Triangular Desire

The greater challenge was to get Pharoah to respond. The strategy, a standard form of coercion involving a progressive “turning of the screw” in an attempt to find the target’s threshold of pain, led to regular promises of compliance upon which Pharaoh equally regularly reneged. Moses initially demanded that Pharaoh “Let my people go” in relatively modest terms.He asked that the Hebrew slaves be allowed to go into the wilderness for a three days’ journey to pray and sacrifice. If not, Pharaoh was told, then “The lord our God [might] fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword”. STRATEGY, A HISTORY 

Seducer Desire

• The origin is mimesis – every structure of desire is triangular 
  • The basic hypothesis of [Firard Rene] is that every desire is the desire of others. Not immediately desire of an object
• Must make targets see you as a person whom others cherish and covet 
• Make people see you as sought after by everyone else
• Make people compete for your attention – People’s weakness is vanity 
  • When at risk, you can make them do whatever you want
• Harem effect – admirers friends/suitors
• Triangular Desire – Stir by paying attention to her sister 
  • Reputation – “Illustrious past as a seducer” 
  • Must find a way to suggest to victims that others have found you desirable 
  • An effective way of creating an aura of desirability 

The first people to be coerced in this story, therefore, were the Jews themselves. Moses presented them as caught between the power of Pharaoh and an even more powerful God. Pharaoh’s response was to deny any knowledge or respect for this god and to make the Hebrew’s lives even more miserable by telling them to find their own straw for their bricks. This extra suffering immediately undermined Moses’s confidence and credibility. Pharaoh was not punished at first, instead, to persuade him to take God more seriously, he was treated to a demonstration of God’s power. STRATEGY A HISTORY

Triangle Strategy

• The use of contrasts – by comparisons 
  • At a social affair make your target chat with the most boring person
    • Then come to the rescue 
  • Careful exploitation of people who are dull or unattractive may enhance your desirability 
  • Choose a group in which your natural qualities are rare and will shine 
  • Develop humour and display vivacity 
  • Political ramification – the public reads them unconsciously and sees what it wants
    • Political figure – Seem desirable – must seduce
  • Eminently seductive because they do not depend on your own words or self-advertisement 
• An object that is rare and hard to obtain is more prized 
  • Out of reach – seem unattainable 
  • Keep distance – do not let your targets see you often 
  • How you carry yourself 

Moses’ brother Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and it became a serpent. Surprisingly, Pharao’s magicians performed the same trick, but then Aaron’s rod swallowed up all the other rods. This had no impact on Pharaoh. Tricks involving rigidifed snakes were quite common in Egypt. So Moses tried but failed to make his point in a non-punitive manner. Pharoah remained unconvinced of God’s Power. There then followed the ten plagues. First, the river turned to blood. This made little impression either. Pharaoh’s magicians claimed they could also transform water into blood. Then out of the river came an abundance of frogs. Pharaoh hesitated and said that the Hebrews could go, but changed his mind when the frogs were removed. After a plague of gnats, the court magicians were stumped.STRATEGY, A HISTORY