48 LAWS OF POWER ,A GUIDEBOOK FOR DICTATORS HAS NO PLACE IN A MODERN SOCIETY

48 Laws of Power has been viewed by many as a must read for those who aspire to occupy political positions, making it the most quoted book in political discourses. It has also been recommended for those keen on surmounting hurdles in their workplace to earn a seamless meteoric rise in rank to the top. But it is the attempt by some literary enthusiasts to pass it as a book worthy of literary attention that disappointed me. Indeed, its simplicity and chronological enumeration of 48 laws makes the book easy to read even to laziest of readers. But that is how far it goes. The bumper sticker messages highlighted in this book are high on fantasies but low or zero on solid moral values.

In his book ‘The Republic’, Plato in his formulation of what he called utopian society, used the analogy of human soul to describe what the society needs and which role each one of us can play in advancing the good of everyone in a state. According to Plato, human body has three parts: bodily desires, spiritual needs and knowledge.