Manipulator

I wrote this essay for my English class, my professor didn't read past the first paragraph because it didn't follow her outline structure. Her method does not fit my style, so I am publishing it here.

Manipulator

                How far would you go to make a positive impact in someone’s life? How far would you go to save someone’s life? If a person that you deeply cared for were on the brink of deciding to commit suicide, knowing that they would reject any professional help, in fact it might even make matters worse; what would you do to stop them? Any person that has put actual effort to helping others and making a positive impact to other people’s lives will tell you that once you go beyond just being the person who does errands pro-bono, knows tough decisions and sacrifices will be made, and they must be made by you, before they are made for you. Sometimes you have to make the decisions for others when they are incapable of doing so themselves, sometimes you have to tamper with someone else’s decision. If you want to help others, if you want to make a change that will matter, you will need to be willing to manipulate others. This is the only way the good guys stand a chance to undo what those with ill intent are willing to do.

              You cannot leave a mark in today’s world with mere honor and righteousness, it takes more than bravery and willpower to do anything that might contribute to the grand scheme of things. Today, you need either economic, political, or social influence to make a difference in the world. It doesn’t matter if you think or if you actually are the perfect leader for the country; no law, infrastructure, or candidacy will be affected if you don’t have some sort of major influence. Elections are won and laws are passed by persuading key people that have a strong social influence over a group of voters, or a solid political influence in the law making process. Finding key people and having influence over those key people is vital to success. In fact, many businesses see the value in someone who has the ability to talk and persuade in a subtle manner, business folk call this networking. Networking involves finding a way to be invited to social events and attending those events strategically to come in contact with individuals one is trying to engage in business with or hand in hand as an important contact, all while not “engaging in business” at the social event. This is also a useful skill to finding work opportunities that are generally not advertised. Many candidates to become a company’s CEO are someone that a member of the board of directors is already familiar with. This is sort of the reason a couple years back there were many CEO’s who didn’t know what they were doing. Having a major type of influence is tied to being a successful manipulator. Being an influencer is more socially acceptable to being a manipulator, however manipulation in the first step to influence. You need to manipulate and to have influence to climb the ladder and you need to be on the top to make changes that won’t fade away.

                Manipulation has a negative reputation. When one thinks of a manipulator they think about a character that toys with the lives of others for self-gain; we think of players, we think of cult leaders, we think of conmen, we think of corrupt politicians, and other wrong doers. However, manipulation can be a strategy/tool to benefit the lives of others and prevent undesired events that could cause serious harm to others. Many people in modern day do not have a sense of direction in life, many lose years of their lives pursuing something only later to realize that it was not what they wanted. By creating a desire within someone who doesn’t know what they want you can at the very least save someone from being a member of the walking dead, perhaps enabling them to discover what they truly want but were never capable of realizing on their own. You can do the opposite; make someone realize they don’t truly want something. If a person you deeply care for is an abusive relationship, however this person is too in love with their abusive partner and stays for the possibility of a change that is obvious will never come; would it not be s justified course of action to create a chain of events that would lead to a break up? You can create a scenario where the abusive partner is caught cheating, where they go too far and are caught by a person of authority, maybe just provide a bait to get them to leave long enough to make both realize they don’t want back in. Some may argue that purposefully placing someone you care for through a break up is the worst thing one can do, but I think letting the life of a human being is much crueler. Knowing how to create a chain reaction can also help you detect other chain reactions, enabling you to prevent future events that might trigger something people are not ready for. Having the ability to get others to do what you want them to do can be a great thing, if what you want, is for them to be happy.

                One of the reasons that many people with good intentions don’t get too far is that they try to be a single personality that everyone will like and everyone will support, something that may be impossible. A better way of becoming someone of value, someone that others will want to support, is knowing what is it that people want, and becoming the provider of that want with a little trick called acting. Knowing what someone wants is key to a successful transaction of any kind, whether it’s professional or romantic, making it clear what you want and what you will give them in exchange is crucial for efficient negotiating. When I say acting, I do not mean lying about what you will give in exchange, I am referring to a solution to the observation that many times the seller matters to some people more than what is being sold. Being able to stretch your personality to become the right spokesperson is important for someone who wants to be a leader for a cause who will be encountering any opposition. Skill in negotiation is important to leadership itself; knowing why someone made the decision to work for you can enable you to efficiently motivate your workers/team. It’s common knowledge in the world of business that not everyone reacts the same to a type of leadership. Manipulation is a useful means for the collection of information on a person’s wants and needs, and later being the right spokesperson wo provide those wants and needs. Classic heroes lead armies and win battles by making alliances… modern heroes find a way to keep people fighting for a cause through harsh times and get the support of other parties who were once an obstacle. Manipulation may have a bad name, but any person who is serious to making a change in the world will need to study the art of manipulation.

                Perhaps you are not interested in becoming a major player in the world; many would rather make significant changes to the lives of a small group of people than be involved in a hectic network of manipulators. There are many troubled souls in the world, many people that all they want is someone to be there for them and just embrace them. However, simply providing a shoulder to cry on is not enough to heal a person that bears a deep trauma, many people need therapy yet they are repulsed at the idea of seeking professional help. They depend on friends to help them find a solution to their nightmares, however most of those friends have no idea what to do with the information they are given, they may even decide to cut ties to not have to deal with the drama. I personally believe that a large reason for the number of suicides is because there aren’t enough people out there to listen to them and know what to say back. Instead those with trauma will continue feeling lost when relationships are broken because of their past, and hopeless when the countless number of advice their closest friends give them doesn’t work. A manipulator has knowledge of human nature and will know what to do with the information they are given and can provide the answers that someone needs to heal their mind. Many times, broken individuals only need someone to say something very specific to reignite hope. Many times, the reason someone’s friends leave is because all the person does is express distress but never even hint the root of that distress; they hide crucial information that is vital to their healing process. A manipulator can find and identify key information, and say or do the right things to heal someone in danger from themselves. Manipulation is a means of influence and research, and that means can be used to make someone who hasn’t smiled in years… start smiling again.

                I became a manipulator when I was sixteen. To those of you who have read this far and still do not consider manipulation an acceptable means of helping others, I understand. Manipulation is definitely not for everyone, even for someone like me it is a hard decision to tamper with someone’s freedom of choice, and the intent of this paper is not to persuade everyone to start tampering with everyone else’s lives. I have helped many people and I have saved a number of people from themselves and from others, however I have stopped myself from interfering with every problem I see. When you manipulate someone you are responsible for the outcomes whether people know that it was you or no one ever finds out. There have situations where someone I cared for was stuck in situation that I wanted to get them out of; however the possible consequences that I calculated from interfering were too great and I did not want to be the one responsible for causing such events. Being a manipulator comes with many burdens: the weight of the decisions you have made for some and the weight of the decision you made to leave others behind. I manipulate with a moral code to only do so if the ones who are affected will benefit; never for self-gain. I write this paper in this manner to make the few who have what it takes to ask themselves: How committed are you to do what must be done to do some good that will last? Do you have the judgement and the character to make the decisions and take responsibility for the outcomes of those decisions? Once you have an answer. What will you do with that answer?

Author's Note

What do you think of my arguments? Are they valid, do you agree, do you disagree?