Influencing People

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In my last post, I made a point in saying that I'm interested in trying to influence people. Since I wrote that, I've been wrestling with thoughts and feelings of hesitation about that. Is it wrong to want to influence people? Shouldn't we all just "live and let live"? Who am I anyway, to purposefully and intentionally try to influence people?

My first and natural instinct is to shy away from overtly trying to influence people. It feels just too manipulative.

But a few counterweights come up in my mind. First of all, I can't FORCE anyone to do anything they don't want to do. Everyone is truly free to make up their own mind about everything and do whatever they want. From that perspective, I really have no power over anyone. I'm just so much chatter.

Second, it seems to me that everything out there is already trying to influence people to make decisions or change their mind on something. There's the endless advertising you see on TV, the internet, radio, billboards, buses, etc. There's the political machines and systems trying to get us to vote or do things a certain way. There's a multitude of activist groups, religious and civic groups trying to get us to contribute or volunteer. We are always bombarded with messages trying to get us to do something.

In fact, because there is so much out there trying to influence us is one of the reasons that I feel compelled to try to speak out myself. I'm not doing this just because everyone else is, but to try to counteract some of that stuff in the first place. If there are messages out there saying negative things about Christians, I want to say positive things. If there are messages out there saying bad things about conservatives, I want to say good things. If there are messages out there saying that we should not pray in schools, I want to say that we should. If there are messages out there saying that religion has no part in public life, I want to say that it does in fact have a part to play in public life. If there are messages out there saying that we should just enjoy our own life and not think about anything outside ourselves, I want want to say that we should take up a cause greater than ourselves.

You get the point on that. I do want to influence people not because it's a bad thing, but because I want to help steer our culture and our world into good things.

I'm also wondering: if people are feeling threatened by someone purposefully trying to influence them, shouldn't they stop and think about why they feel threatened? What's so scary about someone trying to influence them? If that person is saying something you don't agree with, you can argue back (and therefore try to influence that person yourself) or just ignore it and blow it off. If that person is saying something you do agree with, there should be no threat there.

Maybe the threat is just the feeling of conflict. I know a lot of people really don't like conflict in their lives. They just want everyone to get along. My personality tends naturally in that direction. However, I'm beginning to believe that the tendency to want to just get along can lead people to do things they normally would not do just for the sake of getting along. When people are faced with the thought of a fight, people tend to avoid that. Therefore, the person who is the aggressor begins with a huge natural advantage in getting people to go along with him. It seems that for too long, aggressive people have pushed things that are not good, banking on the fact that people will not stand up to it for fear of a conflict. I'm beginning to think that the end result of that is worse than if people would have challenged the aggressor in the first place.

Well, part of why I'm here is to challenge. I'm here to push back on the negative influences in society and try to be an influence for good. Is that so bad?