Eliot's Sacrifice
Exercise your influence wisely, inducing other people that state through which they reveal the true essence of their character.
Have you seen the movie “ Brotherhood of the Rose (1989)”? Romulus, the undercover CIA agent, manages to infiltrate into the Abelard shelter. He put his life in danger because he had a single doubt: Why did Chris, his brother, have to die? The guilty one was, undoubtedly, Eliot, their step-father, head of CIA. He had to get the answer from him directly at any price.
- Tell me something, Eliot. How could you sacrifice someone you love for a noble cause? What cause could be so great, as to justify that you took another 18 orphan boys and turned them into killing machines? Who the hell do you think you are, Eliot? God? With your army of criminal robots? I did everything to earn your love and respect, but you always betrayed me !
Can the results of image processing that other people present to you identify a cause that could lead to a change in a decision that you describe as incorrect and even abusive?
What do you prefer: a spotlight or a lantern? Imagine that you are in a dark cave, and there are two light sources: a small spotlight, with an intense, but narrow power to illuminate, and a tornado lantern, which scatters a blurry, diffused light. Which one would you use to see where you are?
The lantern gives you a much clearer picture of where you are, compared to the spotlight, which would reveal only small details that you could barely fit them. Basically, the lantern renders the image of other personalities who knowingly resist the reality of your spiritual, moral, visionary essence, and often these personalities can illuminate a nuance of concern that betrays the hidden intention to disarm the opponent (which must be calmed or reduced in silence).
In order to change people, you must start to “hunt” their essence, that quality that makes them more significant. For this, you must form a clearer picture of their being, you must find out where they are in relation with you and the rest of the world, and concentrate on them that diffused, warm and beneficial light of your understanding and beliefs, whose power would be able to change their internal structure.
The sad, but firm tone, with which Romulus had addressed those questions to his father and which showed that genuine love and compassion for his brother, determined Eliot to be as honest as possible. For the first time, he dared to tell the truth and reveal all the dirty games and criminal acts that he alone built and executed without any problem or remorse, in order to meet all his aspirations. Thus, Romulus’ words had crossed all the paths of wisdom, arriving directly at Eliot, deeply striking into his mind like the ray of a lantern.
Do you need to take a step back and observe what is there for you, to be ready to face what you feel makes sense to resist the course of events that follow?
Do you know how to relate to other people so as to win their heart, causing them to be honest with you? Do you have the power to change the temperament and attitude “fastened with nails” of difficult people? The extent to which you manage to obtain the truth from people depends solely on your ability to report to them, tackling them in a different way, making appeal to feelings.
You must be smart, creative and flexible, according to the circumstances in which you find yourself. And if they change, you must also respond in different ways – to use your spirit of initiative, to assume risks and make appropriate questions. But, above all, you must reach their conscience.
Face to face with the truth he told his father, Romulus knew he would have to face what he felt made sense to oppose the course of events: he had to assume the possibility of being reduced to victim status. This is what happens when you are face to face with a formidable opponent: you have to take a step back, to be sure that you do not reach the fatal arm of truth, more precisely the consequence of accepting the truth. As an idea, putting the cards on the table does not mean that you necessarily increase your chances of winning the game, but that you indulge in a momentary experience like a butterfly that gets too close to a lantern.
Truth is an adjustment of your Ego to the inherent qualities of a situation that may harm your right, credibility, or even fulfillment.
Just as montage represents a laborious construction of film sequences, so the skills you need to recognize in other people require a laborious search among their existing thoughts and beliefs. Do you overlook their good traits of character or do you only focus on their flaws? Remember that feelings become easily contagious – they are transmitted from one person to another and cause actions.
Leadership is your resistance to the course of events that you encounter with that sense of being untouched by the effects of truths that you cannot change, but you can accept as if they were on your side.
Eliot’s Sacrifice shows the emotional change that occurs even in “iron” people, who are apparently short of extraordinary depth. What kind of qualities must you develop in order to be able to awaken that eagerness in their emotional state? Do you have the power to determine them to be honest and reveal their true moral qualities?
Conclusion: For a leader, actions “in force” don’t bring any benefit, but rather stir up aversion, discontent and rebellion. Persuasion, positive psychological stimulus and bilateral communication give much better results, but require an intelligent and permanent exercise of a positive influence on others.
“Change” is a rather slow and long process, but it is better than overnight change of behavior and human thinking, which is rather superficial evidence of change and of surface, not deep changes.
