The one-word secret to getting people to cooperate with your most outrageous requests.

by Major Tom

Do you know what the most powerful word in the English lexicon is? I will give you a hint -- it is a conjunction and must be used in the first person.

The word is "Because"--and, when used in first person, it is incredible.

For example, suppose there's a long line to buy beer. If I go to the head of the line and say, "Pardon me, ma'am, can I jump in here?" the answer would be a resounding "NO!"

But if I say, "Pardon me ma'am, I'd really appreciate it if I could jump in here --- BECAUSE..." it doesn't matter what follows, e.g., "My wife has been abducted by aliens, and they threatened to take her to the mother ship and perform reproductive experiments on her if I don't get them this six pack to them, still cold, in 5 minutes. It's not the experiments I mind, it's just she always comes back in a really bad mood." 8 to 10 it will work. Add a twitch on the right eye and there's no stopping what I can do.

Because is used to justify outrageous things every day:

We are going to bomb Iraq because...
You have to pay your taxes because...
You need to know how to read and write because..

Sometimes it's implied, but you get the idea. I think you will find it interesting once you are aware how people use it. Or should I say abuse it.

Why? Because they can.

You can jump in line at the copy machine if you use the boss and the word 'because.' You can seperate people from their money and tie two unrelated things together with the word 'because.'

Major Tom owns an electronic publishing service bureau that converts paper manuscripts to electronic form (OCR) and produces data and text CDs for others. Visit his website - www.textperts.com.