Did you ever notice that the whole world is trying very hard to manipulate you? Or the fact that you are trying to manipulate it right back. Everything we do or say is colored by manipulation. It's how we attempt to control the uncontrollable. We are constantly being bombarded by images, phrases, and ideas that have the sole purpose of getting us to do what someone else wants. It's not always a bad thing either because sometimes we experience great things that we wouldn't have come up with on our own. It took someone else nudging us into it. Sometimes it takes someone dragging us kicking and screaming before we realize that it was a good thing. At the same time though there are so many things out there that are trying to get you to change your mind about something or realize a need that you didn't know you had. Turn on the television or radio for more than ten minutes and you'll know what I mean. I was going to call this On Truth, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that truth itself is very subjective. So what may seem like truth to one may not be true for someone else.
We can start with the obvious ones. I mentioned television and radio. They are both means to entertain, however, the cost of that entertainment is that you have to subjected to a nearly constant stream of pitches about various products that someone wants you to buy. Try watching a commercial. Really watching it for more than just face value. Lately when I do watch a commercial, which is rarely, I find myself wondering how they sorted out the exact message they wanted to get across. I recently saw a Jeep commercial which had old footage of America. The commercial went on to talk about how we're a nation of builders. We love to build great things. It's in our history and if we're not building things then we're not doing great. I think it's a very effective commercial because it's perfect for a recession. It shows that once things were wonderful, even if they really weren't. It shows that America and more importantly Americans, need to build in order to feel purpose. This new Jeep is supposedly built in America and not off in some other country. To me that says "Buy this car because doing so means Americans will have more jobs. More jobs means more money for the economy. More money means that by buying this car you will be helping stop the recession." Now I'm not going to buy a Jeep, but I can appreciate how they manipulated the message in such a way that people will only hear what they've been told. A commercials whole point is to plant a message inside the consumer within thirty seconds. After that it's up to the salesmen to do the final bit of convincing to close the deal. I could write a whole thing just on car salesmen, but I don't have that kind of time right now.
Our entertainment is also a source of manipulation. Comedians tend to exaggerate for effect and twist specific situations in a way to point out the humor in them. Recently someone wrote an article on James Cameron's Avatar and how the aliens were cleverly designed for maximum empathy. From their over-sized eyes to their skin color, it was all done to manipulate the audience in a specific way. Having seen the movie, I found it to be very effective because at first you do see them as alien, but by the end of the movie you're rooting for them. The story itself is also very manipulative and has been called yet another story about white guilt. While I enjoyed the movie for the fancy cartoon that it was, I was fully aware of the heavy handed message they were beating into me. Strange how the movie's message is that industrialized nations are corrupt and often tend to take what they want from those whom they feel are beneath them and yet the millionaire director thought it was ok to charge $12 a movie ticket, resulting in a box office take over a billion dollars. Plus they're re-releasing it with an additional bit of footage so they can grab some more of that money because apparently making a billion dollars from a cartoon just isn't enough anymore. It's easy to blame the filmmaker or movie studio for this, but as the consumer we allow ourselves to be manipulated because in some ways we enjoy it. Movies attempt to tell a story or visualize an idea, which is fine, but in order to do that they must manipulate certain things to get the reaction they want. A scene is setup to pull at your heartstrings or feel enraged at the injustice of the system. Several takes and millions of dollars have refined this message into the most concise and effective medium (usually).
The government is constantly trying maintain a message based on what they feel is in their best interest. Sure sometimes it's because of safety or a need for secrecy, but I would have to imagine there are several times where it's simply easier to hand out information like a parent would to a child. The less you say, the fewer questions. At least that's the theory. As I've mentioned before, the lack of information can lead people to formulate their own ideas, regardless of if it's true or not. They're simply going on what information they have. Even with that there have probably been situations where the government has manipulated things just enough to let us create our own wild speculation, which is far from the truth, and exactly where they want us looking. The media is responsible for the same type of manipulation. They are required to make sure that their news segments and stories generate a certain amount of ratings and there are tried and true things that will almost guarantee a ratings spike. People say they're tired of scandals, sexual or otherwise, but news sources which lead with those stories usually see a spike in their ratings. So obviously we don't mind being manipulated into watching certain things because it's been sensationalized. Still that kind of manipulation is nothing compared to what we do to each other on a daily basis.
I talked about lies before, which are really overt manipulations of the truth to suit our own needs. Still there are times when we may not necessarily lie about something, but we shape the truth to be more in line with our perception of what happened. For instance you're relaying an argument to a third party and you may not give all the details to the other person. We tend to do this because we want this other person to see our side, or more importantly, be on our side, even if we weren't in the right. We twist the facts in so many situations. Unfortunately we may also manipulate the truth so much that we end up believing our version over what really happened. I suppose that's really the basis of perception.
On the other side though not all manipulation is negative. It's sometimes necessary. We do this all the time, sometimes without even knowing it. It's something we learned at an early age. Even I choose my words very carefully because I'm trying to make a point. I may not always be successful, but at the time I picked what I thought was the most effective word or phrase. I doubt we have the ability to stop manipulating the world around us. It's in our nature to want to shape the world to how we want it to be, even if we're ever only partially successful.
