"Foreknowledge of the future makes it possible to manipulate both enemies and supporters"

Raymond Aron's assertion suggests that understanding or predicting what lies ahead grants significant strategic power. When an individual or group can anticipate coming events, opportunities arise to influence the actions and perceptions of others, both adversaries and allies. Foreknowledge acts as a form of leverage, enabling preemptive steps and subtle adjustments to plans, behaviors, or narratives that can steer outcomes in favor of the one who possesses the knowledge.

For enemies or rivals, foreknowledge provides the ability to exploit their likely moves, vulnerabilities, and decision-making patterns before they even act. This could involve setting traps, creating diversions, or exposing weaknesses at just the right moment. Such manipulation is not simply about responding, but about shaping conditions so that the enemy's actions become predictable and disadvantageous, effectively reducing their agency in the conflict.

Supporters, on the other hand, can be managed more effectively when their expectations and intentions are anticipated. A leader who knows which issues will arise or which resources will become available can galvanize followers with strategic announcements or policies, building trust and demonstrating apparent foresight. More subtly, followers' actions and morale can be guided, as information about the future is dispensed or withheld to create desired alignments or commitments. Foreknowledge thus becomes a tool to inspire, reassure, or even coerce supporters, shaping their enthusiasm and willingness to act in ways beneficial to the leader's aims.

This unequal distribution of future knowledge creates a hierarchy of power, where those possessing insight can orchestrate events from behind the scenes, diminishing the uncertainty that typically constrains decision-makers. It underscores the central strategic importance of intelligence, prediction, and timing, not only in warfare or politics, but in any domain where competition and cooperation define relationships. Ultimately, foreknowledge transforms raw information into a means of control, allowing those in the know to become the architects of collective destiny, often before others even realize the shape it will take.