Influence, Emotions and Control

One of the most shocking moments that we witnessed this summer was the attempted un-aliving of a particular nominee for a very powerful office. I’m using very particular wording because we won’t be able to promote our videos if they are deemed to be engaging in the discourse of public governmental affairs, and that is exactly part of the problem. Because you are smart, you already know the incident that I am referring to, and the question we are going to be tackling today is how does this happen? There is a direct pathway from the platforms and media influences that we consume and our behavior on the other end. Today, we are breaking down the path of influence, emotions and control, so stick around to find out if you are being manipulated.

Every day, in nearly every waking moment, we are all being bombarded with countless influences, coming at us from all sides. It’s in our music, it’s on our screens, it’s on the billboards we drive by, it’s coming from our friends, our families, our teachers, our co-workers. There are passive influences, situations we experience without a direct will intending for us to go in one direction or another – like the weather – and direct influences; actual minds seeking to engage our thought processes and change the decisions we make. Influence is not a bad thing. In fact, there are many ways in which we could exercise our influence in the life of another person that could be beneficial to both them and us. There are, however, influences that are trying to change your thoughts and behaviors without you even being aware of them. They are actually more effective when you don’t know that they are targeting you. As human beings, we do not simply engage with any of these influences on a purely rational or logical level, but our emotions are constantly in play, too. Influence turns into manipulation when our emotions are targeted to get us to do something without our full knowledge of their influence and often times in ways that benefit them far more than it would benefit us. There is often the use of deceit involved, as well, whether it’s selective disclosures or withholding information, exaggerating the facts or flat out lying.

In an extreme situation like the one we referenced in the beginning, one of the common things we hear after the fact is that no one who knew the individual saw it coming; there were no warning signs. We’re presented with school photos from years before the incident and left to wonder how a sweet and shy kid like that could end up doing what they did. In many cases, one of the consistent commonalities is fear. When people are afraid, they will do many things that they would normally never consider doing. Most people would never jerk the steering wheel and drive into the cars next to them on the road, but if an animal jumped out in front of you while you were driving, the natural fear response for many could push them to make an even more dangerous choice. Fear is frequently rooted in our primal, survival instincts. Self-preservation or the safety and well-being of those we love is a huge influence on the choices we make in life. For someone seeking to manipulate behavior, if they can press on your fears and make you feel a certain way, they are well on the way to being able to pull your strings and get you to behave in the way they would want.

Again, in this specific situation, we have all been hearing for years how the former government official is a hate mongering, misogynistic, Hitlerian dictator who would destroy the country if he ever came into power again and, at the time, he had a commanding lead. He was labelled and an existential threat to our very lives. Now, the people using those terms were probably only intending for their fiery language to drive people to cast their ballots in a particular way. But, if you are sitting under that influence for long enough, hearing how great of a threat this individual is, it is conceivable that someone who is probably already mentally unwell would think that they are at a point where matters need to be taken into their own hands and they start asking themselves similar questions to the one Rhodey proposed in Avengers Endgame when they were talking about defeating Thanos.

Violent rhetoric produces violent results. In our own lives and in our day to day relationships, some of us have grown accustomed to a similar way of thinking. We view our spouses as the enemy, that they are against us and don’t care about us at all. We are surrounded by influences on one side showing us the beautiful, utopian view of love and marriage and we’re told “this is how it should be. This is what you deserve.” On the other side, we’re surrounded by social media, self-help gurus telling you that you should cut off everyone who isn’t serving you, that your spouse is toxic and that you need to leave them. This is just one example of all of the ways that the way we relate to one another, whether far away or right at home, are constantly under attack from manipulative influences that will only end up in destroying us and the people we love.

Thankfully, the Bible gives us a different way. Rather than stoking the flames of hate against our idealogical adversaries, Christ told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. When is the last time you prayed for our governmental leaders, or the last one, or the future one? He didn’t say to just pray for the ones you agree with, but specifically and especially the ones who persecute you. When we pray for the betterment of people we consider to be against us, it has a secondary effect of making us not against them. We can’t control their choices, but we cannot let our hearts be manipulated into hate and everything that comes with it. Who knows what the next few months are going to bring, and there is a lot on the horizon that could cause any one of us to be afraid. But, the Bible also tells us that perfect love casts out fear. The more we learn to love our enemies the way that Jesus loves us, the less ability anyone will have to be able to manipulate us.