I knew I had been set up so that the need to be consistent with what I
had already said would snare me.
No more, though. I listen to my stomach these days. And I have dis-
covered a way to handle people who try to use the consistency principle
on me. I just tell them exactly what they are doing. It works beautifully.
Most of the time, they don’t understand me; they just become sufficiently
confused to want to leave me alone. I think they suspect lunacy in
anyone who responds to their requests by explaining what Ralph Waldo
Emerson meant in distinguishing between consistency and foolish
consistency. Usually they have already begun edging away by the time
I have mentioned “hobgoblins of the mind” and are gone long before
I have described the click, whirr character of commitment and consist-
ency. Occasionally, though, they realize that I am on to their game. I
always know when that happens—it’s as clear as the egg on their faces.
They invariably become flustered, bumble through a hasty exit line,
and go for the door.
This tactic has become the perfect counterattack for me. Whenever
my stomach tells me I would be a sucker to comply with a request
merely because doing so would be consistent with some prior commit-
ment I was tricked into, I relay that message to the requester. I don’t
try to deny the importance of consistency; I just point out the absurdity
of foolish consistency. Whether, in response, the requester shrinks away
guiltily or retreats in bewilderment, I am content. I have won; an ex-
ploiter has lost.
I sometimes think about how it would be if that stunning young
woman of years ago were to try to sell me an entertainment-club
membership now. I have it all worked out. The entire interaction would
be the same, except for the end:
SYW:...Surely someone as socially vigorous as yourself would want to
take advantage of the tremendous savings our company can offer on
all the things you’ve already told me you do.
C (with great self-assurance): Quite wrong. You see, I recognize what has
gone on here. I know that your story about doing a survey was just a
pretext for getting people to tell you how often they go out and that,
under those circumstances, there is a natural tendency to exaggerate. I
also realize that your bosses selected you for this job because of your
physical attractiveness and told you to wear clothes showing a lot of
your resilient body tissue because a pretty, scantily clad woman is likely
to get men to brag about what swingers they are in order to impress
her. So I’m not interested in your entertainment club because of what
Emerson said about foolish consistency and hobgoblins of the mind.
82 / Influence