All Negativity Creates Ripples of Negativity

All negativity creates new ripples of negativity. You can influence and stop the spread by not rebroadcasting. 

Influence Yes, Control, No.

We do influence, but we do not control nor have control over people and the world. 

Positive vs Negative Stories

We create stories about everything we come across. Sometimes they may be right but often they are wrong. When we create negative stories we act negatively and when they are wrong the negative effect is far greater than if we had created a positive story and the positive story was wrong. So it does help to always give people the benefit of the doubt or create a potentially positive interpretation of things so that at least we give the other side a chance before we are certain of the truth. 

Influence Can Be Measured

What can easily be measured is influence – how people influence others in terms of number of people in a movement, society or cult, changes in processes on a small scale and national and international policies and mass scale behavioral changes on a bigger scale. The effect of the influence can be measured in time in particular if it is a large scale change. What cannot be measured are concepts such as "wisdom" - although we may be able to attribute and categorise influence as a positive (constructive) or negative (destructive) quality. However the complexity involved in the effect of influence requires both spacial (systems perspective) as well as temporal (time). For example in some cases influence may have a negative attribute such as a coup resulting in a civil war in the short term but prosperity for people two generations later from toppling a ruthless dictator.