The 48 Laws of Power Inspires Many

An influential book, "The 48 Laws of Power" is raising awareness on how to gain and maintain power over others.  This book, which has been popular for a few years, is gaining momentum in recent months.  CNN just did a special on their website today in which NBA center Andrew Bynum was quoted as saying he read and loved the book.  Also, rapper 50 Cent has just co-authored "The 50th Law" as a sequel to the book.

The author, Robert Greene, says he has taken lessons from 4000 years of history, including ideas followed by P.T. Barnum, Al Capone, and Henry Kissinger.  Greene blames our quest for power and the manipulations used to get it on our DNA.  He says that "we want to believe we're descended from angels when we're descended from primates".  By this he means that, for centuries, we have tried to explain that humans are especially moral, when in reality we have evolved from animals.  All animals use struggles for power and ways to maintain this power to set up a heirarchy and maintain order.  It would make sense for humans to follow this same pattern, which Greene argues is imprinted on our DNA.