What do you think it really takes to convince someone about anything? I don’t mean to the level where they’re nodding their head, flashing a smile, or clinking their drink to yours in a display of temporary solidarity. I mean convince someone: change their mind, their point of view, their way of seeing the world. Touch their inner core, self, soul, atman.
It’s not like selling them a used car. It can’t be. The stakes are so much higher, and the consequences may be in that moment, and for many more thereafter, profound, lasting, and of monumental importance.
Especially when you’re dealing with a species you’ve been told are self-focused, narcissistic, hedonistic, opportunistic, and worst of all, just not all that interesting. This is a way-station after all, a proving ground, a temporary assignment, a pit stop or slight detour on the way to something better. Convincing anyone of anything at all, even given infinite time, space, and energy to achieve it, is no walk in the park.
That’s why charlatans are so effective: just like a great ballet dancer or singer or athlete makes it look so easy, so effortless, a con artist makes the lies and empty promises and misdirection seem so simple, guileless, and without visible support that they are the spoonfuls of sugar that make the medicine go down. But not all that glitters is gold; not every drug is a medicine. Some are deadly poison.
Most really good evangelists know to work the room, but more importantly, they know how to pick the room. Preaching to the choir is a lot easier than preaching in the wilderness. At a minimum, there’s better cell coverage. And where you can connect to the world, you have a message. Messages, however, are a lot like drugs. Only some have medicinal value.
Do you have what it takes to do the convincing? What would it take to convince you? Maybe you think those two are different ends of the same stick. Maybe you don’t. But whether you believe in that kind of cosmic balance or you don’t, when you pick it up, it’s the whole stick. Don’t ever expect anyone to ever be a bigger pushover than you, because it’s one thing to be stubborn about something, but it’s quite another to keep beating yourself on the head with it.
It’s a big job.
19 APR 2025
Leave a Comment