Reconciling "48 Laws of Power" with authenticity and genuinity?

[lmfao]

I haven't read The 48 Laws of Power, but I've skimmed some of the material on it online. A question which has come to my mind is "How do I reconcile this knowledge/wisdom with selflessness? And reconcile it with radical honesty as well?". I don't know enough to say that radical honesty is a not a different thing from selflessness. It very well could be a different thing in certain contexts, partially elucidated by this theory perhaps.

I have two threads of thought I want to mention. Second thread feeling less grounded and more abstract to me. I'll use "------" before I type it. 

One idea. Perhaps the reconciliation comes in treating material such as The 48 Laws of Power as a manual for how egos and humans play games for social and political dominance. You can use the knowledge from it to understand how people more calculating and selfish than you operate. So what I mean. Your mode of being can be very uncalculating, very non-machiavellian and straightforward, but knowledge/understanding of this sort helps you know the motivations and principles behind how others around you behave. And thus your ability to skilfully dodge and maneuver around devil's who wish to hamper you is increased. This segways into a second point. 

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Maybe there is a place for being machiavellian and breaking radical honesty principles. And still being selfless and embodying love. 

One thing which got me to think this. I remember Leo once talking about stage red. And that sometimes stage green trying to help stage red will be exploited and be ineffective at helping.

The implication being that if you wish to elevate these stage red folk, it would be better that some semi-authoritarian blue government rules over them. Simply because Blue will be effective at elevating them but Green won't, even if green people are generally higher consciousness than blue people. 

So maybe this whole Machiavellian thing can be seen as a tool for getting the change you want. But it seems so messy and such a slippery slope. It feels self defeating and contradictory to my sense of authenticity/virtue to be calculating and scheming to overcome a world which is calculating and scheming. Especially if it means acting lower consciousness.

It would be a tricky thing to navigate if it is possible to so. How would you know you're being selfish vs just doing what is needed to fight selfishness? And what does it mean to do what is needed to fight selfishness? It seems like you're doomed to become a hypocrite and be selfish yourself under the guise of virtue. 

 

Even if intellectually it all seems a bit mad, it's whatever. I'll just go about life and act appropriately in the moment however I can. Respond to a thing as it arises, in whatever manner the tides guide me. 

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by lmfao