Manipulation happens every day in a
persons’ life. No matter how conscious an individual is they cannot escape manipulation.
A person that tries to live outside of this is forced into a paradox world,
where every manipulation they reject, they are subconscious placed into
another. Example, a man sees an advertisement for a product, however,
understands he can get the same product for cheaper. So he buys the no name
brand product. He consciously believes he was not manipulated by the
advertisement. However, manipulation comes in many forms, the product maybe
cheaper, but that is how they advertisement it. The cheaper product’s manipulation
lies in the ability to make a person believe you can get the same product
cheaper. The affect is still the same; an external force affecting an
individual’s perception, which means Manipulation took place in that situation.
The only way for this person not to be manipulated is to randomly pick a
product, pay for it, and leave the store before actually seeing what was brought.
This ensures the choice neither internal nor external had an affect, and leaves
everything to random. Only random anomalies, which are separated from human
thought or human interference, can truly be free from any form of manipulation.
Manipulation is not a bad thing.
Everything in the world is a form of manipulation, from what we consider as
beauty to what a person desires for their lives to be. In a society a person
must allow for manipulation to happen in order to ensure their productivity in
the world. individuals’ realities are intertwine with manipulation, if it was
not this way then ambitions cannot exist, the world will slow down and there
will be no real production within a society.
Manipulation has a negative stigma to it which it should not, the forms
presented by society are mostly positive. The problem lies in our own
interpretation, and humans over dramatic belief they have to be unique in this
world.
I agree with you that manipulation is not always bad. While there are some intentionally insidious forms of manipulation, the majority of what we face daily is simply harmless attempts to sway our opinions. Like you said, people feel like they want to be unique and free from outside influence, but that is virtually impossible. Awareness, as Janelle often reiterates, is what's important. As long as we are aware of all the manipulations around us, we can choose on our own which ones to follow.
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