Lonliness And The Ascent Of The Witch

The tribal chief witch is clever you may say.
She is not one to invent a mathematical formula or write a saga or build a Taj Mahal.
Her cleverness belongs in the realm of basic survival.
She was born to demonstrate to the tribe how the rugged individual achieves survival followed by dominance in any social setting using any means whatsoever. 
She, in her sadistic mind, hit upon a "live and let die" approach to social success.
She knows the power of social sanction, stigma, and isolation. Any one who threatens her place as number 1 , or even a number 15, gets tripped up, labeled as an outcast, cast out of the tribe, and isolated. That which happens to any one who is isolated from their tribe - a Simba (this is heavy on Disney references so please bear with me), a Sleeping Beauty, a Rapunzel, a Hercules, a Pinocchio - happens to them.
Their lives get threatened by other witches, hyenas, thugs, mythic monsters, circus talent scouts, and such.
While they struggle, and are often killed, she doles out opiates to those who remain by her side.
Opiates are the key to her success.
The opiate is often a job, a promotion, social status as crony of chief, money, power, or sex sanctioned by neither society nor religion.
                                                                                           - SDG