For years, I have enjoyed, and learned from, John Delavera’s insights. He writes long rambling blog posts and sends out meaty ezine issues, all chockfull of interesting stuff.

Today John wrote about a recent product launch in the Internet marketing space. While the specific product isn’t the focus of this post, the topic is… because for many years, I’ve been fascinated about ‘influence‘ - and why people want it.

Some want influence for the money it can earn them. Others want it to help carry out their agenda. And few want the command and control it brings. And there are other reasons too - some of them nice, some not so nice.

At the root of all of it is this truth - influence brings power.

Power is such a deep, powerful word. It evokes strong feelings, emotions, passions. People do weird things to attain power. Even cruel things. Wrong things.

I’m a student of history. It’s a hobby and I delve deep into it. And with regard to influence, power and controlling masses, the lives of people like Otto von Bismarck, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adof Hitler and Machiavelli have many powerful lessons to teach.

Psychology is another favorite subject of mine. As is philosophy.

Robert Cialdini’s groundbreaking book, “INFLUENCE : The Psychology of Persuasion”, was barely 300 pages long - and goes into the core principles of influence. Not only does Cialdini write about how these triggers work and have been exploited in the past, he takes great pains to educate a reader about the potential for abuse.

Combining the principles of ‘mass control’ with ethics and integrity can be a ‘Good Thing’. But given the potential materialistic benefits society endows upon influential people, the temptation to subvert ethical values to the pecuniary rewards of the moment is very high.

History is replete with examples of ‘influence gone wrong’. Mass control ‘nuclear power’ in the wrong hands can have disastrous consequences - for masses.

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Integrating what I’ve learned from different sources has given me a kind of fabric to use in weaving a theory around influence and power.

And history reveals some stark and startling facts about the (ab)use of influence and power to change the course of mankind - for better, or more dangerously, for worse.

Studying mass control principles has value, even if you have absolutely no intention of trying to control masses. The value lies in knowing when YOU are being subject to ‘mass control’ efforts.

No, you cannot always be sure. But patterns reveal themselves, and the lack of subtlety with which powerful techniques are used by all but the most brilliant proponents will make these attempts evident to a serious student of the art.

Even in the hands of very ethical people with high levels of integrity, there are instances of dishonesty and ‘freedom with the truth’ in the use of these methods to acquire influence.

Imagine what these effective techniques might do in the hands of people without such values and ideals, who are gaining knowledge about them for the express purpose of influencing crowds to follow their instructions… regardless of where they lead the herd.

Every day, we live and survive in a scary marketplace where commercial reward is avidly sought and fiercely fought over. And there have always been people willing to pull out the stops and go for it - using every bit of fire-power in their armoury to reach their goals.

Your only hope is to be on guard against being manipulated. To seek to understand how the principles work, so that you can identify their use on you. To make sure you study and admire, instead of getting sucked in and brainwashed against your wishes.

But then, if you do manage this, you probably wouldn’t even engage in mundane, day to day things like reading the newspaper or watching TV. Incidentally, those happen to be the MOST effective mass control methods in the world today!