On the "mastery of manipulation” by real estate agents
Reading Barbara Todaro's post about her encouragement for the use of manipulation by real estate agents made me cringe. Her follow-up post on it made me cringe even harder. I find the use of the word “manipulation” unfortunate and unbecoming for the point she was trying to make, which would have actually been a good one. Instead, she ought to have used euphemisms as we have learned in the Zeitgeist of political correctness, like: “control..., steer..., influence..., direct..., etc” which, ironically enough, is just another form of manipulation: to use a different word that sounds less harsh or more indirect even though meaning the very same thing.
The fact is that manipulation plays an overwhelming part in our daily lives and unless one is immune to gullibility, and bright enough to think critically, it will follow you everywhere. It has been employed from the beginnings of our mammalian species to the modern human of the 21st century, from George Washington to Barack Obama, from dawn to dusk, and all night long.
It is used in politics with outright lies to sway voters; in advertising to persuade people to buy more crap they don't need; just recently in banking to tell people they can afford a loan they cannot; with cops by women showing off perky blouse-bunnies to get out of a ticket; or in court, where a criminal attorney, who is fully aware of his client's guilt, fools the jury into believing otherwise. It is ubiquitous and the examples are boundless.
Manipulation is a technique used to get YOUR way, the employment of cunning and duplicity in interpersonal conduct with cynical beliefs and pragmatic ethicality. It is part of human nature and some are better in applying it than others, but one thing is for sure: the one who possesses that skill and knows how to apply it without others knowing is more likely to succeed in life than the one who doesn't. I just don't think that writing about it openly in a laudable and favorable way, as it was, is smart, considering the notoriety our industry already bears.
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