Effective Tips for Communicating the Philosophy of Liberty

[cliff101]

1.   Live your beliefs but be aware of the state
•   It is very necessary that you be the change you want to see in the world. Once you choose to be an advocate for liberty, others will look at you as a product of your philosophy. This does not mean that you need to disobey all state monopoly laws and orders; it simply means that you need to live as freely as possible considering your circumstance all the while being aware that the state can choose to strike you at will.

2.   If you expect miracles, expect to be disappointed
•   You will most likely not have any significant effect on your prospects behaviors and beliefs in the first 10 conversations you have with them.  In many cases, it has taken your prospect decades to come to their current belief system, so don't expect to be a miracle worker.

3.   Everyone is a prospect
•   Feel free to communicate the liberty philosophy to anyone you meet. At the same time, be realistic about your chances of helping them accept liberty and allocate your resources accordingly.

4.   Smile and be courteous
•   One of the things that I learned from working for a telemarketing firm is that a smile can be heard. Taking this concept to the next level, I would say that in a live conversation, a smile can be felt. The ability to maintain courtesy and a real smile, when appropriate, during a discussion will help in lowering your prospects guard so that they are more receptive to new or opposing ideas.

5.   Avoid the soft self-deprecation
•   One of the main barriers to being taken seriously when discussing the viability of a free society is what I call the soft self-deprecation. It usually goes as follows ‘I know it sounds crazy but…’ when one does this, it diminishes your view and pushes you to the fringe.

6.   Don't debate or argue
•   Communicating the philosophy of liberty should be framed as a discussion. Save debates and arguments for those who are already on board with the message of liberty. As fun as debating and arguing a point may be, it will do little to nothing when it comes to bringing someone to your view point in a one on one conversation. If you find yourself falling into this trap, either change the subject or walk away.

7.   Keep it concise and precise
•   Wordy answers and tangents are a great ways to lose your prospect; so avoid them both.

8.   Stick to the subjects you understand and can communicate most effectively on
•   Sticking to subjects on which you are knowledgeable and can clearly and concisely helps with your credibility. Whenever you speak on subjects you know very little, you run the risk of coming across as ill informed or deceptive. You don't need to be an encyclopedia or a history book; and pretending to know everything about everything can do irreparable damage to your credibility and relationship with your prospect.

9.   Listen to your prospect
•   This skill is very difficult to master but it is critical if you want to be an effective speaker. If you are not comfortable or knowledgeable on the subject matter which is being presented, admit it. Simple state that so long as no one is being coerced into participating, they have the right to hold their view even if you disagree.

10.   Empathize with your prospect
•   Empathizing with your prospect will reduce or eliminate the tension which comes with having ones views and/or morals challenged. You can agree that their cause is a virtuous one but you need to show them one this can be handled as well if not better in the free society.

11.   Encourage your prospect to come up with solutions for their concerns
•   A great way to get move your prospect closer to the philosophy of liberty is to have them be CEO of their issue. Ask them to come up with a non coercive solution for their problem. This tactic is more effective with those who are already open to living in a free society.

12.   Don't get boxed into a corner
•   Some prospects will try to box you into a corner, deliberately or not, with a farfetched scenario. When this happens, point out the absurdity of their scenario, show how this is currently handled and evaluate the way that from a morality point of view.

13.   Be ready to encounter major cognitive dissonance
•   The older your prospect, the more you can expect to encounter cognitive dissonance. If your prospect is not experiencing cognitive dissonance, you are most likely not communicating effectively. Understand that the views which your prospects hold have been ingrained in their mind as the truth and have been reinforced by society for many years. When you feel like cognitive dissonance is setting in, ask your prospect to just think about what was discussed and you can talk about it some other time.

14.   Don't be desperate
•   The philosophy of liberty is very powerful and self evident. Prospects can feel desperation and will be turned off. Remember, you are not trying to have a liberty one night stand. Be confident and speak with moral conviction. The goal of achieving voluntary society is virtuous and honorable; keep that in mind whenever you choose to share it with others.

15.   Review, analyze and adjust
•   Take every encounter with a prospect as a learning experience for yourself. Think about the subject which were discussed, analyze what you could have done better and make the appropriate adjustments for future encounters.


All the points listed above are from my personal experience. I am committed to finding the most effective methods to bring as many people as I can to liberty. I would like to invite you to join me on this quest. I encourage anyone to post comments and/or suggestions that can help me achieve my goal.

[mikehz]

Tips for communicating socialism.

1) SHOUT.

2) If that doesn't work, maybe an insult or two will win them over to your side.

3) If all else fails, tell 'em to leave the country. THAT'll teach them!

[JJ]

Tips for communicating socialism.

1) SHOUT.

2) If that doesn't work, maybe an insult or two will win them over to your side.

3) If all else fails, tell 'em to leave the country. THAT'll teach them!

4) Call the police and have them arrested.  Don't worry about making up an excuse, the police will handle that.

[cliff101]

Only serious replies please.

[freedom_spryte]

This is a very timely post for me. Learning how to communicate liberty effectively is something that I've been struggling with the last week or so. I have some serious issues that I need to learn how to overcome if I'm ever going to be able to have conversations about liberty with people who aren't already open to the idea, or proponents of it.

I'm incredibly shy and I have difficulty remembering things when I'm placed on the spot. I got into a "conversation" with a girl at school last week and only belatedly realized that she wasn't interested at all in having a conversation, but instead wanted to "debate" with me, but totally without giving me the courtesy of actually listening to what I was saying, or even giving me the opportunity to speak. It went very badly and I ended up very angry and frustrated with myself. I just realized that I have to get better at determining people's motivations for entering into a discussion like this. If I'd realized earlier that the entire exercise was pointless because she wasn't listening, and wasn't going to listen...I would have handled it differently.

On the show a few nights ago, Ian and Mark talked about moving out of your comfort zone. Becoming a voluntaryist has done more to help move me out of my comfort zone than anything. My passion for freedom and liberty are helping me to overcome a lot of social anxiety and fear...but I still have a long way to go.

cliff, thank you for sharing your own insights.

I had been thinking of starting a thread similar to this, but perhaps where we could address specific arguments or situations that we inevitably seem to come up against, in order to discuss different ways in which to handle them. Might there be any interest in that?

[fatcat]

3.   Everyone is a prospect
•   Feel free to communicate the liberty philosophy to anyone you meet. At the same time, be realistic about your chances of helping them accept liberty and allocate your resources accordingly.

This is the exact attitude that pisses many people off.

Now I welcome debate in any form so long as there is a modicum of intelligence to it, but its my understanding that most people don't enjoy disagreement, and don't really enjoy talking about "issues" unless they have a personal investment in them.

Viewing everyone as a potential acolyte for liberty, and sandwiching libertarianism into every conversation is exactly whats going to turn most people off.

[cliff101]

When I say that everyone's prospect, I don't mean that one should walk up to random people or even people you already know and start the education process. What I mean is don't assume for that someone is not open to discussing these ideas.

An example of this is on my flight to NY last week, I had a middle class, middle age wife/mother sitting next to me and she started a conversation with me. I did not push any ideas on her; instead, I listened. By listening, I was able to provide feedback she was interested in from a liberty perspective. By the end of the flight, she generally agreed with most of my views because they were focused on the issues which she was bringing up and my answer were rational and simple. We had a very friendly 40minute conversation and lots of laughs.