By manipulating others, one “fools” themselves

Many people believe they are doing something good for themselves if they manage to manipulate others into doing what they want, to make things “go their way.” Manipulating others is the best way to “lead yourself thirsty across water…” What ends up being “our way” is far from satisfying our real needs. Those who engage in this do not recognize a simple, fundamental truth: what you do to others, you do to yourself. There is a law that governs the human psyche, which I call the “law of connected vessels.” How you judge yourself is how you judge others, and conversely, how you judge others is how you judge yourself. 

On the surface, it may seem that a person values others more than themselves. This is a false image. If others are good, how can I be bad? How is it possible that these good people think I’m bad? If they were truly good, they would see the good in me, and I wouldn’t appear as a bad person to them if they were good. One cannot feel worthless in the presence of truly good people. Therefore, I think I’m bad because I think they’re bad too. We cannot escape the law of connected vessels; it governs the depths of our psyche. 

According to this same law, if I see others as objects, if I manipulate them to satisfy my needs, then I am an object too, not a person. People communicate with people; objects communicate with objects (in fact, objects don’t communicate; they are manipulated). I become an object to myself in order to satisfy needs that are lower than the need to be a person. 

Through manipulation, you can achieve obedience, submission, dependence on others, relief from feelings of guilt, fear, servility… various forms of connection between people that are unworthy of human nature. However, you cannot gain anything truly valuable. Isn’t it foolish to be an object when you can be a person? The loss of feeling like a person is a loss of identity… something akin to a malignant tumor to what we call “humanity.” Do not allow yourself to become an object, a human being is so much more than that. No benefit gained through manipulation is worth more than being a person. A human.