Manipulator (shadow of the Magician)
This page is a placeholder for a discussion about the Manipulator shadow of the Macigian archetype, how he manifests himself in individual and group behavior, how to detect his presence, and how to deal with it.
Some sociological aspects of manipulation are discussed here.
The manipulator is the active shadow of the mature Magician. Manifestations of the manipulator shadow include:
Leading Questions : Stating opinions in the form of questions, so that any answer appears to manifest agreement (also called "loaded" questions, see MCV09)
Various Logical Fallacies : An example is false attribution, in which one points out incorrect or unrelated details to change the topic or derail an argument, even when the result of the argument would be unaffected by those details.
Playing dumb : To play dumb is to pretend to not know things — in order to gain an advantage in some way. By definition, it is intentional. (If the person really doesn't think he knows anything, they're being the "innocent", which is the passive Magician shadow.)
Rewriting History : Altering the record of past statements or events, such forum posts or other Internet discourse by oneself, as a form of spoliation:
You should be very careful about believing any statement
supposedly attributed to me that you have not seen directly on an
account or page I directly control.
— someone who doesn't like being quoted, 2014 Nov 21
In this example, the speaker asserts that one should not trust "hearsay", i.e. a quotation of one person by another, because the quote might be inaccurate, or presented out of context; and the original speaker is not present to argue their point of view. But of course, if it is on a web page that the original writer "directly controls", it can be edited (or outright deleted) after-the-fact.
No Way To Distinguish
There is no way, using mental/intellectual methods (including communication) to distinguish a truly skilled Manipulator from the mature Magician. This is a result of the fact that we are attempting to use the methods of the Magician to distinguish its own shadows from its mature aspect.
In a similar way, one cannot use the methods of the Warrior (seeing who is victorious in a battle) to distiguish the shadows of the Warrior (Sadist/Bully and Masochist/Coward) from the mature Warrior. In a battle the active shadow (Sadist/Bully) plays dirty, breaking the rules
This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2014 Nov 28.
s.27