Quora: Does blackmailing works to a narcissist?

 Oh, my god, Yuuuuck! Just look at this question for a minute and think..is THIS the kind of person *I* want to be?

I always say don’t play control games with the narcissist because you cannot win, and perhaps it’s an overstatement. Maybe you can win in a power struggle with a narcissist, if you are willing to get down and dirty and evil enough.

BUT—YOU are the person you have to live with for the rest of your life. You are the one who has to look yourself in the eye in the mirror every day. You have to be at peace with your decisions and at ease with your own morality and find harmony within your own soul.

Does blackmail fit the person you would like to be? Does engaging in blackmail seem like the kind of thing you’d be proud to tell your parent, boss, friend, or your child that you did today?

At some point, you will want to be a person of integrity and whatever dirty low-down tricks you played to beat a sick person at their own sick game will come back to haunt you and make you feel dirty and ashamed down to your roots. Believe me, you don’t want to go there. You may be able to win by becoming as much of a monster as the monster you are fighting, but what would be the point of winning, when you destroyed your own humanity and your own soul in the process?

Walk away from a person who tempts you to trade in your decency for such a ‘win’ over them.

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Editing to add:  Posts tagged 'quora' were originally my answers to peoples' questions on quora.com.  They were monetized but I am giving them away for free here. 

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