Don't you? I know I just blew up your
sarcasm detector but they make everyone's life worse by lying and manipulating
the situation, basically doing anything to gain their advantage. I
see it all the time. I try not to be manipulative because I have
learned that honesty and patience works just as well for me. We all
have to be this way from time to time, you know, little lies to not
hurt a friends feelings, but there are some where it seems to be a
calling.
I just finished the Patricia Cornwell
book “Red Mist.” I like some of her writing, especially anything
about forensics. But, there is a definite formula with her books and
with this one there is about 1/6th of the book where Dr. Kay
Scarpetta is musing that she does not like to be manipulated. Yeah,
me neither, but you do not need to say it over and over. It was
atrocious book padding but it certainly got me thinking about
manipulative people. A few examples are: the overzealous and
bureaucratic HOA manager, the neighbor who looks like a nice old lady
but..., and a certain person who will not let the matter go when you
tell them no, and then wants to analyze the previous conversation.
That is just the tip of the iceberg.
I had an ex-boyfriend who said he drove
better high than most people drove sober and would not wear a seat
belt because it would wrinkle his clothes. Yeah, I should have
kicked him to the curb long before I did, and I always wore my
seatbelt with him and did not let him drive high, but I was in love.
Love is a great emotion, when you are in love with someone
reasonable. When they are selfish and manipulative, love is hell.
When you break up with them, man, they will try any guilt-inducing
thing in their play book. More hell.
I also have seen it in science. A
great read about manipulation of data in science is “Intuition”
by Allegra Goodman. Everyone wants a positive result to be real, and
that is how the manipulators gain their advantage. They fake the
result which makes the result not repeatable and holds science back.
Oh yeah, and in sports there are people
like Lance Armstrong... Need I say more?
So, why would I put in that rather
disgusting quote in the top of the blog? The image is from
imgace.com.
Because Hitler was just saying what a lot of people (especially in
Washington) are doing. To quote a much better yet fictional person,
Lisa Simpson
said:
“The
city of Washington was built on a stagnant swamp some 200 years ago,
and very little has changed. It stank then, and it stinks now.”
That episode did end with a happy ending where the politicians
actually did their jobs, but I feel that this statement is the most
honest thing I have heard about D.C. It is both Democrat's and
Republican's lying seems that is standard operating procedure. This
is not exactly news. I say this because this Hitler meme was shared
on Facebook recently. I am assuming it was shared to complain about
our current President Obama. The funny thing is, I think the biggest
lie said to the American people and the world in recent history was
during the Bush Administration. You know what I am talking about:
the billion dollar Iraq lie. So, the Hitler quote is gold for any and
all politicians and manipulators. Any truthful person would go
insane in D.C. Everyone does it, blames the other party and then
acts all innocent when being called manipulative. Here is a prime
example:
I am sorry but I think the Republicans
are also (if not more) hysterical. Every one of these could be
applied to the Conservative tactics or “faith,” whatever you want
to call it. In fact this looks to me like a manipulation handbook
for politics. The only pillar that is missing is Gerrymandering.
Only this cartoonist is also trying to have a go at the Muslim
faith. Creepy.
Political cartoons and satire can be
used extremely well to make a point or they can do what that person
did above. This is an opinion of mine, that the line can be very
easily crossed from satire to manipulation. Please keep in mind that
writing fiction is a “safe” form of lying. Still, like science,
you have to be very careful in your work. I certainly try to be,
perhaps that is why my next book is going to take five years to
write. Well, that and the fact that I am lazy. At least I am being
honest.
