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.”
Goons is another words for cats’ paws or by-proxy agents. I learned this after I received an email at work one day. It was from another employee who reported he had received a confidential report indicating there was gang activity on the premises. Conveniently, he just so happened to have a breakdown of the inner workings and hierarchy. Goons, he wrote, was the word the gang used to identify the members who carried out the dirty work at the frontline level.
Although I couldn’t initially put my finger on it, I immediately felt there was something fishy about that email. Even so, mentally, I immediately recategorized my gang stalkers to low level goons. I didn’t realize until later that with their clean hands on their keyboards, they were taunting me by outing themselves to me through that email thread. You see, that particular workplace was by far, the place where they inflicted upon me the worst of their worst dirty work, none of which, could be 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.