They were casting a net in the lake with their net, for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them 'Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men'. – Matthew 4:18-19

I am an individualist. I believe in the importance of the self. I believe in competition, and the necessity of failure. I am an ardent individualist. Yet even I do not deny the importance of the collective. We need other people, we need their help, we need what they have to offer. I do not deny that one man can achieve much on his own, but he can achieve so much more with others. It makes sense; a company with hundreds of employees will have a greater output than one individual, armies need soldiers, etc., etc. Hence the Dark Adept must be like a fisherman, casting his net out to win support.

All too often I hear people say "he is of no value to me". Nonsense. That is not to say all people are of equal value; some are of great use, some minimal. It is obviously up to the Dark Adept to assess each case, and choose one's followers. After all, you can’t lead everybody. For example, attempting to lead people whose views differ greatly from each other can be disastrous; your actions are unlikely to be supported by every point of view. Attempting to find a centre ground which is pleasing to all wings of your support is foolish, as rather than leading to everybody being satisfied, it will mean nobody is satisfied. This in turn can well lead to infighting within your support. What one must do is make sure that the support, whilst containing a wide enough spectrum to be numerically strong, is not too wide to isolate one wing or the other. When you do have a situation where your actions are unlikely to be supported by all elements, it is important to identify it beforehand. The Dark Adept should then approach individual elements of support, and play to their perspective. The reason you give to somebody for an action must highlight the advantages FOR THEM, and avoid the disadvantages. It is irrelevant whether you are lying to one side, or both. What matters is that all sides are satisfied that the position is advantageous to them.

Perhaps the greatest value of people is as a number. Especially in this democratic world, all people are equal in their ability to add one to the tally; one more vote, one more pair of hands, one more voice shouting, etc. Yet it need not be limited to one. Plant a potato and when you return you will find more potatoes. The Dark Adept who isolates himself will limit his level of support. One must not treat people as worthless, because everybody has their worth as a number. The "Bandwagon effect" should never be underestimated. Firstly, people want to follow their friends, so as not to disagree with them, and secondly people want to be associated with the 'in' cause, the 'cool' belief.

Just as the fisherman casts his net to trap fish, so the Dark Adept must cast his net to trap support. This trapping net may take many forms, but the effect is always the same: the supporter has no choice but to support you. The most obvious example of this is through allowing people to believe that you know something they don’t want you to know. Whether or not you do know such a thing is irrelevant; you should merely attempt to make them believe you do. Then, the person will support you so as not to offend you, as they don’t know what you’ll do should you become offended… Another “net” tactic is to make sure that there is nobody else for potential supporters to support, hence they support you by default. One way of doing this is by killing off the opposition, but I’d advise against this because it has moral implications, could get you locked up in jail, and above all shows an alarming lack of originality. An example of this type of trapping directs me to Tony Blair's Labour Party. The party is no longer socialist, and in many ways has worked against the interests of the working classes. Yet the working classes have been persuaded have no choice but to vote for them; the only other choices are the Liberal Democrats, who have little chance of winning, and the Conservatives, but voting for the Conservatives, who historically have been deemed the class enemy – to vote for them would be a betrayal of their principles. Hence, the Labour party can do what they want because they have trapped the working classes into voting for them, and so have a safe support. Obviously, the tactics using nets are long term - the fishermen must set his net and return to it later - but the Dark adept should always look for an opportunity to place people in a position where to support anybody else would go against either their principles or their common sense.

The fisherman also employs the use of bait. A hook in itself is not appetising to the fish. One must attract the fish with something more desirable, so that he is blinded to the hook. For the fish this is food. For the human, the most obvious bait is the promise of material wealth. But I would not advise the Dark Adept to win support by waving money about, or buying gifts, as people are fickle and once the gifts and money dry up, they will move onto the next person. However, that does not rule out playing on the human materialist instinct; look at the way politicians promise that they’ll lower taxes, and people vote for them because of that even if it means destroying public services such as schools. Use of material bait or not, the key to this tactic is thus: Always let people know what they stand to get out of the deal. How will they be in a better position? Why will supporting you give them more power/ money/ friends? The promise of these things will win you the support you need to achieve what you want to. Whether or not the promises are fulfilled is irrelevant if what you only need support once; once you have achieved what you want to achieve, and they have not received anything, it is too late for them to reverse their help. However, if you want to rely on their support again, you should fulfil the promise ONLY IN PART; this is important: If you wish to continue using the same bait on the same person, it is no use letting it be taken. Allow the donkey to eat some of it the carrot, and then hang it front of them once again, saying "just a little bit further".

If you wish to succeed, then sometimes you will have to choose between a temporary sacrifice of your principles, or failure. The fisherman who refuses to go to a certain lake with lots of fish has to accept he will not catch many fish. The Dark Adept should realise that his principles can never be served through failing. I give you this example; a believer in an unpopular policy or doctrine considers denies his belief in order to win an election. He has a choice; he can either state his belief and lose, or sacrifice his principles temporarily, pretending to be what he is not, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and win. Once he is in power, he can do what he wants. So who has played the better part? The loser, who is in no position to serve his principles, or the winner, who betrayed his cause in order to win and can therefore implement those principles? I believe the outcome justifies the deed. How about you?