Manipulation
by
Chris AndersonDisclaimer: Alias is the property of other people, including J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot productions.
Written for the Theatrical Muse 'changing minds' challenge.
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An opinion is a thing which is open to interpretation, manipulation. I find this is particularly true of idealists, who wish to believe in their ideals despite evidence that such kinds of faith are often misplaced. Awareness of a person's ideals and values, the opinions they hold about everything which matters most to them, can be a valuable tool. The better one understands what drives a person, the better that individual can be manipulated.
Given enough time, and the right incentives, any opinion can be changed. This is child's play, and hardly a true challenge or a test of one's skill. NO, the challenge comes in the execution of things. Matters go far smoother if the target is unaware. I fit is necessary to break a man or woman in order to alter his or her thinking, you have failed. Breaking leaves too many marks behind, physical and otherwise, and these things are rarely necessary (and are best employed when the continued effectiveness of the agent or contact is not an issue.) Furthermore, they impair the effectiveness of the agent or contact in question often to the point of uselessness.
Ideology can often be used to one's advantage, but the danger of the true fanatic must never be underestimated. Those whose ideologies are so rigid that they are held as absolute and final truth, should be handled with extreme care. They have their uses, but it must be noted that manipulative efforts are rarely successful and can often backfire.
Extreme care must be taken when attempting to sway the opinions of those who have been trained to resist such things- members of other established organizations in particular. In the case of individuals suspected of being involved with Project: Christmas, standard manipulative techniques rarely apply. -from the operations bible of the Derevko organization
project notes [private]
I never attempted standard manipulation techniques upon Sydney. I knew she had been trained to recognize them, and that such an attempt would cause me to lose all credibility in her eyes. Which is not to say that I made no effort at manipulating her- of course I did. All parents manipulate their children, whether they will admit to such or not. But I manipulated Sydney only in the context of a mother reaching out to her daughter after too many years apart.
The gulf that separates us is deep and complex, the issues that make up that separation a web of enigmas, intrigues, and yes, old deceptions. These are not things that may be explained in a day, even if she were willing to listen to my explanations.
But she is getting closer to the moment when she will be willing to hear what I have to say. There was a time, when she would have said without hesitation that nothing I might say could change her mind or her opinion of me, that no words of mine could ever justify the things I have done.
But that is changing. She understands now, I think, that the world in which we live is made up of gray areas, and that things are rarely as simply black and white as she once believed.
She believed it would be possible for her simply to hate me for a decades-old betrayal, but she was trapped by a simple human desire- to know her mother.
It is this same desire which ties my hands with Nadia- she has the right to know her father, and if I were to attempt to keep her from him, I would only drive my youngest daughter closer to Arvin and farther away from me. It is the mistake Jack made where Sydney was concerned three years ago, when I came back into their lives, and I will not make the same mistake.
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