Monday, July 8, 2024

Three Glorious Years of Taliban

ublic
Public
When Islam came out of the Arabian peninsula the western Christian world came out in strength in crusades.
Salahuddin Ayyubi defeated the combined might of the Christian world at Hittin in 1187 AC.
In 1492 the west discovered America and around the same time completed the expulsion of Muslims from Spain.
Around the same time the west discovered a route to India, bypassing the mighty Ottoman Empire.
Later on the west once again came out in strength and preparation and demolished one after another all the Muslim empires.
The west colonized nearly whole of the Muslim world.
India waged two freedom struggles against the British. First one was lost but in the second one the British were ousted.
As a result not only the Muslim countries but all the colonized countries threw away the yoke of colonialism.
But the west will not leave the Muslim world alone. The leadership of the western world passed from UK to US and after leading with the USSR in Afghanistan, through Muslims, the US has been constantly against Muslim countries. Sometimes the excuse is dictatorship but mostly it is Islamic defense mechanism - insert the J-word here.
At the moment the US is busy helping Israel commit a holocaust of Palastinian people.
Before that they had an ignominious exit from Afghanistan.
With the help of China the Taliban in Afghanistan have completed three glorious years.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Probe Israel

Question : Why does Israel yield so much power over the US?
Answer : (1) Financial might of Jewish people in the US. (2) US's cynical collaboration with Israel on international assassinations.

My view is that the Zionists went after the Nazi's involved in Jewish holocaust and once their job was finished they were left with their expertise to neutralize people and no work. Then US, CIA or otherwise, made liberal use of this expertise.

Mahmood Mamdani writes in his Good Muslim, Bad Muslim that role of Zionists in the Afghan war is among best kept secrets.

The US has been a partner in crime.

Europe will not go against US.

Muslim countries should put their act together and we shall get huge evidence about the ill doings of not only Israel but the US too.

Friday, January 26, 2024

Dialogue with a BJP Supporter Professor

 Q: What is the import of temple consecration on January 22, 2024 at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh state of India?

A: A pro BJP professor had the following conversation on his Facebook wall.


Title of the Post : Finally the Indian mind has been decolonized

 

Here are some of the comments.

 Mary Anne Cummings

What did I miss?
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Mary Anne Cummings a Hindu temple at the birth place of Lord Ram was vandalised in 1528 by Mughal invader Babar. Today on the same spot after 496 years a grand temple was consecrated with an idol of 5 year lord Ram by the Prime minister of india. For the first time in last 1000 years we could reclaim our temple.

Robin Erbacher
Thank you for the background Brajesh. I also heard in the story that a Mosque that was built on top had stood there for hundreds of years but torn down by crowds 30 years ago, leading to sectarian violence. Then this new temple has been partially built and consecrated today. No idea if I got that right but that’s what I thought I heard (NPR) 🤷🏻‍♀️

Brajesh Choudhary
Robin Erbacher yes there was a disused mosque there on that site. That mosque was built by Mir Baki a general of Babur, the first ruler of Mughal dynasty after destroying the temple at the birthplace of Rama in 1528. 1n 1992 on 6th December the disused mosque was pulled down by Hindus. The courts of india heard the case for almost 150 years from British days till 2019. In 2019, a constitution bench of the the Supreme Court of india gave a 5-0 verdict that there was ample proof that under the mosque if any structure existed it was a temple. The disputed land was given to Hindus and the Muslims were given 5 acres of land elsewhere just to soothe their feelings.
The Muslims have destroyed about 40000 temples in india. When you go to Indian temples and archeological sites and see broken hands, legs, face disfigured of the statues, all of them were largely done by Muslims because they don’t approve of idolatry. Robin, I hope you saw that at Elephanta when you were in Bombay.


Robin Erbacher
Mani Tripathi it was a brief story. They may have had it right, I was distracted a bit.

Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavated the Ram Babri Mosque site at the direction of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in Uttar Pradesh in 2003. When the thick report came out Professor Irfan Habib reviewed it in a talk at the Institute of Objective Studies at Aligarh (not related to AMU). I was present in the talk. There was no evidence of the Mosque being built at the sight of a temple.
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil Let’s not quote Irfan Habib the Islamist professor. The mosque was called masjid janmsthan. It was built in 1528 by demolishing the temple. The Supreme Court said that there was definitely a temple till 12th century and the remains under the temple were all of Sanatan culture and not Islamic. The birthplace was decided by the SC based on Skanda Puram which is mentioned in the report nearly 20 times. Please don’t quote selectively and never quote that charlatan if a historian Irfan Habib.
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil if you need the SC report, please send me your email. I will be happy to send you the pdf file.
 
Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary It is well known that Professor Irfan Habib is Marxist historiographer. People have differences with Marxist intellectuals but no serious person has ever accused them of being charlatans. Intellectuals with Saffron bent of mind are very biased about social, cultural and political issues. Hence their words about any one else apart from their own ilk carries no weight. Finally it is in public knowledge that the Supreme Court gave away the Masjid land in deference to the sentiments of the majority community. This is what your foreign FB friends should know.
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil no you are wrong. The land was given based on birth place of Lord Rama based on Skanda Puran. Please don’t try to wordsmith. Read the report. If you need it, just send your email and I will send the SC judgement.
 
Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary Is it not appeasement of majority community on part of the Honourable Supreme Court of India to give Masjid land for the construction of temple on the basis of Skand Puran?
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil Sir if you don’t know the culture of this country it is not my problem. India didn’t become a country in 1947, it has existed for millennia. The Hindu scriptures tell the story of india that existed prior to Muslim invasion and domination. Skanda Puran based information was just one part of information based on which SC gave its judgement. The other was ASI report that if there ever existed a structure under that so called mosque called Babri masjid it always was a temple. The history has recorded that Mir Baqi general of Babur demolished the temple in 1528. The mosque has been always called Masjid Janmsthan. Sir how much proof you need? Why you take pride in a structure which reflected Hindu humiliation and subjugation? I don’t understand.
One more fact. You know that Babur had a toy boy lover called Babri. He named that mosque on the name of his boy lover. Do you really want that? Maripat think about it.
 
Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary We know the culture of this country. The normal historical process brought India under Muslim rule. If it was subjugation that can be debated. Humiliation it was not. If it was humiliation then Man Singh and Birbal would not be with Akbar and Hakim Khan Sur with Maharana Pratap. But let us stick to Babri Masjid. Since the land was given to the majority community on the basis of Skand Puran then it was appeasement of the majority community.
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil you have your freedom to believe. The land was given on historical facts one of which was Skanda Puran too but if you want to negate historical facts it is your choice.
 
Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary No brother historicity is not decided on the basis of scriptures but archeology and the answer from that criterion is that there was no temple below the Mosque.
 
Brajesh Choudhary
Maripat Abu Adil the remains under the mosque was not Islamic but Hindu. That’s also true. So how a mosque came on that. If you want still to believe in Babur and Mir Baqi, I can’t help. Carry on. You have freedom to believe.
 
Maripat Abu Adil
Brajesh Choudhary Now my brother I suppose your foreign friends will have my point of view too and it is up to them to believe whom so ever they want to.
 
Brajesh Choudhary :
Maripat Abu Adil sure you can write your point of view. If I was worried with your views and what my foreign friends will think then I would have deleted your response but it is the tolerance in me that accepts all views but the truth of Islamic violence, barbarity and dehumanisation of Hindus in india or parts of india for 800 years can’t be negated. Its written all over india in its broken temples, burnt university, destroyed statues. It’s so sad that today’s Indian Muslims who have nothing to do with the invaders except that their forefathers changed their religion either out of fear or to seek favour still believe in those barbarians. That’s the biggest tragedy of modern India. And I am sad that you are one of them.

 

Th

Monday, January 22, 2024

January 22, 2024 Affront

 Affront : A remark or an action that causes offense or outrage.

Synonyms : Insult, Indignity

Friday, January 19, 2024

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 10

My present concern in this regard is the following : Can we use Tomita-Takesaki modular theory to derive the Page curve? In other words can we exploit the findings of CPW=Chandrasekaran-Penington-Witten to give a new derivation of the curve followed by the black hole entropy?

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 9

Here is the overall view of the CPW=Chandrasekaran-Penington-Witten paper.

1. Leutheusser-Liu studied large N limit of thermal correlation functions of single trace CFT operators.

2. Further progress was made by Witten in Gravity and Crossed Product [arXiv:2112.12828[hep-th]]. This converts the Type III von Neumann algebras to Type II(infinity) algebra.

3. Above construction has a limitation and what CPW do first is to remove it.

4. Then they go over to the GSL=Generalized Second Law of blackhole thermodynamics.

5. Finally they apply their results to a thought experiment with black holes and wormholes.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 8

Question : What are von Neumann algebras doing in this business?

Answer : In an article called Notes on Some Entanglement Properties of Quantum Field Theory Rev. Mod. Phys. 90(2018) 45003 [arXiv:1803.04993[hep-th]] Edward Witten answered a host of such questions.

The main idea is that when we make the move from quantum mechanics to quantum field theory entanglement is not merely a property of quantum states. Now it is elevated to a property of the operators acting on these states and hence to the algebras of the observables.

Witten's article is about explaining these issues.
Thankfully von Neumann already gave us the answer to some of the mathematical questions.

Witten collects many other essential mathematical details.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 7

My interest in this topic arose because Gautam Sengupta was excited by the appearance of the CPW = Chandrasekaran-Penington-Witten paper [arXiv:2209.10454[hep-th]] entitled Large N Algebras and Generalized Entropy.

This paper is a repetition of the earlier mentioned works on the proof of the QES proposal without using replica trick or Euclidean gravity.

They use Tomita-Takesaki modular theory to this end.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 6

The introduction of the Quantum Extremal Surfaces (QES) and the Generalized Second Law (GSL) of blackhole thermodynamics paved the way for the derivation of the Page curve.

This was done in parallel by Almheiri-Engelhardtt-Marolf-Maxfield as well as Penington in 2019.

Page curve is the curve followed by blackhole entropy and in deriving this we get the result that quantum information is not lost in the process of blackhole evaporation.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 5

Perhaps the most remarkable application of the concept of holographic entanglement entropy has been in the field of black hole entropy studies.

In 2014 Engelhardt and Wall introduced the concept of QES=Quantum Extremal Surfaces that are used in the definition of GSL=Generalized Second Law of blackhole thermodynamics.

Why should the QES proposal be right? Hints to this question are provided by tensor network toy models and a close relationship between QES proposal and quantum error correction.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 4

 

The Ryu-Takayanagi proposal was extended to time dependent states by Hubeny-Rangamany-Takayanagi.

Swingle as well as van Raamsdonk argued that the essential building blocks of spacetime geometry should be related to entanglement structure. 
 
This opened up the door of the reconstruction of the bulk geometry from purely quantum considerations. Susskind-Maldacena dictums like ER=EPR are related to this aspect.
 
Faulkner-Lewkowycz-Maldacena proposed quantum corrections to HEE in 2013.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 3

 

The 1997 AdS/CFT correspondence conjecture by Juan Maldacena connected theories of gravity on AdS spaces and compact manifolds to the quantum theories without gravity on the boundary.

In 2006 Ryu and Takayanagi exploited this to define holographic entanglement entropy.
 
This has lead to very vigorous investigations into entanglement in quantum field theory and quantum gravity.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 2

There is entanglement in quantum mechanics. This was honoured by 2022 Nobel Prize.
 
Then there is entanglement in quantum field theory. This is a paradigm shift from entanglement in quantum mechanics.
 
Finally there entanglement in quantum gravity. This too is a different game.

Holographic Entanglement Entropy - 1


One year ago Gautam Sengupta's students were talking about some topics like ones in the shared post.
Some of these are connected with with the holographic entanglement entropy defined by Ryu and Takayanagi.
 
At that time I felt sort of left out though I had already spent time with Witten's article on entanglement concepts in quantum field theory.
 
One year later I feel less like Alice in Wonderland. My third student is doing her MSc project on related topics.
 
Sanskriti Agrawal - Entanglement in Quantum Field Theory
Faraz Ahmed - Quantum Extremal Surfaces

Thursday, June 1, 2023

On Rohit Vemula

 

Our Rohit Vemulas
 
A colleague has destroyed careers of at least three students. This is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Two of the boys had confided in me. One wanted to join me for his research work and that was his mistake. The professor brought his grade in high energy physics paper down and pushed him out of consideration. He was stoic while reporting to me but I think he was fighting his tears. He is from the majority community. Second one must have said something positive about me and the professor brought him down, failed him, in the paper that he was teaching. Years after this boy is a man and he is writing very delusional emails to me, to that professor and to Nobel Laureates. Third is the case of a girl that I came to know from others. He saw to it that she did not get her MSc degree. My guess is that she must have resisted the trap of his charms and paid dearly and disappeared from the scene. I do not dig into his activities but he keeps a complete tab on mine. Of course our students have the protection of Islamic ethos from extreme steps. This is true even for non-Muslims students. The delusional one did ask me to help me but I did not intervene because the professor is extremely crafty and the student is very fickle minded.

Saturday, April 1, 2023

15:85 or What?



Tejesvi Yadav once said in an assembly debate that the Saffronites are showing fear of 15% to 85%.

It should be called fear of 15 percent to 79 percent.

That is the crux. The percentage of majority community has come down to less than 80%. This is not a matter of quibbling about small numbers. It is about psychological impact. This is how the Saffronites see the things.

In fact they are very worried about the 85-76=6%.

If the Sikhs refuse to be with the Saffronites then their weight shifts towards Muslims. The 6% adding to 15% makes it 21% and that is very scary for the Saffronite. That is why this constant attempt to show the Sikhs as anti-Muslim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYRzswvi5Ts

Thursday, October 20, 2022

Those Power Laws

Summary Notes

Law 1: Never outshine the master

Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power

When it comes to power, outshining the master is perhaps the worst mistake of all.

Never take your position for granted and never let any favors you receive go to your head.

Law 2: Never put too much trust in friends, learn how to use enemies

But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them

Since honesty rarely strengthens friendship, you may never know how a friend truly feels. Friends will say that they love your poetry, adore your music, envy your taste in clothes— maybe they mean it, often they do not.

The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

Law 3: Conceal Your Intentions

Use decoyed objects and desires and red herrings to throw people off the scent

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 chases.

Use smoke screens to disguise your actions. 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

As Kierkegaard wrote, “The world wants to be deceived.”

Law 4: Always say less than necessary

One oft-told tale about Kissinger… involved a report that Winston Lord had worked on for days. After giving it to Kissinger, he got it back with the notation, “Is this the best you can do?” Lord rewrote and polished and finally resubmitted it; back it came with the same curt question. After redrafting it one more time— and once again getting the same question from Kissinger-Lord snapped, “Damn it, yes, it’s the best I can do. ” To which Kissinger replied: “Fine, then I guess I’ll read it this time. ”

Persons who cannot control his words shows that he cannot control himself, and is unworthy of respect. But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will run wild and cause you grief. Power cannot accrue to those who squander their treasure of words.

Power is in many ways a game of appearances, and when you say less than necessary, you inevitably appear greater and more powerful than you are.

Learn the lesson: Once the words are out, you cannot take them back. Keep them under control. Be particularly careful with sarcasm: The momentary satisfaction you gain with your biting words will be outweighed by the price you pay.

Law 5: So much depends on reputation, guard it with your life

Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.

Doubt is a powerful weapon: Once you let it out of the bag with insidious rumors, your opponents are in a horrible dilemma.

Once you have a solid base of respect, ridiculing your opponent both puts him on the defensive and draws more attention to you, enhancing your own reputation.

Law 6: Court attention at all costs

Surround your name with the sensational and the scandalous.

Better to be slandered and attacked than ignored.

Every crowd has a silver lining.

At the start of your career, you must attach your name and reputation to a quality, an image, that sets you apart from other people.

Create an air of mystery.

Remember: Most people are upfront, can be read like an open book, take little care to control their words or image, and are hopelessly predictable. By simply holding back, keeping silent, occasionally uttering ambiguous phrases, deliberately appearing inconsistent, and acting odd in the subtlest of ways, you will emanate an aura of mystery. The people around you will then magnify that aura by constantly trying to interpret you

Do something that cannot be easily explained or interpreted

Law 7: Get others to do the work for you, but always take the credit

No notes.

Law 8: Make other people come to you, use bait if necessary

For negotiations or meetings, it is always wise to lure others into your territory, or the territory of your choice. You have your bearings, while they see nothing familiar and are subtly placed on the defensive.

Law 9: Win through your actions, never through argument

No notes.

Law 10: Infection: Avoid the unhappy or the unlucky

When you suspect you are in the presence of an infector, don’t argue, don’t try to help, don’t pass the person on to your friends, or you will become enmeshed. Flee the infector’s presence or suffer the consequences.

Law 11: Learn to keep people dependent on you

No notes.

Law 12: Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim

No notes.

Law 13: When asking for help, appeal to people’s self interest, never their mercy or gratitude

No notes.

Law 14: Pose as a friend, work as a spy

No notes.

Law 15: Crush your enemy totally

No notes.

Law 16: Use absence to increase strength and honor

The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.

At the start of an affair, you need to heighten your presence in the eyes of the other. If you absent yourself too early, you may be forgotten. But once your lover’s emotions are engaged, and the feeling of love has crystallized, absence inflames and excites. Giving no reason for your absence excites even more.

Law 17: Keep others in suspended terror, cultivate an air of unpredictability

Too much unpredictability will be seen as a sign of indecisiveness, or even of some more serious psychic problem. Patterns are powerful, and you can terrify people by disrupting them. Such power should only be used judiciously.

Law 18: Do not build a fortress to protect yourself, isolation is dangerous

No notes.

Law 19: Know who you’re dealing with, do not offend the wrong person

No notes.

Law 20: Do not commit to anyone

Do not commit to anyone, but be courted by all.

When you hold yourself back, you incur not anger but a kind of respect. You instantly seem powerful because you make yourself ungraspable, rather than succumbing to the group, or to the relationship, as most people do.

People who rush to the support of others tend to gain little respect in the process, for their help is so easily obtained, while those who stand back find themselves besieged with supplicants.

Do not commit to anyone, stay above the fray.

Remember: You have only so much energy and so much time. Every moment wasted on the affairs of others subtracts from your strength.

Law 21: Play a sucker to catch a sucker, seem dumber than your mark

Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people’s vanity, it is critical never inadvertently to insult or impugn a person’s brain power.

Law 22: Use the surrender tactic: transform weakness into power

People trying to make a show of their authority are easily deceived by the surrender tactic.

It is always our first instinct to react, to meet aggression with some other kind of aggression. But the next time someone pushes you and you find yourself starting to react, try this: Do not resist or fight back, but yield, turn the other cheek, bend.

If you surrender instead, you have an opportunity to coil around your enemy and strike with your fangs from close up.

Law 23: Concentrate your forces

intensity defeats extensity every time.

Law 24: Play the perfect courtier

The laws of court politics:

Avoid ostentationPractice nonchalanceBe frugal with flatteryArrange to be noticedAlter your style and language according to the person ou are dealing withNever be the bearer of bad newsNever affect friendliness and intimacy with your masterNever criticize those above you directlyBe frugal in asking those above you for favorsNever joke about appearances of tastesDo not be the court cynicBe self observantMaster your emotionsFit the spirits of the timesBe the source of pleasure

Law 25: Re-Create Yourself

Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define it for you.

The world wants to assign you a role in life. And once you accept that role you are doomed.

Remake yourself into a character of power. Working on yourself like clay should be one of your greatest and most pleasurable life tasks.

The first step in the process of self-creation is self-consciousness— being aware of yourself as an actor and taking control of your appearance and emotions.

The second step in the process of self-creation is a variation on the George Sand strategy: the creation of a memorable character, one that compels attention, that stands out above the other players on the stage.

Law 26: Keep your hands clean

Conceal your mistakes, have a scapegoat around to blame.

Make use of the cats paw.

Law 27: Play on people’s need to believe to create a cult like following

Five rules of cult making

Keep it vague, keep it simpleEmphasize the visual and sensational over the intellectualBorrow the forms of organized religion to structure the groupDisguise your source of incomeSet up an us vs them dynamic

Law 28: Enter action with boldness

The bolder lie the better.

Lions circle the hesitant prey.

Boldness strikes fear, fear creates authority.

Going halfway with half a heart digs a deeper grave.

Hesitation creates gaps, boldness obliterates them.

Audacity separates you from the herd.

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.

Law 29: Plan all the way to the end

No notes.

Law 30: Make your accomplishments seem effortless

No notes.

Law 31: Control the options, get others to play with the cards you deal

You 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.

Color the choices, propose three or four choices of action for each situation, and would present them in such a way that the one he preferred always seemed the best solution compared to the others.

Force the resister, Push them to “choose” what you want them to do by appearing to advocate the opposite.

Alter the playing field.

The shrinking options: A variation on this technique is to raise the price every time the buyer hesitates and another day goes by. This is an excellent negotiating ploy to use on the chronically indecisive, who will fall for the idea that they are getting a better deal today than if they wait till tomorrow.

The weak man on the precipice: This tactic is similar to “Color the Choices,” but with the weak you have to be more aggressive. Work on their emotions— use fear and terror to propel them into action. Try reason and they will always find a way to procrastinate.

Brothers in Crime: You attract your victims to some criminal scheme, creating a bond of blood and guilt between you.

The horns of a dilemma: The lawyer leads the witnesses to decide between two possible explanations of an event, both of which poke a hole in their story. They have to answer the lawyer’s questions, but whatever they say they hurt themselves. The key to this move is to strike quickly: Deny the victim the time to think of an escape. As they wriggle between the horns of the dilemma, they dig their own grave.

Law 32: Play to people’s fantasies

People rarely believe that their problems arise from their own misdeeds and stupidity. Someone or something out there is to blame— the other, the world, the gods— and so salvation comes from the outside as well.

Law 33: Discover each man’s thumbscrew

Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usually an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.

Finding the thumbscrews

Pay attention to gestures and unconscious signalsFind the helpless child, look to their childhoodLook for contrasts, an overt trait often reveals its oppositeFind the weak link,Fill their emotional voidFeed on their uncontrollable emotion

Always look for passions and obsessions that cannot be controlled. What people cannot control, you can control for them.

Law 34: Be royal in your own fashion. Act like a king to be treated like one

No notes.

Law 35: Master the art of timing

No notes.

Law 36: Disdain things you cannot have, ignoring them is the best revenge

Remember: You choose to let things bother you. You can just as easily choose not to notice the irritating offender, to consider the matter trivial and unworthy of your interest. That is the powerful move.

Desire often creates paradoxical effects: The more you want something, the more you chase after it, the more it eludes you. The more interest you show, the more you repel the object of your desire. This is because your interest is too strong— it makes people awkward, even fearful. Uncontrollable desire makes you seem weak, unworthy, pathetic.

Law 37: Create compelling spectacles

No notes.

Law 38: Think as you like but behave like others

If Machiavelli had had a prince for disciple, the first thing he would have recommended him to do would have been to write a book against Machiavellism.

Law 39: Stir up waters to catch fish

Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage.

Law 40: Despise the free lunch

The worth of money is not in its possession, but in its use.

Law 41: Avoid stepping into a great man’s shoes

No notes.

Law 42: Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter

Within any group, trouble can most often be traced to a single source, the unhappy, chronically dissatisfied one who will always stir up dissension and infect the group with his or her ill ease. Before you know what hit you the dissatisfaction spreads. Act before it becomes impossible to disentangle

Once you recognize who the stirrer is, pointing it out to other people will accomplish a great deal.

43: Work on the hearts and minds of others

Remember: The key to persuasion is softening people up and breaking them down, gently. Seduce them with a two-pronged approach: Work on their emotions and play on their intellectual weaknesses.

44: Disarm and infuriate with the mirror effect

When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson.

45: Preach the need to change, but never reform too much at once

If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.

Even while people understand the need for change, knowing how important it is for institutions and individuals to be occasionally renewed, they are also irritated and upset by changes that affect them personally.

46: Never appear too perfect

Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable.

Do not try to help or do favors for those who envy you; they will think you are condescending to them.

47: Do not go past the mark you aimed for. In victory, know when to stop

No notes.

48: Assume formlessness

By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.

 

Source : Internet