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Creating a sick system

Really disturbing piece about how to make someone dependent on you…i.e. “creating a sick system”. Here are the four basic rules:

1. Keep them too busy to think.
2. Keep them tired.
3. Keep them emotionally involved.
4. Reward intermittently.

Then the author provides a number of techniques you can use to achieve those goals. Like:

Keep real rewards distant. The rewards in “Things will be better when…” are usually nonrewards โ€” things will go back to being what they should be when the magical thing happens. Real rewards โ€” happiness, prosperity, career advancement, a new house, children โ€” are far in the distance. They look like they’re on the schedule, but there’s nothing in the To Do column. For example, everything will be better when we move to our own house in the country… but there’s nothing in savings for the house, no plan to save, no house picked out, not even a region of the country settled upon.