A Tale of Manipulation:

A Tale of Manipulation:

The superstition is that one cannot “out-manipulate” a Scorpio.
That may be true. But one can learn to resist a Scorpio’s manipulation.
Pisces has mastered this. Scorpio does what it does because apparently people “like to be” manipulated.
And in a certain sense they ask for it.
This is a milder expression of rape apologetics: that people “really want to be” raped.
Empirically this has always been known.
But as Zizek points out: this makes it worse.
The woman who wanted to get raped and got what she wanted is more susceptible to suicide.
And the same is true of women who want to be seduced.
Despite their values.

A Piscean is too pure to be triggered by manipulative tactics.
But to witness an other being triggered is more deeply triggering, indirectly.
It puts a Piscean in the excruciatingly awkward posture of having to blame the victim.
But how can one resist?
She really is asking for it.
And as Camus (the Scorpio Philosopher) said:
Charm is to be able to get “yes” for an answer without having to ask a question.
In that sense the person asking to be seduced has already been seduced.
And the seduction draws its deadliness from its silence.
Often the consent is silent as well.

The best way to escape manipulation is to disown it.
The best way to fall into manipulation is to try to become good at it.
By trying to “out-manipulate” a Scorpio one is simply empowering the habit of manipulation and, by extension, the manipulative Scorpio.
Every manipulative Scorpio lives in fear of being out-manipulated.
Despite the fact that he or she can only draw power from the attempt.

A narcissist or egoist will not see that trying to become good at some thing -- better than the Other -- is simply to empower the Other, and that to disempower the Other one must “give up without a fight”.
Because strength is in giving things up at times.
Hence the Lent Season is so potent a time.

Dm.A.A.