Jubilee Prosperity

No one knew whether his nearest acquaintance was not in the service of the civic inquisition, and consequently revolutionary plans, which presupposed the reciprocal confidence of a great collection of persons, were cut off from the root; so that in the later history of Venice public revolts practically did not occur. [23]

Though current white house operatives may not be members of INSNA, we may hear shades of his method in the following quote by Simmel, again about the Venetian method. In fact, we may think of the silly politicians or talking heads who claim to be experts or master-debaters, even though they have allowed themselves to be sucked into absurd talking points.

Political opponents often brought on their own destruction, as they bought into the existence of the Rules of the Game theory, not realizing they were set up, just like a MySpace addict:

The baldest form of divide et impera, the instigation of positive struggle between two elements, may have its purpose in the relation of the third party to either of these two, or to an object existing outside of them.

The latter occurs in case one of three candidates for an office understands how to instigate the two others against each other, in such a way that by gossip and slander, which each of them sets in motion against the other, they spoil each other’s chances.

In all cases of this type the art of the third shows itself in the degree of the distance at which he is wise enough to place himself from the action which he instigates.

The more he guides the conflict by merely invisible threads, the more he understands how to tend the fire so that it continues to burn without his further assistance and observation, the sharper and directer will be the struggle between the other two, until their reciprocal ruin is accomplished;

More than that, the prize of the struggle at stake between them, or the objects otherwise of value to the third party, will seem to fall into his lap of themselves. In this technique, too, the Venetians were masters. [24]

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