Can I Please Manipulate Your Mind To Motivate Myself?

It’s easier to manipulate than to motivate. It’s easier to use your intelligence than to use your instinct. It is easier to break something down than it is to build it. Maybe it’s nature’s way to balance the good in the world.

Yesterday I noticed a weed that looks just like a rose bush growing among all the roses. I was shocked at first and then I was impressed. I was shocked at the treachery of the weed and then impressed at the intelligence of the deceit. A weed has the intelligence to camouflage itself among the roses to survive. It looks exactly like the rose bush but the only difference is that it does not sprout any roses. The gardener can miss that deceit and let the weed coexist with the roses for many seasons until he starts to notice the difference between the rose stem and that of the weed when it’s time for the roses to bloom.

That is nature’s way of faking it to survive. It’s a forgery in nature. A forgery is a form of manipulation that abuses your trust to make an unfair gain. Manipulation is a way to intentionally exploit another for selfish gain.

Have I committed my share of manipulations? — absolutely.

I used it to earn a living as an advertising and marketing executive. I played on the fears and desires of my audiences to make them choose one brand over another. I was the weed impersonating in the world of content creators.

I used to think building brands was the noblest profession in business. Now I think advertising is such a waste of creativity. It employs thousands of brilliant minds whose only mission is to manipulate your emotions into making a preference.

How does it feel to manipulate another?

It feels powerful. It feels exciting to play the game of unhooking the mask of your audience in order to plant a desire that feeds that weakness. It feels thrilling to enchant an audience to pay attention to your facade of half-truths. It feels highly satisfying to know that you have the power to move people into taking action based on your words and images. It satisfies the psychopath that lies hidden in all of us. George K. Simon (1996) in his book, In Sheep’s Clothing: Understanding and Dealing with Manipulative People identified 20 manipulative techniques that people use to gain an unfair advantage over others. They include classics like lying, shaming, seduction, projecting, and feigning innocence. I am sure you are familiar with and have been subjected to a few of these.

But just below the bravado and the back-slapping, there is a little guy that frowns as you ransack unlocked hearts. It looks at you and says,

“Why.? Is this necessary? You are not planting, just plundering.”

In my experience, the motivations of the manipulator tend to cluster around these few things: the need to advance their own purposes; a strong need to attain superiority and feel in control; raise their perception of self-esteem; boredom and lack of self-control.

The root of all these motivations is born of one source- the afraid ego. The small, insignificant, illusionary ego that needs a shadow to project its importance.

Manipulation is a drug of the feeble mind to feel more confident. It’s what they need to feel complete. It’s how they feed their ego to prop up their parasitic strength. But what is often overlooked is that this energy has the same toxic effects on the perpetrator as it has on the victim. The only difference is that it silently eats away at the perpetrator’s roots while the perpetrator carnally enjoys the innocent fruit of the victim.

In the end, we all eat what we sow. It might take time. But it will take its toll.

Coda:

I wish all fellow manipulators an alternative.

Confess. Surrender. Convert.

Stop sucking your strength from the sap of the innocent. Stop gaining by crawling. Stop glowing by hiding in the dark.

Come out without your weapons of manipulation. Surrender them at the feet of all those you have harmed. Apologize in your mind to all those who have been harmed by your weakness.

Spend time being naked in the light of truth. Let the light of authenticity tan your skin. Let the water of compassion melt the rock of your heart. Let the tears of atonement roll. Let that fake self die. Let the skin fall. Let yourself be reborn. From the warmth of your ashes.

Be reborn as inspires.

Inspirers of those who suffer, those who are afraid, those who feel alone, those who have no voice. Be the protector of those who are victims to the manipulators. Fight on the side of the underdog. Teach them what you know. Show them how to defend themselves. Give them ways to love themselves. Help them out of their self-constructed prisons. Nurse them with your words. Help them shed their shell of ego. Use the talent you have to move people to move themselves to their higher selves.

They might not thank you, or even worse, even notice you. You might lose all your edge and your influence. You might get overrun by the noise of the AI army. You might never reach a single soul. But that is a risk you must take.

You must.

You must.

Take that risk, my fellow manipulators.

It might save a soul.

And it could be yours.

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Previously Published on medium

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Photo credit: by Puneeth Shetty on Unsplash