Chapter 62
Other Forms of Power
Another form of personal power is the power of crazy. I don’t think that you’ll want to use it very often, but you should know about it. It’s the power of crazy: If you can convince the other side that you’re crazy, you can have power over them.
Just after communist Vietnam opened its borders to non-Americans again, I spent a week in Ho Chi Min City (formerly named Saigon) and Hanoi. In Hanoi, I hired a guide to show me around. She had lived through the war, and I was eager to get her impressions. When I asked her who she thought was the best American president, I was aware that she was a government employee (as everyone is under communism) and would only say what she had been authorized to say.
She thought about ...
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