Robert Green, author of The 48 Laws of Power, cites Law #26 as, “Keep your hands clean. You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency. Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cats’ paws to disguise your involvement. All men make mistakes. But the wise conceal the blunders they have made, while fools make them public.”
He continues, “If there is something unpleasant or unpopular that needs to be done, it is far too risky for you to do the work yourself. You need a cat’s paw, someone who does the dirty and dangerous work for you. Reputation depends more on what is hidden then on what is seen. If you can’t be good, at least be careful.”
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Goons is another words for cats’ paws or by-proxy agents. I learned this after I received an email one day from someone I knew. He stated he had received a confidential report indicating there was gang activity on the premises of a place I frequented. Conveniently, he just so happened to have a breakdown of the gang’s inner workings and hierarchy. Goons, he wrote, was the word the gang used to identify members who carried out the dirty work at a frontline level.
Although I couldn’t initially put my finger on it, I immediately felt there was something fishy about that email.
Regardless, I was intrigued by the breakdown of the hierarchy. I immediately replaced a term in my vocabulary. Gang stalkers were now just goons. It was only later that I realized that email was sent to mock me. With their clean hands on their keyboards, certain gang members taunted me by outing themselves to me. And of course, I couldn’t prove it. Nor could I prove the rest of their dirty work. It had been cleverly orchestrated so that it could not be quickly substantiated.
Goon Defined
Goons, or cats’ paws, are also scapegoats. They just sit a little higher in the hierarchy than the target who is the primary scapegoat. I remember googling “goons” after being told about the alleged gang activity. Above is the definition according to urbandictionary.com. But you see, the goons in my life were not street drug runners. They were aura thieves.
P.S. In a later entry, I will offer an alternative perspective to the email, the goons, the gang stalkers, and the opposition in general. I just haven’t got to that part of my story yet.