Would you be convinced that you have been steering your life in full control? Do you think the decisions you take are your own, the books you read are the ones you want to read, the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the race you’re running, the battles you’re fighting? Did you really decide on them or was it already pronounced for you?
This piece of writing attempts to discern between Influence and Manipulation for the reader. Essentially, it urges the reader to cultivate the disposition of rational thinking and critical judgment.
It is philosophized that the modern human is instinctively intelligent and capable enough to pick right from wrong.
However, the process of conditioning confronts this idea, and therefore, it is even more beneficial to know when and what influences or manipulates our behavior.
To first decipher influence, begin from examining your own childhood. Simple moral teaching and ethical values that were imbibed by your parents were to make you obedient, disciplined and conformist in nature. A similar practice was employed by teachers at school. Until late childhood, you had already installed a definitive program that manifested in your behavior. While it is necessary to be trained in the early years, the roots of morals and ethics stunted the growth of rationality and critical thinking. For instance, to be respectful, you could not question your teacher, leading you to readily believe whatever they told you in the classroom. To trust one’s word and believe them slowly became a habit, so enrooted that it contaminated the fertility of your mind. It could no longer produce its own thought and rather can only grow weeds of someone else’s opinion.
This not only developed a vulnerability but also created an intellectual retardedness. And thereby, left an emptiness in our social architecture that was soon recognized by most powerful institutions to plug in Manipulation. By definition, Manipulation refers to “wielding devious influence over a person for your own advantage”. While Influence seems to be constructive in essence, it has hints of Manipulation, making it a common mistake to use both these terms interchangeably. Influence, on the other hand, is defined as, “the process by which you make another individual want to think, believe and act in the way you want him to”. Practically there is no difference. The only means to differentiate between the two is to notice who or what is on the other end of the process.
Socio-political manipulation is an ancient art. It was successfully grasped by political parties, media and other establishments of our society.
They have observed how you regard yourself as a mere consumer, fancying an utterly useless product to be sold to you by a profit-conscious corporate house, myths to be sowed by a politician in your consciousness for you to believe in, for media content that engages you and blinds you with pomp.
The cost you pay is much more precious than money. You become an insignificant member of a herd and serve your shepherd’s purpose throughout your life.
This is an ideal time to equip yourself against manipulating agents in society. Today, knowledge is far more accessible than before. With a mindset of becoming a ‘Thinking Individual,’ you can shield yourself from being wrongly influenced or even manipulated in your private and public as well as professional lives. One good practice is to ‘Delay Trust’, which means to refrain from arriving at an agreement immediately after an idea or an opinion is hurled towards you. You must verify and counter-question perceived authorities, repeatedly. You will, thereafter, experience a sense of control over your judgments and decisions. You will, most importantly, develop your own opinion and thought instead of accepting the norm.
The purpose should not be just to become a trivial critique, but to realize the human virtues bestowed upon us by nature and therefore, form a scientific temper, become intellectually authentic and a welfare-oriented individual.