"Where I think you political spade-workers are so silly," said the
Duke, "is in the misdirection of your efforts. You spend
thousands of pounds of money, and Heaven knows how much dynamic
force of brain power and personal energy, in trying to elect or
displace this or that man, whereas you could gain your ends so
much more simply by making use of the men as you find them. If
they don't suit your purpose as they are, transform them into
something more satisfactory."
"Do you refer to hypnotic suggestion?" asked Belturbet, with the
air of one who is being trifled with.
"Nothing of the sort. Do you understand what I mean by the verb
to koepenick? That is to say, to replace an authority by a
spurious imitation that would carry just as much weight for the
moment as the displaced original; the advantage, of course, being
that the koepenick replica would do what you wanted, whereas the
original does what seems best in its own eyes."
"I suppose every public man has a double, if not two or three,"
said Belturbet; "but it would be a pretty hard task to koepenick a
whole bunch of them and keep the originals out of the way."
"There have been instances in European history of highly
successful koepenickery," said the Duke dreamily.
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