Arthur Schopenhauer travels back in time to meet celebrities from different fields and witnesses how the same stratagems that he detailed in his booklet 200 years ago, are still being used to win an argument.
For example, here we see the CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, doing his thing and the pessimistic philosopher approaches like Thunderous Jupiter to make himself heard.
What is Arthur saying?
He could be reciting Francisco de Quevedo since he was an admirer of several Spanish authors.
This poem would suit him well:
“¿Miras este gigante corpulento
que con soberbia y gravedad camina?
Pues por de dentro es trapos y fajina,
y un ganapán le sirve de cimiento.Con su alma vive y tiene movimiento,
y adonde quiere su grandeza inclina,
mas quien su aspecto rígido examina,
desprecia su figura y ornamento.Tales son las grandezas aparentes
de la vana ilusión de los tiranos,
fantásticas escorias eminentes.¿Veslos arder en púrpura, y sus manos
The following is humbly translated by me:
en diamantes y piedras diferentes?
Pues asco dentro son, tierra y gusanos.”
“Do you look at this hulking giant
who walks with pride and mass?
Well inside is rags and sash,
and an errand boy serves as a reliant.
With his soul he lives and has movement,
and where he wants his greatness leans,
but who examines his rigid mien,
despises its figure and amusement.
Such is the apparent amplitude
of the vain illusion of tyrants,
fantastic eminent residue.
Do you see their hands in diamonds and stones
and all of them burning purple?
Well, they are disgusting inside, earth and worms.”
Stratagem nbr. 10.
(Although this drawing could apply to many others). When the customer… , beg your pardon, when the adversary intentionally denies the questions whose affirmation should be used for our thesis, he has to ask himself the opposite of the thesis to be used, as if one wanted to see that this is affirmed. Or at least present both at the choice of the adversary so that he does not realize which thesis is the one we want to affirm.
Stratagem nbr. 28
Argument ad auditores. I took the case of the press conference of Ronald Reagan government, when VIH was just emerging. Press secretary Larry Speaks was joking and everyone was laughing in the White House press room. Except the journalist Lester Kinsloving, who despite the mockery kept asking for an answer.
Stratagem nbr. 4.
This ploy manages to persuade Kim Jong Un, and then number 35 turns him into an Oscar Wilde fan.
