Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The art of seduction

There's a book called The Art of Seduction, by Robert Greene, which I highly recommend. I don't really use it to seduce women, for the simple reason that the beautiful women I've met over the years are just too smart to fall for any seduction trick.* In fact, I'm the weak-minded chap who falls victim to the web of seductive ploys that women unleash upon me.

Like the French saying goes: "L'homme court apres la femme jusqu'a ce qu'elle l'attrape." (A man will chase a woman until she catches him).

The book is instructional in that it shows the very same techniques that society (and the capitalists who run society) uses to enthrall people and seduce them into a lifestyle that keeps enriching capitalists.

John Kenneth Galbraith wrote, in his little red book The Economics of Innocent Fraud, about how society's elite hires the best writers, artists and advertisers to "manage public response." (George Orwell would call it "mind control via the secret thought police.")

However, Galbraith doesn't mention the specific ploys and techniques used against the people to subdue and control their imagination in a way that serves the interests of the ruling class.

Robert Greene does. He actually also wrote another book called The 48 Laws of Power, which I also highly recommend.

* I've noticed that I prefer beautiful AND smart women because only an intelligent woman can be creative enough to multiply her natural beauty and sensual appeal through the artful use of intellect and imagination. The equation goes something like this:

Sexual or Romantic Appeal = Beauty X Intelligence