Soft Touch

Even when Gigi Gutierrez annoyingly faces yet another fate prettier than death, you have to admire how she can assess her situation quickly.

Despite decisively defeating four opponents at the beginning of Pretty Vacant: London Calling 2, Gigi realizes that she needs assistance to take down her main adversary, Galaxy Diversifed. She persuades her boyfriend and a disgruntled Galaxy employee not by brute power, but with an appeal to a higher cause, English tea, bargaining to help the employee’s lover and a little mind control.

A reminder of this light approach came with the Pope’s arrival to the United States this past week. He spoke of compassion to sinners, income inequality and tempering extremism -- and people listened, not because the Pope displayed overwhelming power, but because of his appeal to a higher cause, humbleness, use of other people’s experiences and (yes) a little mind control.

Joseph Nye first identified this concept in 1990 as “Soft Power”. It rests not with coercion, force or money, but the ability to influence through appeal and attraction. Soft Power uses culture, values and policies for credibility -- a rare thing in the Information Age. The Vatican has it with the Pope, funny hats and Christian values. Great Britain has it with tradition, super-cool music and the most popular sports league in the world (the English Premier League). Even the most overtly powerful nation on Earth, the United States of America, has Soft Power with its higher education, entertainment options and open society.

The most monumental changes in United States history have come not with force (ask the South how the Civil War ended), but simply through identifying with others. People can be turned off when Presidential candidates scream at the camera and at each other but can be moved to action when someone is wronged unnecessarily or when a disaster strikes.

Soft Power principles don’t have to be confined just to politics. Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s baseball team use it finding undervalued players to win. Small press comic booths use it, not competing with corporate booths with money and slick presentations, but by having cool, cheap giveaways to go with their cool, cheap products, be it a new gaming app or well-received crowd-funded comic book.

Because it’s not how much you have in the end, but how you use what you have that matters. Just ask Gigi.