On Influence
‘Everything is an influence operation now.’ —journalist Laura Southern, paraphrased by Leighton Woodhouse, It’s All Fake
These days of social media dominance, it seems the keyword more than ever before is “influence.” Certainly it’s not a new feature of human society, as always in a real and local setting there are the reciprocal roles of the parent and child, or leader and follower. But increasingly in historical evolution and expansion of society in scale—and increasing abstraction of rulers from subjects—the relationship of influence flows one way, from the top down in the hierarchy of power. As technological distance further separates people from one another, as in print or broadcast media and now in social media, that one-way flow of power from the content creator to the passive consumer is even more pronounced and pernicious.
If natural influence of more equal power balance is to be restored, what can that look like?
The parenting bond is still primal and primary, extending to other family members, friends, peers, and coworkers. The Great Reset (underway long before 2020) has been engineered to break all these bonds, but human resilience has proved stronger than expected.
Even in the face of media information overload and manufacture of opinion, the up-close and personal connections still have power to trump the apparent weight of the propaganda machine. Common sense and intuitive knowledge are still more valuable and reliable than all the AI nonsense or woke-skewed algorithms can account for.
Even as the reach of mass communications increases, there is a corresponding undercurrent possible with the ripple effect of individual awareness, sharing, and action. Actions still speak louder than words, and hypocrites are as always exposed by their own hubris and arrogance. Instead we exert and respect influence from each other in the form of energetic vibe, charisma, modeling real virtues, and auras of right intention.
Person-to-person engagement doesn’t end with one interaction, but spurs further interactions along the chain of associations. Even the unconscious and subtle movements of frequency and understanding can have an effect that is uncharted and unmeasured until suddenly a new reality emerges: for example, the sudden mass movement in Canada of the Truckers’ Freedom Convoy signaling a widespread rejection of the prevailing dominant narrative.
Leadership occurs not just in the virtual world, but in community initiatives of service, and thought leadership, where ideas earn influence through inherent value, integrity, and resonance with minds and hearts, in the public interest. Teaching, speaking, writing, sharing, publishing, promotion are all timeless methods of exerting influence at whatever scale and with whatever technological boost is at hand. The destructive influence of emotion-manipulative social media feeds and network news is counteracted by organic sharing of original content, insights and deeper knowledge, received and respected for authenticity above transient splash.
The onslaught of advertising and propaganda continues, fueled by lobbying pressure, fine-tuned through focus groups, magnified by policy into mass “nudging.” These are age-old tactics writ large—bribery and blackmail, carrot and stick—translated into campaigns of fear, perks, promises of safety, pretailored solutions for preplanted problems, and the old reliable appeals to social pressure and tribal identity.
‘Outrage is the cheapest lever you could pull in a human being. That’s why everything online is on fire…. A distracted, exhausted, divided population is a population that cannot resist…. The very second you stop feeding the Machine you start starving it.’ —Chase Hughes (11 min. video: Tavistock – Your real life is waiting)
Influence, in short, is nothing new in the world. Its prominence today is simply a rebranding of the traditional top-down, one-way exercise of pressure, bought by money or mandated by force. Today the powers behind top influencers are often hidden, not obvious to view. Yet reach is always suspect, with the onus on the audience to discern authentic concerns or agendas playing out behind the scenes. Meanwhile our real-world, personal and interpersonal and local connections continue to prove more trustworthy.
As the athlete wisely states for the camera, “Control what you can control.” The rest is noise, and the true outcome is left to fate, or God, or Spirit to determine. May the best influencer (not the best funded) win the day.