How Clout Chasers Should Be Avoided

CURRENT RANK: LOWLY SERF

To the Magnificent Social Machiavellian:

CHAPTER 23 - HOW CLOUT CHASERS SHOULD BE AVOIDED

I do not wish to leave out an important branch of this subject, because it is a danger from which it is difficult to protect influencers, unless they are very careful and discriminating. It is that of clout-chasers. The comments are full of such people, because followers are so wrapped up in their own affairs, and in a way so deceived in them, that it is difficult to protect influencers from this danger. If they wish to defend themselves, they run the danger of becoming ratioed. The only way to guard yourself from clout-chasers is to let people understand that to tell you the truth does not offend you. However, when everyone feels free to tell you the truth, respect for you goes down.

Therefore, a wise influencer ought to follow a third course by choosing the authentic followers in their community, and giving to them alone the liberty of speaking the truth to them, and then only of those things of which they inquire and of none others. However, they ought to question them about everything, and listen to their opinions, and afterwards form their own conclusions. With these followers, separately and collectively, they ought to behave in such a way that each of them should know that the more freely they speak, the more they will be preferred. Outside of these, they should listen to no one, pursue the thing resolved on, and stick to their decisions. They who do otherwise are either beaten by clout-chasers or are so often changed by varying opinions that they are laughed at.

I wish to give a modern example of this. Boris Johnson, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, speaking of his leadership style, said: He consulted with no one, yet never got his own way in anything. This arose because of his following a practice the opposite to the above. Johnson was a secretive man – he did not communicate his plans to any one, nor did he receive opinions on them. This was particularly evident during the Brexit negotiations, where he often made decisions without consulting his cabinet or considering the potential consequences. But because in carrying them into effect they became revealed and known, they were at once argued against by the cabinet members whom he had around him, and he, being easily led, was made to change them. Hence it followed that those things he announced one day he retracted the next, leaving the public and his own government confused about the direction of the country post-Brexit. No one ever understood what he wished or intended to do, and no one could rely on his decisions, making it difficult for the UK to navigate the complex process of leaving the European Union.

An influencer, therefore, always ought to take advice, but only when they wish and not when others wish. They ought to make it clear that they do not want advice unless they ask for it. However, they ought to constantly inquire, and afterwards be a patient listener concerning the things they asked about. Also, on learning that anyone, on any matter, has not told them the truth, they should let their anger be felt.

There may be some who think an influencer may appear to be successful not through their own ability, but because they have a good team around them. Such a belief is clearly wrong, because an influencer who is not savvy themselves will never take good advice, unless by chance they have yielded their affairs entirely to one person who happens to be a very clever manager. In this case indeed, their brand may be well managed, but it would not be for long, because such a manager would in a short time take their followers away from them.

If an influencer who is not wise takes advice from more than one person in their comments, they will always get different bits of advice, and they will not know how to accommodate them. Each of the commenters will think of their own interests, and the influencer will not know how to control them or to see through them. This is typical, because followers will always deceive you, unless they are kept honest by constraint. Therefore, it must be inferred that good advice, no matter where it comes from, is a result of the wisdom of the influencer. The wisdom of the influencer does not come from good advice.

NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI II