On Influencing Others

Fashion is one evidence of the influence that people have on other people. Concerning Fashion Benjamin Franklin said: It seems that there are those “who, perhaps, fear less the being in hell than out

of fashion” – and there is little reason to suppose that this feeling is strictly confined to the feminine

part of the population. We all tend to follow custom more or less. And in part at least, we also follow changing fashion. There may be some unusually independent people who feel that they aren’t

influenced by the example of others, but all of us are influenced. And often the need we think we have

for new things is not so much because the old ones are worn out, but because they are out of fashion.

As Shakespeare said: “The fashion wears out more apparel then the man.” But fashion is just one way in which we are influenced by others. And we also influence others, whether we know it or not. And we

are responsible for the effect of our influence, whether we know it or not. We have responsibility for the example we set and for the opinions we express before people, especially before young and

impressionable people. The child who hears us make a remark, cannot always distinguish between what

we are stating as truth and what we are stating purely as theory or personal opinion – or even as

sarcasm, when we say one thing and mean the absolute opposite. Every person, however

inconspicuous, has his influence with others. Every child, every man, every woman, is being made and molded by what he hears, what he sees, what he senses in the acts and words and attitudes of others.

Every writer, every teacher, every speaker, every friend and companion – every person – is responsible

for his effect on others, whether his relationships are professional or personal. As we touch the lives and minds of other men, we would well remember that the lives of all of us are affected by the attitudes and ideas and actions and words of all of us. And we can no more let ideas loose without responsibility than

we can let germs loose without responsibility.