I need to tell people that, regardless of it having been said by someone enacting the role of a gangster in an Oscar-winning movie, "keeping your enemies closer than your friends" is a fucking idiotic piece of advice.
People should stop quoting that line and then stroking their chins in a sage-like manner, you look like complete dimwits.
@mcfate
If you cannot empathize with your enemy, you cannot understand him.
If the only way you can understand your enemy is to keep him close, you probably lack the ability to empathize. This is an important trait (lack of empathy) a mobster requires to operate.
I see. So, in what fashion did the US "keep Japan close" in World War 2?
How did Wellington "keep Napoleon close"?
How did the 300 Spartans "keep Xerxes close"?
Help me out here. Show me the empathy.
I'm at least a bit sociopathic, so try to keep it simple, okay?
@jurban
I understand the meaning of empathy, thanks.
I just don't understand where Napoleon, or Eisenhower, or Leonidas, or really, ANYONE displayed it in the fashion you'd seem to be waving your hands at here.
Name me a historical example of someone who triumphed by "keeping his enemies closer than his friends", and how he managed it.
Clearly, Julius Caesar is right out, hm? He kept his enemies closer than hell.
They STABBED him.