Learning Power & Manipulation

Someone asked me about this book, by, I think, Robert Green, the 48 laws of power. There's a number of excellent books on tactics of manipulation, coercive influence, playing politics, attaining and consolidating power, and various forms of mind control. I've read many of these books and recommend reading them from Machiavelli's The Prince to Sun Tzu's The Art of War to The 48 Laws of Power. These books can be very useful to you if you're interested in going through life in a constant state of disingenuity and craftiness. The better use for such books is to be able to identify people who are being disingenuous and crafty and who are just trying to play you.

Otherwise, I would say that a much healthier and braver way to go through life is to just be genuine and let the chips fall where they may. I would also caution potential readers to bear in mind these books generally serve as an advice for politicians or people in positions of power who generally have time, to deliberate their actions, their responses, and their decisions, people who are in a position to take consultation before they make a move. Otherwise, you should know that most successfully manipulative people operate on instinct and intuition based on spontaneous readings of the people they're trying to control. They are sociopaths and psychopaths and lead a pretty amoral and empty existence. If you wanna learn the qualities of true leadership and power, you would be better off studying the seerah, which will teach you how to deal with people in a way that doesn't cause you to become a worthless human being.

Just food for thought.