How to Coach Yourself and Others Beware of Manipulation | Page 282

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an
important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society
constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed,
our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.
This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of
human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning
society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our
social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of
persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the
wires which control the public mind.”
Edward L. Bernays, Propaganda
“Belief can be manipulated. Only knowledge is dangerous.”
Frank Herbert
“If you are an approval addict, your behaviour is as easy to control as that of any other junkie. All a
manipulator need do is a simple two-step process: Give you what you crave, and then threaten to take it
away. Every drug dealer in the world plays this game.”
Harriet B. Braiker, Who's Pulling Your Strings? How to Break the Cycle of Manipulation and Regain
Control of Your Life
“So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking
machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they
thought that, too.”
Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
“In a culture that is becoming ever more story-stupid, in which a representative of the Coca-Cola
company can, with a straight face, pronounce, as he donates a collection of archival Coca-Cola
commercials to the Library of Congress, that 'Coca-Cola has become an integral part of people's lives
by helping to tell these stories,' it is perhaps not surprising that people have trouble teaching and
receiving a novel as complex and flawed as Huck Finn, but it is even more urgent that we learn to look
passionately and technically at stories, if only to protect ourselves from the false and manipulative ones
being circulated among us.”
George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone
“Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to
fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you.”
Orson Scott Card
“The storms come and go, the waves crash overhead, the big fish eat the little fish, and I keep on
paddling. (Varys)”
George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
“Mrs. Hopewell had no bad qualities of her own but she was able to use other people's in such a
constructive way that she never felt the lack.”
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories
“What man ever openly apologizes for slander? It is not so much a feeling of slander as it is that of a
massive lie, a misdeed not only to the slandered but also to those manipulated in the process. He has
made them all, every one, his enemies, thereupon he is so overwhelmed with guilt that he will deny it
until his grave.”
Criss Jami

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