Freedom Flyer January - February 1984 Cover

Freedom Flyer 1

the official newsletter of the
Freedom Party of Ontario

January - February 1984

Freedom Phonics

Avoid Wasting Time
Recruitment Do's & Dont's

It is not the purpose of this article to discuss certain strategies of disarming the philosophical principles or your antagonist in a discussion. Neither is it a treatise on linguistics or phraseology that should be employed in the demonstration of your principles. These would take volumes of work. Rather, it is a brief guide one should follow when determining how much effort should be spent in attempting to convince others of the benefits of freedom (and its philosophical tenets). The title of this article, then, may be a bit misleading. Perhaps I should have retitled it: When and when not to discuss politics with someone.

Many of you may already know all this and are convinced that you know and legitimately use certain criteria in discriminating the people you enter into these conversations with. But experience shows (and I should know) that these claims are often ignored at the outset of a discussion. By the middle of a discussion, you become emotionally obsessed with the idea that somehow you are a master of debating, and that in just one more minute you'll have convinced the guy sitting across from you that your ideas are right. I know I have!

There are times when even flawless logic, rational principles, and mastered strategies, do nothing but deteriorate the level of discussion to petty insults and angry bellowing. I recall having an argument with one woman where it actually took me three hours to explain why I didn't want to discuss philosophy with her (oh Mark! How do you get into such messes!)! Even after a lot of experience, you can still get tied up in such unmemorable circumstances such as the above example. So I've devised a few helpful pointers to remember when faced with entering a philosophical discussion with someone.

Remember that the extent to which your discussion gets anywhere depends on the values possessed by the person you are talking to. It is also true that the reason the following points are so important is that many methods of recruiting members and gaining other people's interest in the party can be used during informal discussions you have with the people you meet everyday. It may be the chat with the restaurant waitress, the talk with your client at work, the evening you spend at your new neighbour's, etc. These pointers, then, can be very helpful in saving you a lot of hassle with people who wouldn't believe the truth if it walked up to them and punched them in the nose.

First, here are times when you should not discuss ideas. When the other person:

(1) refuses to define his terms,

(2) constantly evades answering your questions,

(3) limits his terminology entirely to out-of-context concretes,

(4) condemns the employment of ideas in your discussion (a variant of (3)),

(5) condemns the employment of ideals in same,

(6) is highly mystical and bases his arguments on faith,

(7) resorts to intimidation techniques,

(8) constantly uses hackneyed phrases and cliches rather than reason, and

(9) shows no enthusiasm to talk, or even seems perturbed by your presence.

Now here are times when you should discuss ideas. When the other person:

(1) has fundamental principles in philosophy that agree in part or in whole with your own, but may differ in its evaluation (i.e., politics),

(2) believes that there is a 'right' and 'wrong' in issues,

(3) is young or is still groping for answers,

(4) is a confessed idealist and believes in a morally just society (whatever it may be),

(5) admits that something is wrong in government but doesn't know quite what it is,

(6) voted for a party with an explicit or consistent platform (within reason), or voted for a specific issue.

Always seize the opportunity to discuss ideas with those whom you perceive are looking for answers, and avoid discussions with those who seem to already have their minds 'made up'. There are more examples on each side of the coin, but these are the critical ones. After all, why waste time on futile prospects?

Next issue, I'll conclude this article with elaborations on the above points. See you then.