Post By: Abolaji Daniel


The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to me us – when we feel helpless we feel miserable. No one wants less power; everyone wants more. In the world today, however, it is dangerous to seem too power hungry, to be overt with the power moves. We have to seem fair and decent. So we need to be subtle – congenial yet cunning, democratic yet devious.

This game of constant duplicity most resembles the power of dynamic that existed in the scheming world of the old aristocratic court. Throughout history, a court has always emperor, leader. The courtiers who filled this court were in an especially delicate position: they has to serve their masters, but if they seemed to fawn, if they curried favour too obviously, against them. Attempts to win the master’s favour, then had to be subtle. And even skilled courtiers capable of such subtlety still had to protect themselves from their fellow courtiers, who at all moments were scheming to them aside.

Meanwhile the court was supposed to represent the height of civilization and refinement. Violent or overt power moves were frowned upon; courtiers would work silently and secretly against any among them who used force. This was the courtier dilemma: while appearing the very paragon of elegance, they had to outwit and thwart their own opponents in the sublet of ways. The successful courtier learned over time to make all of his moves indirect; if he stabbed an opponent in back, it was with a velvet glove on his hand and the sweetest smile on his face. Instead of using coercion or outright treachery, the perfect courtier got his way through seduction, charm deception, and subtle strategy, always planning several moves ahead. Life in the court was a never ending game that required constant vigilance and tactical thinking. It was civilized war.

Today we face a peculiarly similar paradox to that of the courtier: Everything must appear civilized, decent, democratic, and fair. But if we play by those rules strictly, if we take them too literally, we are crushed by those around us who are not so foolish. As the great Renaissance diplomat and courtier Niccolo Machiavelli wrote and I quote “Any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good.”

The court imagined itself the pinnacle of refinement, but underneath its glittering surface a cauldron of dark emotions – greed, envy, lust hatred – boiled and