Me: The Master of Manipulation

So, I have plenty of things on my mind right now. The trick is finding something I can write about that I wouldn't mind anybody in the world reading.

I was once told by a doctor at a hospital who barely knew me that I was the master of manipulation. I honestly don't know why he said that, as I didn't do anything manipulative at the time. But had he really known what he was talking about, I would have taken it as a compliment.

Being manipulative to me means you know how to use human psychology to get your way. "Your way" isn't necessarily bad. You could manipulate someone in a way that ends up being mutually beneficial. Being manipulative means you are good at influencing people. You've got to be smart to be manipulative. Stupid people rarely successfully manipulate others. So when someone tells me I'm manipulative, to me they're telling me, "you've got brains and you know how to use them." Really, that's what I hear.

I remember one time when I was in junior high, I was shopping with my mom, probably at the Gap. I was trying on an article of clothing. I wanted her to buy it for me, but she was leaning toward the no side. Then I said something along the lines of: "but I like it." It wasn't what I said that was important, it was the fact that when I said it, there was a very slight amount of whininess in my voice. I noticed a sudden change in the manner in which she acted, and she said fine and she turned around and bought it for me. What a great discovery!

I tried it again another day, with a different article of clothing. I let that slight whine creep into my voice when she was leaning toward the no side, and again she changed and bought me what I wanted. Then another day, I got overly confident and tried to use my tactic again, but this time let too much whine slip into my voice. She immediately said "No!" very firmly. That was the last time I tried that trick.

Anyway, my interpretation of this is that when I only used a slight amount of whine, the effect was subconscious, and reminded her of childhood tantrums. Subconsciously she sensed a tantrum coming on, even though she would have known I was much too old to throw tantrums, but it was on a subconscious level so she didn't think of that. On a conscious level she had decided not to give into whininess, so when the whine was strong there was a firm no.

But anyway, in conclusion, manipulation can be useful.