So my sister might tell me it is just a small casual thing with a few people. If she told me it was going to be 60, or my ex would be there, I would not go. However, my sister has arranged things so that people will be scattered in small groups with things to do suitable for the spectrum of people present. She is extremely emotionally intelligent. I understand the concept at a vague level of heuristics, but what that really means on a pragmatic level alludes me, like someone speaking a foreign language. I just don’t think in that space, and no amount of reasoning makes me comfortable with it, despite how much I want and need to be more social. When I show up, I am going to dread it, especially if I see a certain car. That is when I know I have been manipulated out of my comfort zone of logical analysis. I know the intentions well, and I would not have shown up otherwise. So I appreciate being manipulated and coerced by someone that cares.

I have done similar with partners many times. I tend to see the best in people in a deeply genuine way that they often do not see in themselves. I do not mean that in a spurious way like some fantasy fixation. I will absolutely manipulate and coerce someone into a path that leads them to a better place when such logic is plainly obvious to me.

From the perspective of negative feedback loops not creating positive change, that assessment is from the assumption that the constraints of the system are static. If the system state is possible to change, the limitations do not apply.

No one can force another person to learn or grow, it comes entirely from within. It is possible to alter the ingredients and path of least resistance to make such change much more likely even when the person is very initially resistant to said change. I find this kind of situation fascinating.

I’m a high Machiavellian personality and am very capable of manipulating people logically but not emotionally. When I was much younger, I learned about hurting people the hard way. I chose not to be like that and to try to be a force for positive change. I’m not always manipulative or coercive by any stretch. However, when no other approaches appear successful, I will act in a person’s best interest out of love, using every tool available to me. I have no ego or narcissism driving me, as these would make my motivations wrong and spurious. I’m doubtful of myself to a fault. I think in a statistical probability space, and am driven by unbridled curiosity. When a person I care about resists, that is the kind of curiosity I am talking about. I want to understand their perspective better than they know themselves as impossible as that may seem. It is only from this kind of deep understanding, when I know their insecurities well and all the various factors in play, that I then start looking for the butterfly effect of where a small nudge may alter their trajectory and shift their perspective in a fundamental way. This is purely logical and not emotional. It is absolutely manipulative and coercive.

Maybe I am somewhere on the spectrum, but to me, words are cheap, actions are all that matter. I’m not terribly skilled with words, but I am adequate when understanding a complex system well enough to see a fulcrum that generates great change. I choose to let my empathy dominate that space. To me, love is not emotional, it is actions and intentions. All available mechanisms have the potential to be used to express intentions through actions. I do not allow anyone to dictate the zero reference point of what is positive or negative. I ground my zero point to the person, in the circumstance, and specifically to their intentions, as dictated by their actions only. I question all dichotomous logic as a fallacy, especially lines in the sand drawn by others trying to dictate what is positive and what is negative.