# 15. Linguistic manipulation ## 15.5. Methodology/Refinements/Sub-species ### 15.5.3. The cage-type linguistic trap  Involves the manipulator establishing linguistic barriers or limits within which his victim finds he must operate, in effect restricting any alternative perspective or response by the victim other than the one which uses the predetermined nomenclature of the manipulator. This is used in the framing of statements or questions where a manipulator formulates the desired reactions and responses in advance. The beauty of the technique is that it is almost transparent to the victim. In fact, from within "the cage" the barriers and restrictions imposed on his language are quite welcome for most people. They provide a means by which the victim doesn't have to conceive a mode of response because it has already been prepared by the manipulator. The linguistically caged individual confines himself to the use of the language with which he has been provided. A simple case is the use of analogy. When an analogy is used to demonstrate some concept or principle, a victim naturally assumes that, in the first instance anyway, they must verbalize their reactions in the same vein. They are thus constrained to the narrow rules of the analogy used by the manipulator. The victim thereafter commits themselves to reactions which may be totally irrelevant, inappropriate, out of character or just incorrect. For instance, a manipulative financial advisor might try to sell us an investment and use the train analogy by saying, "you know, if you miss this train, you will have to wait a long time till the next one comes along". In reality, there are worthy investments arriving constantly and the train analogy is totally invalid. However, if we accept the analogy we will feel pressured to "jump aboard". To be effective, a cage-type linguistic trap must be simple. If the manipulator operates in too complex an idiom or extends an idiom too far, the victim will be provided with conceptual methods of exploring the language. He will soon find fault with it and realise what is going on. As with all systems of deceit, the more complex they are, the more unstable they become. The same is true with linguistic manipulation. In addition, the method only works for short periods of time. Most people eventually recognise the restrictions under which they are being made to respond and will challenge the manipulator by breaking out of the linguistic trap, using a completely different, broader vocabulary.