Tales That Defy the Ordinary

Film, culture, history, and nostalgia — examined, questioned, explored. Glimpses of science, mind, body, and nature, diving into the curious corners of life. Jackdaw Posts: Part blog, part magazine.

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The 48 Laws of Power Revisited: Ruthless Lessons From History

This isn’t a self-help book. It’s a confession booth for history’s worst-kept secrets. Greene lays out 48 laws — neat, polished, cruel little things. He doesn’t ask you to like them. He asks you to notice them.

And once you notice, you can’t unsee. The boss who pretends to be magnanimous, the politician who smiles while sharpening a knife, the friend who gives “free” advice that somehow costs you dearly. Greene doesn’t invent these patterns. He arranges them, like a jeweller polishing daggers instead of diamonds.

Chess king toppled by another piece, symbolizing power and strategy — 48 Laws of Power book review
Power nudges you off the board. Greene shows how. Image credit unsplash.com/GRstocks

The mechanics of the manual

Every law is packaged with elegance:

  1. The law itself. Short, memorable. Never Outshine the Master.

  2. A story — often from the courts of Europe, where backstabbing was practically a sporting event.

  3. Greene’s analysis. Calm, clinical, almost smug.

  4. A reversal — when the law might misfire.

It’s Aesop with more executions.

What Greene gets right

  • Clarity of design. The structure means you can dip in anywhere and still get a bite of meat.

  • Stories that stick. Whether it’s Talleyrand smiling through revolutions or Elizabeth I mastering ambiguity, you remember them.

  • Pattern recognition. After reading, you can’t help but spot “laws” in modern life. Instagram influencers live on Law 6: Court Attention at All Costs.

  • Defensive power. The best use isn’t to manipulate but to detect manipulation. It’s pepper spray for the soul.

  • Cultural impact. The book has been banned in prisons, quoted by rappers, dog-eared by CEOs. It has cultural gravity.

Where the blade dulls

  • Moral flatness. Greene doesn’t tell you whether it’s good to crush an enemy. He just reminds you it works.

  • History on rails. Anecdotes are trimmed to fit the law. Real history is muddy; Greene prefers clean lines.

  • Repetition. Some laws overlap. Outshine, attention, seduction — different masks, same trick.

  • Risk of misuse. Read uncritically, it’s the Bible for narcissists.

  • Thin on modern tech. Algorithms, cancel culture, surveillance states — largely absent. Power looks different online.

Examples from the 48 Laws 

Law 1: Never Outshine the Master

Fouquet, Louis XIV’s finance minister, learned this the hard way. He threw a party so dazzling it made the king look like a guest at his own table. Result: prison.

It’s funny until you realise it happens in offices daily. Do too well in front of your manager, and suddenly your promotion goes to “the safe option.” Greene’s law is accurate, depressing, and timeless. Sometimes survival means dimming the lights on yourself.

Law 15: Crush Your Enemy Totally

The Romans did it to Carthage. Salt in the fields, ashes in the wind. Because a half-crushed enemy is just an enemy with gym membership.

Applied to politics, it’s hard to argue. Applied to personal life, it makes you a lunatic. Don’t salt your neighbour’s garden because they borrowed your lawnmower. The satire writes itself: Greene’s advice works best in togas and breastplates, not cul-de-sacs.

Law 33: Discover Each Man’s Thumb Screw

Everyone has a weakness. Ego. Lust. Money. Recognition. Greene’s point is simple: find it, twist it, control the person.

The examples are chilling. Generals bribed with mistresses. Courtiers seduced with titles. It’s true, of course. Humans are walking bundles of insecurities. The thing is that Greene describes this as though he’s showing you how to boil an egg. Calm, detached, utterly horrifying.

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch

Nothing is free. Everything has strings. Kings knew it. Mobsters knew it. Greene knew it.

In our age of “free” apps and “complimentary” trials, this law is prophecy. That free social media platform? It costs you your privacy. That “gifted” influencer haul? It costs them their integrity. Greene may have been writing about Renaissance patrons, but Silicon Valley should have given him royalties.

Accuracy check

Greene’s history is real enough, but tidy. Talleyrand was manipulative, yes, but also complex, contradictory, occasionally bumbling. Greene turns him into a perfect allegory. That makes for strong lessons, weak nuance.

So is it accurate? Broadly, yes. But think of it as parables dressed in ermine. Truthful in essence, simplified in detail.

How to read it without becoming unbearable

  1. Defensively first. Spot who’s outshining, flattering, or finding your thumb screw.

  2. Keep ethics on hand. Greene won’t lend you any.

  3. Treat it like a lens, not scripture. The world isn’t only power.

  4. Pair it wisely. Read Seneca or Orwell alongside it. They’ll keep you human.

Who should read it

  • Leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians — anyone navigating human ambition.

  • Writers, actors, artists — anyone studying motive.

  • Readers who like their truths sharp, not sugar-coated.

  • Not ideal for the revenge-obsessed teenager.

Cultural footprint

Since 1998, this book has been quoted in lyrics, banned in prisons, praised in boardrooms. Its readership is as wide as its subject: power belongs to no class. Greene gave Machiavelli a paperback makeover, and the world lapped it up.

It sits with The Prince and The Art of War. Except Greene is writing not for rulers or generals, but for ordinary strivers. He democratised cunning. That’s why it unsettles: it says anyone can play dirty, not just kings.

Final cut

We like it. It’s sharp, stylish, unsettling. A scalpel for the mind. Not moral, not warm, but clarifying. Greene strips human behaviour down to its bones and invites you to look without blinking.

You won’t finish it a better person. But you’ll finish it a wiser one. And in a world where power plays are everywhere — boardrooms, dating apps, parliaments — that’s worth something.

Recap

Pros: Sharp writing, memorable laws, juicy stories, cultural impact, defensive value.
 Cons: Amoral tone, simplified history, repetition, misuse risk, not modern enough.

Buy the book on Amazon

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    Front cover of 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene 
      
     Yep, those are Amazon links. If you click either and buy, we get a tiny cut — costs you nothing extra.

Closing whisper

Power isn’t polite. Greene knew it. History proves it. This book hands you the manual. Whether you use it to guard your back or sharpen your knife is entirely up to you.

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