(PDF).
Many people are horrified when they come upon hook operating, and their first reaction is, “That’s
something I could never stoop to doing.” But, actually, the reason that a great many people don’t
become Hook Operators is because it’s not at all easy to be one. They’re clever, the Hook
Operators, and ingenious and resourceful, and they give every bit: of their talent and energy to the
business of hook operating. To understand a Hook Operator, it is best to study him from the first
clay that he sets his nimble, cloven foot inside the door of an organization.
A Hook Operator has a nose for power, and as soon as he enters an organization, he follows his
nose until he comes upon the individual who is giving off the strongest odor. Having spotted him,
the Hook Operator feels out the Powerman for his soft spot until he knows the exact location of the
spot and its degree of softness.
There is value in taking a sharp look at this soft spot, for its nature is the one element that makes
the career of the Hook Operator possible. If the Powerman doesn’t have this kind of soft spot, the
Hook Operator will get nowhere, but generally the Hook Operator has little to worry about on this
score. Where there is power there is usually the kind of soft spot the Hook Operator is seeking. The
soft spot is a simple thing, a hidden sense of insecurity. Its owner is so sharply aware of this soft
spot that he keeps it hidden in a little box where he doesn’t have to look at it and be aware of it.
About this soft spot, however, the owner is so touchy that the slightest indication that someone
suspects its existence will drive him crazy. The Hook Operator usually locates the soft spot very
quickly, for this is part of his business; not giving any indication that he sees it is part of his
technique.
As soon as he has gotten the soft spot in focus, the Hook Operator visualizes it as a target and
shapes a weapon which will pierce that feeling of insecurity so that it will bleed for days. He then
looks about to locate the guy-on-the-way-up, since this fellow will hold or will be credited with
holding the weapon, and will throw or be credited with throwing it at the target.
There is a choice of techniques at this point. If the Hook Operator can manage it, the most effective
method is to get the guy-on-the-way-up to actually throw the weapon. First, the Hook Operator
studies the guy-on-the-way-up to locate his soft spot. If it exists, it will show itself under the Hook
Operator’s careful probing. Brought under the microscope, it is a rather soft, small, flabby thing, a
feeling in the guy-on-the-way-up that he is not sufficiently appreciated by management.
Once he has brought this soft spot into focus, the Hook Operator pokes at it until it has grown to
maximum size. When the Hook Operator has achieved this, a change becomes apparent in the guy
on-the-way-up. His fellow employees notice it and management notices it and they say, especially
the members of management, that so-and-so’s personal morale is not what it used to be. This is true
enough. So-and-so has been worked on by an expert until his small sense of grievance has grown to
a large sense of grievance.
At this point, the Hook Operator directs this sense of grievance at the Powerman. If the guy-on-the way-up
is susceptible, he begins to think that the Powerman is deliberately holding him back. The
Hook Operator then carefully directs the victim’s attention to the Powerman’s soft spot, his hidden
insecurity, until the victim understands why the Powerman has this sense of inferiority and
understands exactly the real inferiority which lies under this touchy sense of inferiority. This
Powerman who doesn’t appreciate him, the victim finally realizes, is just a dope.
When the Hook Operator gets the victim to this point, he picks up the weapon of words which he
has so carefully fashioned and dangles it in front of the victim’s eyes. This is what would puncture
the ego of the Powerman, says, in essence, the Hook Operator. It may take days of not exactly
saying this to say it exactly enough for the guy-on-the-way-up to get the point. But eventually the
victim realizes that the Powerman, that unappreciative individual who thinks so little of him, can be
reduced to ashes by a few words. When he has become sufficiently aggrieved and angry and has
been convinced by the Hook Operator that he is well justified in feeling aggrieved and angry, the
victim throws his weapon at the target. And the moment he does, he is finished, he is one less guy
on-the-way-up. Frequently, this technique is not effective because the victim’s personal morale is too high, or
because his sense of balance is too good, or because he is too shrewd to be taken in by the Hook
Operator. In such cases, the Hook Operator merely pretends that the guy-on-the-way-up has thrown
the weapon at the Powerman’s soft spot and convinces the Powerman of this.
The Hook Operator, in this case, spends his time working on the Powerman rather than on the guy
on-the-way-up. To convince the Powerman that the victim has actually thrown the weapon at the
Powerman’s soft spot, the Hook Operator may have to do a considerable amount of work.
First, he mentions a small needle of comment and claims that he heard the victim throw it at the
Powerman and he follows this with another small needle. He words these little needle statements
carefully so that they sound as if they just might have been said by the victim. The Hook Operator
watches their effect carefully, revising the shape and length of the needles as necessary, until he
notices little things which tell him that the needles are doing their work: the Powerman’s tightening
of the mouth when he hears them, his growing irritability with the victim, his sudden careful quiet
studying of the victim.
When enough needles have been thrown and the proper effect has been achieved, the Hook
Operator throws the big weapon. This may be a small knife, or a large knife, or a broad-ax. Once it
has been thrown and it sticks and the Powerman’s soft spot bleeds, the victim is done for. The guy
on-the-way-up may be an excellent and invaluable employee but so far as the Powerman is
concerned, he is now only a man who threw a weapon at the soft spot the Powerman doesn’t dare to
look at himself, but which he can feel bleeding.
If the victim has been hooked by this second technique, he gropes and blunders about, trying to
discover why the wind has suddenly changed. Occasionally a Powerman, stung into fury, lashes out
at the supposed weapon-thrower and repeats what the Hook Operator has told him. But, usually,
when the touchy soft spot is punctured, the Powerman cannot bring himself to do this. He cannot
talk at all about the soft spot but, instead, swallows a cup of acid every time he looks at the victim.
Inevitably, if the Powerman is hooked, he gets rid of the victim or he uses him as a whipping boy to
console himself for his punctured ego.
