and filed, it is time to work on presenting the 'facts', the arguments supporting them, the defense against possible rebuttals, and most important of all the form and language with which to do all this.

So make sure to present the facts, points, or arguments you have as common knowledge. Saying that it is reasonable to do a certain thing, or that everyone knows that something is the way it is, is not enough here. You need to work on presenting your story as if you are agreeing with the audience. Sentences like: “Of course I too feel that it is not ideal, but I'm sure you don't want to … either”. Throwing in some general social interest here is ideal. Think of such events as 'go hungry', 'lose your employment', 'become sick', 'be afraid for your children's future'. Especially this last snippet is pure gold. People can be easily turned to your side of the argument through something they love dearly.

Present the supporting evidence as being carefully tested and the result of hard work. “Our scientists have been studying this for months...”, is a very good opening statement for supporting evidence. Another would be: “In other cities it has been found that ...”, or “As we have seen in ...” If some other party has done all the work that most people are too lazy or impatient to do themselves, it does miracles to make your audience happy that a looming Herculean task has been removed from their path.

Rebuttals are strongest if they can immediately discredit the opposition or their source. It helps your cause enormously to know what rebuttals may follow your statements, find out what is weak about them, and have your counter rebuttal at the ready. Something along the line of: “I too have heard that rumor, but surely you know that it was spread by a notorious fraud, who has blown smoke into wise discourse before?” will often be enough to silence the opposition and grant you the opportunity to proceed with your arguments unhindered.

Preparing Rebuttals

To be clear this chapter is about your own rebuttals, not about they way to deal with those of the opposition. You can read that part in the last chapter. No, the following concerns the way you silence the reasoning behind the opposing opinion. But much like what has already been discussed in previous chapters, this too is helped greatly by character assassination. But especially in the case of presenting your own rebuttals, it is paramount that you are sure where the weaknesses in your opponent's arguments are.

As soon as you hear the piece of misinformation being mentioned, that which was fed by your own counter spies, or just the result of poor fact checking, you break into the speaker's arguments to call his bluff. Don't be afraid to be cruel here. Don't beat around the bush, but go straight for the heart. Words like: “That is a lie!”, “You have to be kidding!”, or “Do you seriously expect us to believe that?” are perfect opening of a rebuttal.

Here too a little sucking up to the audience may strengthen your rebuttal. One might suggest that the opposing party is apparently trying to fool the audience, or that they consider the audience to be dimwitted. One might also imply some belonging to the same audience. Concepts as: “We have all heard that one before” with a metaphorical or even a real wink to the audience, will probably win hearts and gain some smirks.

One should neither be afraid to be honest about the animosity between you and your opponents. Don't be afraid to say something like: “Well, that could be expected from someone like you I guess.” It is only petty and useless if not accompanied by strong counter arguments that disprove the one you react to.

Buying Witnesses

Barring all the true and false information helping your case on all sides, there might be need for something extra. After all, no one knows for sure if information alone is going to turn decisions where you want them to go. Maybe the information is lacking, maybe it is stacked against you, or maybe it is just not convincing enough. At such points it might help to add a little information on your side of the fence.

So to convince these people to come out in support of your case, a little incentive may be warranted. Most people reluctant to speak out at first, become a lot more loose lipped when their ears perceive the clink of gold coins.

Especially people of the lower ranks of society will have little moral obstacles that can't be bested by the promise of wealth. Find one source for your side and buy ten more to simply say they have noticed, seen, heard or experienced the same, and all of a sudden your information is no longer obscure or questionable. Now you are presenting a well known 'fact'.

Especially for character assassination witnesses are easy tools. Many argument has been won, not on the basis of the facts of either side, but because one party was accused of immoral behavior and therefor no longer someone whose words could carry any amount of weight. An esteemed judge giving his solemn word that something is really true, is believed by no one, when the audience is presented with a small girl saying he forced her to rub his private parts. Witnesses to these things are scandalously easy to buy in bulk in the filthy alleyways of the poorer parts of any town or city.

Buying Judges

Is your case is judged by a single man, the easiest, quickest and simplest way to win your case is buying the judge. Be careful here, for almost any society you encounter has big issues with this bribery. But the results can be so overwhelming, that it is always an option to keep in mind and consider carefully.

Here too information is helpful. Is using mere coin either too expensive or too dangerous to use in the buying of your desired outcome, than try to do the buying in kind. If you happen to know a desire of the judge in question, ideally a dark and warped desire, one might offer to fulfill that desire in exchange for a small trifle of help. The same goes for some difficulty the judge has gotten into, which you are in the way of being able to help resolve.

Be very careful going as far to buy a judge with threats. They are the most likely to backfire and with the most dire consequences. If you choose to walk this path, make absolutely certain it is next to impossible to prove, and the threat is as real as possible. Threatening someone with something he considers you can't actually pull off, will certainly acquire the opposite effect of what you wished, compounded with the wrath and revenge the injured party may unleash upon your head.

Buying Councils

Is your case judged by a number of individuals, as opposed to the one person explained in the last chapter, there are subtle differences in the buying of allies for your cause. Unless you have ample power and wealth to do so, try to refrain from trying to buy everyone. And in the case you can actually pull off the buying up the complete council, jury or society? Do you really need to be buying even a single person if you're position is this strong?.

So divide your council roughly in three groups. Those most likely to choose your side, those most likely to oppose it, and the ones that might swing either way. Needless to say, it is the last group that you should concentrate your efforts on. If you sway these people you will most likely gain the upper hand in the decision, without needing to put more time, effort and money in the case.

Again information is key. The group that is undecided is certain to sway this way or that on the basis of something they consider important or even paramount. Find out what it is that pull these people to either side and see how you can offer this thing without dropping your cause. If this is done properly you might not even need to do any of dangerous bribing as described in the previous chapter. One might present the thing your audience wants simply in the arguments of your case. Think about arguments like: “If we do it like this, it will cause this other thing to grow with it, and solve the problems concerning...” This might work in your favor just as much as if it was a heap of gold and gems offered to greedy poor beggars.

The Power of Repetition

Having worked on the information for making our own case and defeating that of the enemy, and on the making sure enough people are on your side to tip the scales in your favor, we get to the work of the politician in public discourse. A good politician is not always presenting a case in a courtroom, king's hall or council chamber. He is always presenting his case however. In other words, even when talking to friends, speaking at events and festivities, having conversations, being a guest somewhere, the politician is always defending his case.

The most important way to break down any opposition in society as well as the individual is by getting others to start presenting your case. Getting others to present your case is much more easy than one might think. It is simply accomplished by repeating your view again and again and again. Imagine someone is assaulting your arguments by saying they are bad or detrimental. You might counter him by saying that some study or earlier occurrence or article of proof clearly shows that what you profess has positive effects greatly outweighing any possible negative effects. Now as the conversation proceeds, all you need to do, is repeat this statement about the positive outweighing the negative regularly, and especially whenever some objection to your side is being voiced. Just keep saying it again and again. And once this conflict is over, repeat it to each and every person that asks about it, or refers to it, or comes up with similar arguments. Before you know it people will tell each other that you were charged on your case, but rebutted with the fact that the positive effects outweigh the negative, and this becomes truth, even when it wasn't truth before.

A great help in achieving society wide repetition of your arguments, is gaining as much help from wherever you can get it. Needless to say all those public figures in your circle of friends and acquaintances that also support your case should be informed on the words they need to repeat. But there are other sources as well that may echo whatever you say without necessarily agreeing with you. Think town criers, archivists, historians, bards and the like. Whenever someone is in a position to captivate audiences and filling the ears of groups and scores of people, make sure you bombard these people with the repetition you want to spread at every opportunity you get. Whenever they think about your case, or are asked about it, it should be your words that are still ringing in their ears as the echo in a deep well.

The Power of Innocence

Regardless of how many of the previously recommended methods you have used. Regardless of how well you have kept your nose clean, or prevented others from discovering your dirtier dealings. There will always come in the life of a politician, that moment you are confronted with something you can't defend. Now when some party asks you whether or not you did something loathsome, illegal or questionable, you could always lie of course.

Here too information comes into play. Know beforehand what the general disposition is towards any of your actions, so you know what to deny. Also know what actions of yours that are frowned upon have become rumor or general knowledge in society. Which of your dealing may be thrown back in your face any time soon? And start work on how to claim innocence on the part of the awful action, the unlawful method, the immoral behavior.

Now often times you may know that simply denying a thing may present its own immediate or future problems. There may be proof that you did something, or such proof might surface. Even if you've always been careful to eliminate damning evidence, something may still linger in a forgotten corner. There is a trick to claim innocence even then. You ought to deny remembering the thing. It may not seem like that at first, but this is really the best option you have when you can't be sure a lie would not hold up to scrutiny. After all, between an immoral ass, a lying bastard and a forgetful sod, the latter is obviously the least likely to harvest disdain, anger and resentment.

One of the better ways to prevent problems in the future requires employing people you can trust to do the things that you really don't need to do yourself. Take something we already covered, such as bribing a judge, or eliminating a piece of evidence, if your hired hands do this for you, you can claim not to know about it later. As a concept of securing innocence for the politician, this tactic is known as plausible deniability. Keep this concept always in mind as you proceed on the path to becoming a successful politician.

The Power of Smiling

So we have come to the last but not least tactic of how to act in public. As a politician you are bound to do some dirty rotten things regularly, if ever you hope to become successful. This is bound to gain you a bad reputation. People will certainly hate you. The more success the more enemies is a watchword that fits any politician. But there really is no limit to the amount of horrible things you can sell to the public, as long as you sell them with a sincere smile on your face.

Even telling mothers their children will again go hungry this week, will seem much less like a rotten thing to do, as long as you pass this information with a friendly smile and joyous eyes. Sure, the mothers will want to drink your blood, but the guard whose job it is to protect you from their attacks, will defend you as a really nice guy, who has always been friendly to him.

And that goes on throughout all levels of society, and all the years of your political life. People you haven't stepped on to get ahead, but have always received a friendly smile from you whenever they encountered you, are going to be selling you as a market vendor sells a product. “I understand you think he is a dirty rotten bastard, but I have actually met him once, and he was really friendly and understanding. I think he just needs to make difficult choices sometimes. That is the problem with his line of work I guess.” It is marvelous to see how easy it is to sell the biggest criminal or the most nefarious psychopath with nothing more than a friendly face and some fake interest.

The Skill of Saying Nothing

Now, as an addition to the way to act, there is also a way to speak. This comes on top of whatever short message you keep repeating, as discussed before, and as an addition to the concept of claiming innocence. It is the art of saying nothing tangible or substantial even while talking and answering questions.

Now this concept is kind of hard to describe in a short way with clear examples of what and how. But imagine it like this. Imagine being asked about some political decision you stand for, but know will probably cause some measure of protest amongst the public. Act as if you are answering the question, but actually do anything but actually answering. Throw in some repetitions if you like, talk in broad terms about the arguments you had prepared for the council hall or King's audience, but never even broach the subject of the original question. To make it a little clearer how this works, look at the following conversation: “Good afternoon sir, is it true that your government is going to kill all the puppies in the country?” Well, that topic has been discussed as well today. “Yes, so is it true?” Sorry, is what true? “Is your government planning on killing all puppies?” Well, you should understand we need to take into account all the different factors of this question of what to do about not just the puppies, but also the problems that orbit this problem. After all we have the health and welfare of our children to keep in mind. We can't just throw away their future, just because of short term advantages. “So does that mean you are planning to kill all puppies?” It's not that simple you see. When you think about the health and welfare of our children, we must consider what it would take to protect that health. Maybe it means having to do something to puppies. But maybe we don't want to do something detrimental to puppies. Should that mean we should just throw away the future of our children because of we don't have to do something bad to puppies? “Well, did it mean you have to do something bad to puppies? “Well, imagine it would be necessary? Say you should do something bad to puppies, or for instance you need to pay a little more tax, or you have to buy a little less luxury clothing this month, would that be too much to pay for the health and welfare of your children? - And so on. As such you can see the wonderful art of saying nothing, combined with the important tactic of repetition. From now on, when people hear the word puppy, many of them will automatically think of keeping their children healthy and happy.

The Skill of Controlling the Masses

Something known to rulers for ages already is that people need an outlet for their anger. The more misery and pain they have to deal with, the more they need somewhere to vent their aggression and anger. This is why some societies have arena's, where men fight to the death just to please the public.

Since you cannot please everyone, every decision you will ever make will create unhappiness, dissatisfaction and unrest. You need to curb these emotions. Make sure the anger of the people has somewhere to go. Not every society has something as bloody as an arena, but pretty much every society has contact sports of some kind, where people can unleash their pent up emotions on their fellow men. Often times these forms of aggression remain in the same social economic class, snugly saving you and your class of the wealthy and influential from all this violence.

If the poor and powerless masses are not voluntarily clashing with their peers, or the discharge is insufficient to calm their emotions, all is not lost. There is another way to make sure the hate and anger remains far from your doorstep. All it takes is feeding the angry men with a common enemy. Especially when there already is a rooted dislike for the scapegoat. Most people are xenophobic to such extents, that spreading the rumor that their misfortunes are caused by a group of foreigners, the individuals of a certain race, or a certain social group such as a religious congregation, or progressive thinkers, the anger that might very easily threaten you and your allies is almost instantly diverted to this group. But there are a great many ways to let one group focus their wrath on another. Be creative in this method.

Even with all these ways to simply let people vent their ire, it cannot be avoided wholly that there will still be some measure of malcontent to your person or group, fermenting under the surface of society. No matter what measures you take to stay out of the crosshairs, some people will still want to rise up against the wealthy and successful classes, out of pure jealousy, and feelings of unfairness. Look closely to the histories of successful empires of the past and you will easily discern their successes and failures in preventing insurrections, revolts and insurgences. The trick is that revolt is very dangerous, destructive and impoverishing. The people with the skills, drive and talents to successfully start insurrections realize this fact. The way we can use such this understanding of the dire consequences or their actions, is making sure these people never get to the point that they have nothing left to lose.

Let's explain this concept. Someone who is afraid to lose his job, house, family, friends, or anything similar that he loves, will be hesitant to rise up in violence. Someone who has already lost his job, house, family and loved ones, will certainly, undoubtedly rise up and tear down the villas and palaces of the ruling class in an all consuming fire of retribution.

The Skill of Divide and Conquer

The final chapter ties snugly into the last one. As we described in the last chapter, people who need to vent anger, can be convinced or persuaded to focus their attention to their peers. The ultimate skill of the successful politician is making sure these peers are logical and preferred targets.

One way to make sure aggression in society is fought out between groups that don't matter, is making sure these warring parties hate each others guts. This is the basis of the divide and conquer principle.

A society that acts as a whole, where its people consider themselves as a more or less equal group with more or less equal interests is a dangerous thing. It could be used very well to muster people for war against a foreign army, but can just as easily be used to thrum up support for a nationwide revolt. People alone are weak and insignificant, people united are near indestructible and a force to be reckoned with.

In times of peace, make sure every member of your society distrusts, dislikes and disapproves of every other member. Hunters should hate farmers, men should hate women, lawyers should hate philosophers, everyone should hate guards, everyone should hate tax collectors, and so on. If you decide to open a tannery in a street full of houses, and every single person in that street hates all his neighbors, they will individually protest the coming of this industry to their front door, but will have no strength or power to stop it happening. If the entire street joins hands, they become a serious nuisance in the path of progress. If the surrounding streets selflessly join the residents of this street to make an even bigger group of complainants, you are going to have to look for another location for you tannery.

The simplest way to prevent selflessness by promoting selfishness, is not by evoking it openly and clearly, but rather by claiming that people are personally responsible for their success and happiness. “Yes, the fisherman is poor, but if he considers that a problem, why did he become a fisherman in the first place? He could have simply studied a little harder, and became a lawyer or judge or doctor. Surely we are not expected to help him out because he deliberately chose the simple way?” Let such ways of thinking simmer for a while in society and before you know it every individual is just that. An individual that stands alone and without allies against the full might and power of the ruling class. A divided society is a fruitful and profitable society. An egalitarian and social society will start sharing the wealth and no one will ever be rich again. Such a society will go without great palaces, nobility covered in gems and jewelry, enormous companies going far and wide to draw in the wealth of foreign wild men and barbarians, great banquets, personally owned game forests, gold coaches and silver sailing vessels. In other words a boring and mediocre society where the true and great politician no longer has any function. To a politician, to support sharing means to destroy yourself.

Type

Study, Scientific