How to Survive Your Masters

Most young and ambitious politicians would have tried to build a power base among those with the most power. Joining forces with the powerful can be foolish, they will swallow you up. No one will come to depend on you if they are already strong. It is much wiser to seek out weak rulers or masters with whom you can create a relationship of dependency. You become their strength, their intelligence, their spine. Necessity rules the world. People rarely act unless compelled to. If you create no need for yourself, then you will be done away with at first opportunity. The best you can hope for is that others will grow so dependent on you that you enjoy a kind of reverse independence.