48 Laws of Power but they increasingly get more TOXIC

0:00 This is the 48 laws of power, but the more we progress in the video, the darker and more twisted the laws are going to become. Starting with the least evil one. When asking for help, appeal for people's self-interest, never to their mercy or gratitude. Although this is the least evil law, it pretty much teaches you how to manipulate people and convince them to give you whatever the hell you want. Here's the story. There were basically two Greek cities that hated each other's guts. They were about to go to war with each other and they knew that the city who wins is going to show the other city zero mercy. They're going to freaking completely annihilate the other city and they're going to have fun with their women if know what I mean. Okay, that's a little bit dark, but I'm just trying to show you how severe it is. But anyways, there was a third party that was called Athens and it had the largest and strongest army at the time and both cities knew that if

0:46 they got Athens to side with them, they're going to win the war. So both cities sent ambassadors to Athens trying to convince them to be on their side. The guy from Corsera, which is one of the cities that was actually an island, gave a pretty bad speech because Corsera's past wasn't really great with Athens. They had fought them in the past and allied with their enemies. So, I don't even know how he was able to look at the Athenians in the face and asked them for help. He looked at the Athenian king and he was like, I know we don't really have the best past and I know we actually allied ourselves with your enemies and I know I slept with your wife. Okay, never mind. That was made up, but you get what I'm saying. The only thing he could offer is the Navy of Corsera, which comes second in strength after the Athenian army. So, it wasn't a pretty convincing speech coming from this guy. But then the guy from Corinth spoke and he threw the most sensational

1:32 and emotional and epic speech ever and reminded them of the times that Corinth stood by Athenian's side and how they helped them in the past against their enemies. and he reminded them how bad they're going to look in front of their other allies if they decide to side with Corsera and leave their ally Corinth that had helped them in the past so many times. So, it's clear to see that this speech is so much better and more convincing. Yet, the Athenians decided to side with Corsera the island in the end. If you listen to any of the entrepreneurs or genius marketers in our time, they're going to tell you that if you approach someone, a big company that has more power than you, the best way you could approach them to get hired or to get a response to begin with, is to appeal for their own self-interest, not to their mercy or pity. When you approach a company, instead of saying,

2:17 "Please hire me because I need the money or I'm in a bad spot," show them how you can achieve their goals in the company, show them how much they can benefit from you by hiring you. The Athenians ruled by pure strength. And when the guy from Corsera offered their navy, they knew that they'd have such an amazing strong army that no one would be able to even argue with them. They will demand their allies to respect them because they simply have no other choice. The author also tells you that when you try to convince someone of anything, try to convince them through the future. People don't give a crap about the past. When the Corinth guy reminded Athens of their past help and services in the past, it only made the Athenians more irritated and annoyed and it made them hate that they have this liability to help Corinth. But when the Corsera told them how amazing their army is going to be after their navy joins them in the future, the Athenian king saw dollar

3:04 signs in his eyes and he was like, "I like you a lot, but I think I'm going to go with the other guy." The Athenians rejected moral arguments and they believed that when people are weak, they try to go to morality, but when they're strong, they take what they want with their own hands. The Athenian ambassador told Sparta, "It's always been true that the strong rule over the weak. Before now, you agreed with that, too. But now, because it suits you, you're suddenly talking about fairness and justice. When you guys were stronger than us, you took what you wanted, but now that you're weaker, you're trying to come to morality and trying to gain sympathy. When you're asking for help because of your own self-interest, you're actually being deceitful. The only reason you are seeking other people's sympathy or trying to go to the morality part of please hire me, I need this job is because you're actually weak. You lack the value. So this is the least evil law

3:50 because it actually teaches you to stop being so selfish when you approach people and companies and start trying to help people and offer them value. The next law is keep others in suspended terror. Cultivate an air of unpredictability. This is the law that teaches you how to be elusive. Not that kind of elusive but yeah. So there's this crazy intelligent chess player called Boris Spaskey from Russia. This guy was almost unbeatable. He was a crazy psychologist and he would be able to predict the moves of the opponent 70 steps ahead. If you were about to fart in the next five minutes, he would predict the exact moment you would do it. Anyways, in the chess world championship, he was about to go against an American guy called Bobby Fischer. Now, American Bobby knew that he couldn't beat Boris in a normal way because this guy is too smart. He's

4:36 going to be able to predict his farts easily. Okay, I'm sorry. No more farts jokes. So, for the first chess match that they had, Boris comes on time and everybody wonders where Bobby is. And then Bobby's team starts telling people that Bobby is unhappy with the prize money. He's not happy with the cameras. He's not happy with the people around. He was complaining a lot to the point where Boris and his team didn't know if Bobby was ever going to come. And Boris literally said, "Looks like he's not going to come." And his trainer says, "If Bobby comes, we will play." Okay, sorry, that was a bad accent. And if he doesn't come, we don't play. So, he kind of confused the hell out of him. He didn't know what's going to happen. And eventually Bobby comes, plays super bad, even though he's actually really good, and loses the game. Everybody's wondering what the hell is wrong with this guy. Is he freaking mentally unstable? Did he drink the bath water of

5:21 Bel Deline? And on the second game, Bobby also seems to be scared AF because he doesn't even show up and the organizers of the tournament decide to freaking forfeit him and he loses the second game. This is crazy and has never happened before in a championship. So it seems very clear to Boris that Bobby is freaking scared and he's trying to find excuses and it's a guaranteed win for him. So he becomes pretty happy. But then on the third game, Bobby also seemed to have been late. But then he comes one minute before the game is forfeit. And he looks serious and focused as hell. And when they start the game, Bobby starts doing weird movements that don't follow any pattern, confusing Boris. And in a completely unpredictable outcome, he actually ends up winning that game. And this continued until the sixth game where Boris also lost and he

6:07 actually started to cry. But then it was clear to him that Bobby is actually hypnotizing Boris. So the next game he started playing without looking Bobby in the eye. And then he lost again. And by the 14th game, Boris literally made a conference and said that there was an attempt being made to control his mind. The guy is going crazy. First, he said that maybe it was the orange juice that he drank that someone put a drug in it. Or maybe that somebody put a drug in his chair and then it went up to his ass. He might have not said the word ass, but he actually had the committee take the chairs apart and x-ray them. And they didn't find anything unusual in them. He kept playing in the tournament, but he was complaining of hallucinations the entire time and ended up resigning on September 2nd. And even though he was super young, he actually never recovered from this. This is how the meme never

6:54 let them know your next move became popular. Bobby knew that he would never be able to defeat Boris in a normal chess play because Boris was too good at predicting other people's moves. So, he intentionally scrambled up the patterns and even lost the first two games to play with Boris's mind to the point where Boris literally thought he was going crazy. So, he used the secret weapon of unpredictability. So, this is all about gaining advantage from psychology and not just skill. Bobby was able to defeat Boris, who was better at him in chess because he was unpredictable. Street fighters who know multiple martial arts, are almost always going to beat a boxer who has predictable movements. Bodybuilders in the Olympia show photos of them in their off season right before their competition. So, everybody assumes that they're actually unprepared, but

7:39 eventually they come super shredded and looking great. So, they use unpredictability to confuse their competitors. And this also utilizes a more evil law that we're going to go through later. The science also shows that the reason people are addicted to slot machines is their unpredictability of how much dopamine they release in the body. They don't release the same amount of dopamine every time you spin the wheel, which actually makes you addicted to them. Now, this is number six because it's somewhat more of a defensive mechanism. You're using unpredictability to not allow people to attack you or come at you. But it's not the same as the next law. Learn how to keep people dependent on you. This law is about making people addicted to you. You're like a drug that they can't get rid of. you're pretty much ampic. You know Ottovan Bismar, we talked about him in the first part of this series. And by the way, you should subscribe right now

8:25 so you don't miss out the part three. But this guy is the guy who united Germany and made it what it is right now. Because before it was multiple states. When Bismar was 32, he was pretty much the same age as I am, which makes me feel a little bit self-conscious about my accomplishments. When Bismar joined the Prussian Parliament, he didn't side with the strong liberals or the strong conservative side. He actually sided with the king, but that was a dumb move at the time because the king almost had no power. He was spineless. And those liberals and conservatives, they were the people deciding how the country is going to run. But Bismar basically became the king's super weapon. He walked with him and defended him every time the liberals attacked him. Even though the king was spineless, basically Bismar taught him how to be a man. He showed him how to be alpha male videos on YouTube. But eventually, all of this

9:12 paid off. The king made Bismar a minister in the cabinet. And this is when Bismar started to work. Now Bismar, the army guy who likes to freaking destroy people with blood and iron, now had the power to work on Prussia's army and make it strong. And he kept working until he made the monarchy, which is the king side of the power, the strongest force in Prussia. And when the king died and his brother came to rule, his brother freaking hated Bismar and he didn't like the red pill or alpha male videos. And he wanted to freaking banish Bismar. But he found himself in the same position because the liberals were attacking him and calling him stupid and the conservatives were attacking him and telling him he's not watching enough alpha male videos. So he couldn't help but keep Bismar the strong guy who always stood right next to the king. And even though the new king and Bismar

9:58 always fought about policies, every time the king wanted to put a new policy that Bismar didn't approve of, Bismar would threaten to leave. And then the king would be like, "No, please don't leave." and he would pretty much answer what Bismar had already told him and he literally made Bismar the prime minister and eventually this is how Bismar managed to unify Germany with the current king being the emperor and Bismar being the right hand of the emperor which is one of the strongest positions you can have and even though the emperor was literally the emperor Bismar was responsible of all this and he had the ultimate and true power so this is all about being useful and making people depend on your usefulness and value bismar didn't join the logical side to join which was the strongest side which were the liberals because they were too powerful. They

10:45 wouldn't have needed him and they would have discarded him. But he joined the weak part the king and supplied him with so much value that he became indispensable. The kings couldn't survive without him and they gave him everything he wanted. So you have to be useful. The author talks about a story where there were two horses carrying a load and the horse in the back was too lazy. So the owner of the horses would keep shifting more weight to the horse in the front. And although the horse in the back was super happy about this and he even told the horse in the front, "Haha, I'm not carrying any weight. Keep working hard and they'll give you even more weight." The owner ended up freaking slaughtering the horse in the back. He basically said, "Why would I keep a horse if I'm putting all the load on the first one if the horse is not useful? At least if I slaughter it, I'll take the hide from it." So, he found a way to make the horse useful. But unfortunately, the horse was killed.

11:32 This literally happened to me when I was in a band in the past. not being killed but being discarded. I was in a band and everybody was practicing but I wasn't and I stopped being useful to the band. So they ended up calling me and telling me that they don't need me in the band anymore. I used to work in the company and the assistant of our boss was my friend and she was the most useful person in the company. She would plan the boss's appointments. She would remind him of everything. She would go above and beyond, make sure that the boss's tasks are all finished. They pretty much begged her not to quit the company and she could ask for any salary she wanted because nobody else was going to do what she's able to do. So she made the boss dependent on her and he couldn't even figure out how to continue his work without her. But if you are useful but people don't notice you, there's another way that you can point out your usefulness. King Louis the 11th

12:18 loved astrology. And there was a famous astrologer who told the king that there was a lady in court that's going to die in 8 days. And surely after eight days, she actually said, "Hey, peace out. I'm gonna die." The king was super scared of this astrologer because either he killed this lady to prove that he's right, or he had too much power and might even threaten the king himself. So, he brought all the men and they got that astrologer and he was going to rip pepperoni his ass. But before the king killed him, he told him, "Hey, since you're so smart, can you tell me your future? When are you going to die?" And the astrologer comes with 100 and 200 I 100 to 200. The astrologer came with a 300 IQ move and told the king, "I'm going to die 3 days before you." The king was shocked. This guy just pretty

13:04 much told him, "If you kill me now, you're going to die 3 days later." So Louis the 11th stopped any plans of killing this guy. He put him in the best place, gave him the best doctors and gifts and took care of him and gave him bodyguards to asssure that he actually stays alive because his death is literally associated with the death of the king. And even though the astrologer ended up dying like years after the king died, so he was pretty much bullshitting, he was still able to showcase how useful he is to the king to the point where he survived death. So this is where the advice to never share the secret of your trade comes in, which is somewhat evil. You pretty much don't teach people the things that you've worked so hard to learn so that you can assure that you keep your position and your value. If other people are able to replace you, you kind of lose people's

13:50 dependency on you. So this is number five because it's about being useful through your power. But number four is literally about terrorizing people because you took your power away from them. And it's use absence to increase respect and honor. So the people of Meda just managed to get their country back from the Assyrians who were actually in control. But they didn't want anybody to govern them like Assyrians did. They didn't want to put a king or a monarchy. They wanted to live freely. But this actually resulted in big problems. Everybody was freaking fighting with each other. Villages were attacking villages and people were saying this dress is black and blue and others were saying white and yellow and the only way they would settle this is by actually killing each other. So to solve this there was a guy called Deioce and he would solve all the disputes between

14:36 villages and he was known for being super just. He would never side with anyone. He didn't have any cognitive biases in debates and he was super respected. But then one day at the height of his power while he was known the most the biggest celebrity judge in the entire country. He decided f this. I'm out. And he said he doesn't want to do this anymore because it's taking too much time. He wants to go and play Minecraft instead. So what happens next? The country starts fighting with each other again. All the villagers and people fighting over dumb stupid stuff. So the leaders of the country who just got out of a revolution who don't want to be ruled by any one king or monarchy said we can't do this anymore. People are going to keep fighting and there's a lot of chaos. It's better to put a king than to actually have everybody kill each other over what color the dress is. And who better to rule us than Deoc's

15:23 himself, the judge. But when they told DeoC's, he was like, I don't feel like it. They actually had to beg him to be king and he only said yes if they followed his own conditions and his conditions were freaking crazy. He wanted a capital city built for him. He wanted his palace to be unaccessible to normal people and the only way that anyone would be able to reach him is through messengers and people couldn't see him more than once a week. This guy pretty much made himself like my dad, never available. But that was pretty much the source of his value and power. at the beginning in the height of his power and when he was being most useful, he took everything away from people and that made them realize how valuable he is and they made him king. And now he made sure that that continues and that everybody sees how rare it is to get a hold of him. So he made all of these

16:09 demands. This is where the saying you don't realize the value of something until it's gone comes from. And it's also about the economic law of supply and demand. The more something is available, the less value it has. In relationships, the more you talk, the more you always respond fast, the more you're actually available, the less perceived value you have to the other person, whether we like it or not. And this is where using absence or tips like don't reply quickly or wait until you respond come from. When a designer clothes company or a watch company like Rolex releases a product that's limited edition, the prices always skyrocket in value. Let's say you feel undervalued in your friend's group, but you're the only one who has a car who drives people around. One way you can gain back the respect and value is by not going out with them anymore and making them realize how valuable you and your car

16:56 are. Unhinged example, but you get what I'm saying. So, the law we mentioned before about keeping people dependent on you is about being useful and valuable. But this law is about taking back all the benefit that you've given. You acknowledge the fact that you are causing harm to people so that they can value you more and give you honor and respect, which is why it's more evil. But it's definitely not as evil as the next one where you show a very friendly and nice face, but in reality, you're actually using people for your own gain. Use selective honesty and generosity to disarm your victim. There was a guy called Al Capone. And if you don't know who Al Capone is, he's pretty much Scarface, the real Scarface. And he was a mob member, a gangster, someone who's super dangerous and scary. And he was approached by a guy called Count Victor Lustik. Victor told Al Capone that if Al

17:41 Capone gives him $50,000, he can return it next month doubled $100,000. Alapone knew that this guy was a con artist, but he said, "Nobody's going to mess with me. I'm literally the most dangerous feared gangster in the world." So, Alapone gave him the $50,000. So, what does Victor do? He takes the $50,000, pretty much puts it in the bank, and leaves it untouched. and then by the end of the month goes back to Alapone looking so sad and respectful and tells him the plan didn't work out. Alapone is like which side of the river should I throw this guy's body? He was prepared to freaking end this man's whole career. But then Lustic takes out the $50,000 and gives it back to Alapone and apologizes that the plan didn't work. Al Capone is shocked AF because nobody had ever been honest with Al Capone in the

18:27 past. They've all tried to oneup him or betray him somehow. He didn't expect this from Victor at all. He knew that Victor was a con artist. He either expected him to bring $0 and steal his 50,000 or to bring him 100,000 that is doubled. But he didn't expect to bring the exact same amount. So because of that, Alapone pretty much understands this as an honest gesture and actually believes that Victor is an honest guy. And he actually offered him $5,000 just as a gesture of gratitude or appreciation of his honesty. But what Al Capone didn't know is that this is exactly what Victor wanted all along. He exactly knew the type of person that Al Capone was and the people he was dealing with and how untrustable they are. So he pretty much used selective honesty to make money from this guy. So this is about showing the only part of the truth

19:13 that fits your narrative and also about being generous with something small to gain something big. And this is how some Ponzi schemes work. I used to make money online and one time I saw a guy on a website promising everybody that he'll double their money. And in the beginning, he actually did. When people sent him 10 and $15, he would send them $ 20 and $30. One guy even sent him $200 and the guy sent him $400. But then after he used selective honesty and generosity and gained the trust of people, he took a lot of money from multiple people at the same time and ran away with it. So he used selective honesty in the beginning to make so much more money than what he was initially doubling. And these same tactics are the same in history when the Greek army couldn't conquer Troy by force. So they sent a statue of a horse to the Trojans claiming that it was just a gift of

20:00 peace. But secretly there were soldiers inside. And at night, these soldiers opened the city gates and managed to get the army to destroy the city. It's literally the same as real estate companies giving you water and candy when you come to check out a building as a token of generosity, but it actually psychologically makes you feel like they've given you something and now you have to give them something in return. So this is number three. You're showing a good side while you're hiding an evil one to get what you want. It's not about actually being honest or generous. But number two is pose as a friend, work as a spy. I think it's clear to see why this is evil. One of the most successful art dealers in the world is called Joseph Duvine. But there was one guy who he couldn't sell to. And his name is Andrew William Melon. And if you actually look at Wikipedia, it literally says he's from the wealthy Melon family of Pennsylvania. He was a banker, a

20:46 businessman, an industrialist, a philanthropist. He was pretty much Mr. Beast. to Duvine. This is like having a subscriber that's going to pay you rent until you die. But this guy, Melon, Mr. Beast, hated Duvine, the arts dealer. He heard bad things about him in the past and it rubbed him the wrong way. And even though Davine's friends told him he would never be able to sell to this guy, Duvine said, "All right, bet." And he made a crazy plan where he started paying people who worked for Mr. Beast or Melon to learn about Duvine, what he likes, what he doesn't like, his aspirations and dreams, how many times he farts in a day. Okay, sorry I said no more fart jokes. But anyways, eventually Duvine knew about Melon more than his wife knew about him. Duvine asked his valet to befriend Melon's valet and then he told him that he was staying in a specific hotel. So Duvine stayed in the

21:33 floor right underneath Melon and Melon's valet told Duvine's valet that Melon is about to go into the elevator and eventually Duvine goes into the elevator and lo and behold he sees Melon. He asks him where he's going. Melon tells Duvine that he's going to the art gallery and Duvine's like what a coincidence. That's exactly where I'm going. So, they end up going together and Duvine freaking charms Melon so much and destroys this image that Melon had in his head about Duvine that he's unsophisticated and boring. And Duvine knew what Melon likes more than Melon's Instagram algorithm. And when he later invited Melon to his gallery, fell in love with every painting as if they are Instagram reels in his Instagram app. And he ended up being Duvine's most generous subscriber. It pretty much only bought from him and made him rich. It was so frustrating to

22:20 other art dealers that every time they went to Melon's house, they would find Duvine already there as if he's one step ahead of everybody. It discouraged them and they felt like it was unfair and it made them not want to sell to rich people anymore. He pretty much monopolized the market and controlled it because he knew everything about everyone. This law is more about not leaving anything for chance. You don't necessarily have to take everything literally and start spying on people. But this can also be researching people. I studied, bro. When you apply for a company, research their goals and what they're trying to achieve. It's the same with social media. Instead of creating random content and hoping that something will stick, try to research what people are interested in watching and what they're trying to get from the content. But also, instead of being a spy yourself, you can actually recruit people to be your own spy. King Cosro

23:06 wanted to test people's loyalties. So, he would tell one friend, "I have secret information that your friend is a traitor. keep this information to yourself. Now, he would sit and watch. If this guy's friend acted normal, then the secret was kept and the first guy was loyal and he would be rewarded. But if the friend started acting weird or fearful, then the first guy leaked his secret and he would punish the first guy or ban him completely. So, this is about gathering intelligence quietly. He used his friends as spies to learn whether or not they are loyal. This is number six because if you spy on your friends, you are literally a creep. But it's not as ruthless as number seven. Crush your enemies totally. There were two Chinese leaders working on the same side. They were basically friends. One of them was a little bit angrier. His name is Sianglu. And the other one is more

23:51 calculated. His name is Liu Pang. The king sent the more calculated one to conquer a city called Chin. And the angry one got super mad about it because he thought he was more capable of conquering that city than the calculated guy. And he ended up going into the tent of the guy in charge of him and freaking decapitating him because he called him a traitor. And then he took his army and marched to the calculated guy's city only to find out that the calculated guy was actually good enough and managed to successfully conquer the city. But the angry guy had an adviser called Fen and he told him, "The calculated guy is super smart and if you don't kill him now, he's going to freaking destroy you later on." So the angry guy invites the calculated guy to a party outside the city and the calculated guy agrees and comes and they start dancing and eventually the angry guy hesitates and doesn't kill the calculated guy and the

24:38 calculated guy senses the trap and escapes to the city. And when Feng the angry guy's adviser tells him that he's dumb as freick for letting that guy escape, that this guy is going to kill them soon. The angry guy is like, "All right, bet. I'm going to freaking go and kill him now." and he goes into the Shin city, murdering the prince there and destroying the city to ashes while the calculated guy manages to escape only to be surrounded later by the angry guy's army. And again, Fansen, the adviser, tells him to kill him right this second. But the angry guy wanted this guy alive. He wanted him to admit that the angry guy is better than the calculated guy. And the calculated guy ends up using the peace negotiations to escape once more. This time, the angry guy is at maximum angriness. and he freaking goes at him as if he lost his mind. And in one of

25:23 the battles, he actually managed to capture the calculated guy's father and he yells in the battle, "You better come out now or I'll freaking 360 no scope your father." But the calculated guy says, "Hey man, we're pretty much like brothers. If you kill my father, it's like killing your father as well." But anyways, send me the soup. Because the angry guy wanted to boil the calculated guy's father alive, so he eventually doesn't kill his father. And then because he got so angry and started making dumb mistakes in scattering his army, the calculated guy manages to surround the angry guy's army. But this time when the calculated guy's advisor tells him to kill the angry guy, the calculated guy is actually calculated and agrees and he invites the angry guy to fake peace only to freaking kill most of his army. And even though the angry

26:10 guy manages to escape, the calculated guy put a bounty on his head. And the angry guy ends up seeing a group of his troops later on and tells them, "I hear Leo Pang, which is the calculated guy, has offered 1,000 pieces of gold for my head. Let me do you a favor." And then he freaking slit his own throat. The lesson from this is pretty self-explanatory. Enemies or people who you've shown hate to will always be your enemies. They will never forget what you've done to them. And when you show mercy and show your emotional side, you actually let your enemy regroup and become stronger only to get back at you in the end. Which one of these laws do you think is the most evil in your opinion? Let me know in the comments and subscribe for part three and watch this video because YouTube says that you will like it. and I'll see you in the next