The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Law number 38: Think as you like, but behave
like others If you make a show of going against the times,
flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want
attention and that you look down upon them.
They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior.
It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch.
Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate
your uniqueness.
People who flaunt their infatuation with a different culture are expressing a disdain
and contempt for their own.
They are using the outward appearance of the exotic to separate themselves from the common
folk who unquestioningly follow the local customs and laws, and to express their sense
of superiority.
Otherwise they would act with more dignity, showing respect for those who do not share
their desires.
Indeed their need to show their difference so dramatically often makes them disliked
by the people whose beliefs they challenge, indirectly and subtly, perhaps, but offensively
nonetheless.
Here's a historical example for someone breaking this law as so few people even today seem
to be aware of how to blend in.
Around the year 478 B.C., the city of Sparta sent an expedition to Persia led by the young
Spartan nobleman Pausanias.
The city-states of Greece had recently fought off a mighty invasion from Persia, and now
Pausanias, along with allied ships from Athens, had orders to punish the invaders and win
back the islands and coastal towns that the Persians had occupied.
Both the Athenians the Spartans had great respect for Pausanias - he had proven himself
as a fearless warrior, with a flair for the dramatic.
With amazing speed, Pausanias and his troops took Cyprus, then captured Byzantium.
Now master of part of the Persian empire, Pausanias began to show signs of behaviour
that went beyond his normal flamboyance.
He appeared in public wearing pomades in his hair and flowing Persian robes, and accompanied
by a bodyguard of Egyptians.
He held lavish banquets in which he sat in the Persian manner and demanded to be entertained.
He stopped seeing his old friends, entered into communication with the Persian King Xerxes,
and all in all affected the style and manner of a Persian dictator.
Clearly power and success had gone to Pausania's head.
He then went ahead and flaunted his disdain for the Greeks' simple way of life, insulted
the common Greek soldier and even showed evidence that he had dreams of becoming a kind of Greek
Xerxes.
The spartans relieved Pausanias of his command and called him home sparing him.
When they learnt from his intentions to attack Greece alongside the Persians, thinking he
was invincible, the Spartans made arrangements for his arrest.
Pausanias however trapped in the sacred temple refused to surrender and eventually died of
starvation.
The Trick to your Uniqueness 1.
You pretend to disagree with dangerous ideas, but in the course of your disagreement you
give those ideas expression and exposure.
2.
You seem to conform to the prevailing orthodoxy, but those who know will understand the irony
involved.
You are protected.
3.
There is no point in making a display of your dangerous ideas if they only bring you suffering
and persecution. 4.
Martyrdom serves no purpose—better to live on in an oppressive world, even to thrive
in it.
5.
Find a way to express your ideas subtly for those who understand you.
6.
Lying your pearls before swine will only bring you trouble.
The Truth 1.
We all tell lies and hide our true feelings, for complete free expression is a social impossibility.
2.
From an early age we learn to conceal our thoughts, telling the prickly and insecure
what we know they want to hear, watching carefully lest we offend them.
3.
There are ideas and values that most people accept, and it is pointless to argue.
4.
We believe what we want to, but on the outside we wear a mask.
5.
There are people, however, who see such restraints as an intolerable infringement on their freedom.
6.
They have a need to prove the superiority of their values and beliefs.
7.
In the end, their arguments convince only a few and offend a great deal more.
8.
The reason arguments do not work is that most people hold their ideas and values without
thinking about them.
9.
There is a strong emotional content in their beliefs:
10.
They really do not want to have to rework their habits of thinking, and when you challenge
them, whether directly through your arguments or indirectly through your behavior, they
are hostile.
And that is it for this law, be sure to dive deeper with Part II 'The Real Power' and as
always thanks for watching.