The 50th Law (with 50 Cent)

Understand: You might see King Louis XVI as an extreme
example of someone out of tune with the times, not particularly
relevant to your own life, but in fact he is much closer to you than you
think. Like him, you are probably looking at the present through the
lens of the past. When you look at the world around you, it seems
pretty much as it appeared a day or a week or a month or even a year
ago. People act more or less the same. The institutions that hold power
remain in place and are not going anywhere. People’s ways of thinking
have not really changed; the conventions that govern behavior in your
field are still followed religiously. Yes, there might be some new styles
and trends in culture, but they are not critical factors or signs of deep
change. Lulled by these appearances, it seems to you that life simply
goes on as it always has.
Below the surface, however, the tide is moving; nothing in human
culture stands still. Those who are younger than you no longer have
the same level of respect for certain values or institutions that you
have. Power dynamics—among classes, regions, industries—are in a
state of flux. People are beginning to socialize and interact in new
ways. New symbols and myths are being formed, and old ones are
fading. All of these things can seem rather disconnected until there is
some crisis or clash and people must confront what was once
seemingly invisible or separate, in the form of some sort of revolution
or cry for change.
When this occurs, some people will feel, like the king, profoundly
uncomfortable and will hold on even more fervently to the past. They
will band together to try to stop the tide from advancing, a futile task.
Leaders will feel threatened and cling more tightly to their
conventional ideas. Others will be carried along without really
understanding where it is all headed or why things are changing.
What you want and need is the power that Danton possessed to
make sense of it all and act accordingly. And this power is a function of
vision, of looking at events from a different angle, through a fresh

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framework. You ignore the clichéd interpretations that others will
inevitably spout when facing changes. You drop the mental habits and
past ways of looking at things that can cloud your vision. You stop the
tendency to moralize, to judge what is happening. You simply want to
see things as they are. You look for the undercurrents of discontent
and disharmony with the status quo, which are always there below the
surface. You see commonalities and connections among all these signs.
Slowly the flow, the tide itself, comes into focus, indicating a course, a
direction that is hidden to so many others.
Do not think of this as some intellectual exercise. Intellectuals are
often the last to really discern the spirit of the times, because they are
so grounded in theories and conventional frameworks. First and
foremost, you must be able to feel the change in the collective mood, to
sense how people are diverging from the past. Once you feel the spirit,
you can begin to analyze what is behind it. Why are people dissatisfied,
and what are they really craving? Why are they gravitating toward
these new styles? Look at those idols from the past that no longer cast
a spell, that seem ridiculous, that are the subject of mockery,