To Communicate Ideas on Liberty; E. Ross

Ernest G. Ross To Communicate Ideas-om Uberty THERE'S an old, obscure saying at tributed to an Oregon backwoods man, who, after listening to a flov~ ery speech by a stumping politician, remarked, "I think I'd've agreed with him if I knew what he said!" When confronted with new ideas, most people are like that back woodsman. They will accept con cepts only if they are sure of them. If not, they will continue to hold their old ones-even if they are wrong. In a way, you can't blame them. One should not make it a habit of accept ing ideas he does not fully under stand. To do so prevents the devel opment of any sort of integrated world view, turning one's mind into ,an intellectual feather, forever buf fet~'"t:l bx the winds of fashion and acMr. Ross is an Oregon commentator and writer es pecially concern&d with new developments in human freedom. cident. Whileithere are always those who find such a flighty mental state attractive, the majority of Ameri cans do not. i. They want to anchor their lives to solid ideas. Conse quently, they!will not pull up anchor and drop it in a new location unless the new location is convincingly more secure.

Above any other, this is the atti tude advoca~es of liberty must be prepared to deal with. It is the par amount obstacle to be overcome if one is to sen. people on the benefits of freedom. Therefore, :if one is to persuade people of the value of freedom, the first rule must be: address issues as clearly and cleanly as possible. There is no way you will be an effective communicator of liberty especially to laymen -unless you can put your ow~ ideas into either spo735 736 THE FREEMAN December ken or written language straightfor wardly and unambiguously. If you can't state your own views clearly, how can you rationally expect some one else to understand them, much less accept them? If you can't clearly state what you mean, others will as sume you don't know what you mean-or worse, are trying to fool them. In either case, by using con fusing language, you undercut oth ers' confidence in you. That makes it even more difficult to gain their at tention in the future.

Of course, it is easier to tell people to speak clearly than it is to do it. To do it, and do it well, some simple but crucial guidelines are needed. You must have standards of clarity, standards by which you can objec tively judge your own statements before you present them to others. This will help you eliminate embar rassing errors and pitfalls. Four Rules of Clarity The first rule of clarity in com munication is clarity ofthought. You will never be able to state anything well if you haven't spent some time thinking about it. And the most im portant guideline for obtaining the clear, crisp thoughts that will even tually translate into clear, crisp statements is this: Always ask your self, "What is the essence of what I'm trying to say about this subject?" Using this guideline forces your mind to focus. Focus enables you to weed out those things which are peripheral or irrelevant to the subject matter. This, in turn, gives your thoughts and statements much more efficiency.

Side issues and irrelevancies are like nicks and dull spots on a knife blade; a sharp knife always cuts better. If you're going to try to persuade someone on the virtues of deregula tion' for example, keep your thoughts focused on that subject; don't wan der off into a diatribe on Aristotle's ethics or taking sarcastic pot shots at political opponents-those are subjects deserving their own arena. The second rule of clarity in per suasion is to write and speak simply. Thoughts simply put are more likely to be absorbed. The human mind is an integrating organ; it must put things together one step at a time. Simply-stated thoughts help the mind to do this, presenting neat lit tle mental "bites" that can be easily taken in and swallowed. The third rule of clarity in com munication follows directly from the second: Present your ideas as logi cally, as non-contradictorily as pos sible. If your readership or audience is at all perceptive, contradictions are like a rancid odor on food for thought.

If those to whom you are appealinfg smell a contradiction, they will "'very likely immediately stop sw2iIlowing your arguments. It is as natural for the mind as it is for the/body to balk at the smell of contraminated ma1982 TO COMMUNICA'fE IDEAS ON LIBERTY 737 terial. Succinctly put, in trying to persuade people of the benefits of freedom, don't use arguments which advocate premises or means which undercut .freedom. The fourth rule of clarity derives from the close relationship between thinking and words: Write down your thoughts as often as you can-make it a habit. As the great communica. tor, Jacques Barzun, once said, "the act of writing is itself an exercise of thought." (Simple & Direct, Harper and Row, 1975, p. 118) Writing things down will help you put your thoughts into order in a way impos sible by mere reflection. As Barzun put it, as your thoughts are written down and "are added, one by one, they will so clearly show up gaps, inconsistencies, confusions in the se quence of thoughts-all quite hid den before you wrote-that you will inevitably come to see how writing is an instrument of thought."

Of my four rules of clarity, this has perhaps been the most difficult one to convince people to follow, es pecially those who are not profes sional writers. But the fact is, any advocate of liberty-anyone who in tends to be an active communicator on behalf of liberty, whether he is a layman or professional in another field-will find writing to be a sure way of sharpening the knife-edge of his thoughts, and thereby enhanee his abilities of persuasion. The best argument I can give to encourage people to get into this valuable habit is this: Words are objectified thoughts, thoughts brought into permanent form and laid bare for you to see, whenever you wish, exactly as they were when you first came up with them. Using Examplesand Analogies As smart as we humans are, we cannot hold more than a few items in conscious awareness at anyone time; and we' forget a lot. Writing out your thoughts helps to overcome these limitations. By putting thoughts to paper, our minds are freed to concentrate on new thoughts-without the fear of los ing old ones. It enables us to locate, and rapidly explore, the nooks and crannies and. side-tunnels of previ ous thoughts-and thereby exam ine, compare, unify, and improve them. Writing out your thoughts on liberty-even if no one else ever reads them-will make you a more effective communicator with friends, acquaintances, business associates, politicians, and anyone else you might wish to influence.

While clarity is the cardinal rule of effective communication, there are other major tools which the advo cate of ideas on liberty ought to use: Factual examples. It has been said that nothing persuades like the truth. I would refine that statement to read, "Nothing persuades like the truth backed by concrete examples." If you 738 THE FREEMAN December wish to advocate the truth that lower taxes enhance the freedom of the in dividual, for instance, show specifi cally how this works. You might, perhaps, list all of the things a fam ily could buy-video tape decks, books, better schooling for the chil dren, new furniture, works of art, higher quality food, more clothing with the money it would save from a thousand-dollar tax reduction. Concretizing the truth brings it home to people, turning an otherwise ab stract statement into a living, breathing reality. People do, after all, live in the real world; you must show them how principles of liberty are specifically applied in their world.

Analogies. An analogy is an illus tration of how something works or looks by showing how it is similar to something else. For instance, Isabel Paterson wrote an entire book (The God of the Machine) showing how similar the workings of a free soci ety are to the workings of different kinds of machines. An analogy in this vein would be: Just as a car can only continue to run ifit has an open fuel line and will roll to a stop if the line is blocked, so a market can continue to run only if its trading remains free and open and will come to a stop if trade is blocked. You can make the analogy shorter by using similes and metaphors. A simile would be: When freedom was curtailed, the market rolled to a stop like a car with a blocked fuel line. A metaphor would be: The market was a car, rolling to a stop, its fuel line of freedom blocked. Similes use "like" or "as" to make the point; metaphors are more poetic, saying that some thing is or was something else, even though it's obvious it is really not that thing.

The reason analogies are good, basic tools of persuasion is because they tie something unfamiliar to something familiar by showing their similarities. Again, as with factual examples, analogies bring the point or principle into the real world. The OptimismFactor And now a word about something you won't find in most "how to" books on effective communication. It is an idea tailored specifically for the pur pose of selling liberty. From my ex perience in writing thousands of ra dio commentaries on liberty, I consider this one of the great over looked devices of effective commu nication and persuasion. I call it The Optimism Factor. The optimism factor appeals to people's desire to improve their con dition in life. They will listen to someone who can tell them that. The optimism factor also appeals to peo ple's desire to look up to some thing-especially to achievement and what makes it possible.

To take advantage of the opti mism factor, you must, quite simply, look for and collect success stories1982 TO COMMUNICATE. IDEAS ON LIBERTY 739 stories of the success of freedom. These stories then become a power fqlportfolio with which to illustrate the concrete benefits of liberty. Items in the portfolio can become a special classification of factual examples which inspire, spur, and stimulate your readership or audience. As a whole, I personally believe that speakers and writers on liberty dwell too much on the bad effects of statism (the political system oppo site liberty). Certainly, there is a place for detailing the horrors of cir cumvented freedom. But as someone once said, fear is a poor motivator especially for Americans. The American spirit looks upward and forward; it is a positive spirit. Amer icans like to hear about how to make things right. They will acknowledge horror stories you might tell them about systems which abrogate free dom, but then they will want to know how freedom can do a better job. If you can tell them this-with opti mistic, factual illustrations-you will take a giant step toward winning your case and their minds.

The power of certainty. This is the last of the major points with which I wish to leave you in this thumbnail sketch on effective communication. If you are going to persuade other people of the value of liberty, you must act, speak, and write as though you are already firmly convinced of its value. Naturally, the indisput able prerequisite here is that you are convinced! But, you must also strongly convey this to others. You must be confident in your approach, otherwise, in ways both subtle and overt, you will surely give the per son you're trying to persuade the impression that you harbor doubts about your own position. That is di sastrous to persuasion. If your lis tener or reader does not think you firmly believe im what you're saying, he'll automatically question either your sincerity or the quality of your ideas and evidence. Speak with Conviction So, how do you convey certainty?

There are several ways. First, know your case; knowledge is the best promoter of certainty. Second, don'~ equivocate with lan guage; make your words ring with directness. Third, and too often by-passed, speak in the active voice, rather than the passive. Say, "I believe this," rather than, "This is believed by me." (When you use the active voice, you always give the impression of mov ing forward; the passive voice con notes retreat and even reluctance to assign or take on responsibility.) Fourth, when speaking, practice (into a tape recorder if possible) say ing things firmly, in'a strong, assert ive (but not belligerent or strident) tone. If you are going to do a lot of verbal communication, this speak ing practice will be very valuable.

740 THE FREEMAN December People read a lot into voices. Whether you are born with a good voice or not is irrelevant; people are less con cerned about the esthetics of your voice than with the certainty of con viction behind it. You can and should develop this sound if you will be doing much speaking, especially public speaking. Points presented in a weak, hesitant, or passive manner are points just as well never made; they will simply not be respected nine times out of ten. And finally, one of the best ways of conveying certainty is to practice speaking up. This is most applicable ' to that kind of communication in which we all find ourselves engaged throughout our lives: personal con versations, direct "one-on-one" com munication at parties, business meetings, conventions, seminars, and so forth. Make it a habit of not let ting attacks on liberty slip by. If you disagree with someone, say so. If you do this regularly you will create a deserved reputation as a person "who knows his own mind." This will gain you respect as a communicator of liberty; you will be building a track record of conveying certainty, a record which will carryover into fu ture efforts of persuasion.

Know whom you are addressing. This does not mean you have to have detailed know ledge of everything about everyone you address-it means only that you should be care ful to write or speak in ways you know are likely to be accepted by the listener or reader given his gen eral background. For example, don't use metaphysical technical terms with an audience of lumberjacks, or, conversely, backwoods language when addressing a distinguished group of philosophers. Don't use ex amples, language or anything else likely to be outside the experience of your audience or readership. Above all, always assume that your audi ence is intelligent; talking down to people is a communication killer! Know Your Audience One more word on this subject. When I say to write or speak in ways likely to be accepted by those you address, I do not ever mean to sug..; gest that you should compromise your principles-I simply mean that you are better off not ignoring the cultural, professional, or educa tional make-up of your audience or readers. It means to retain an awareness of (to use a currently pop ular parlance) where those you ad dress are coming from-for it is only by starting from where they are that you will be able to lead them, through effective communication, to where you want them to be.

There are many other, more de tailed or specialized points about ef fective communication and persua sion. But they are basically matters of "fine tuning" the fundamentals outlined in the preceding pages. One 1982 TO COMMUNICATE IDEAS ON LIBERTY 741 could talk about tone, diction, the composition of outlines of articles and speeches, the use of visual aids of various kinds, and so forth. But the purpose of a thumbnail sketch is to provide a handy guide dealing with the things most needed. Without clarity of thought and word, without attention to logic, without the use of factual examples and analogies, without the optimism factor or the power of certainty and an awareness of those you address, all of the fine tuning in the world won't help you to communicate your case for lib erty. Much in the way of fine tuning can be ignored without fundamentally impairing your persuasive efforts; it is the essentials of communication which will, when ignored or forgot ten, be most lik~ly to cause your ef forts to fail. SO,i stick first to the es sentials; they will IQake you into a much stronger advocate of liberty which is, after all, a cause emi nently deserving a strong presenta tion! ® IDEAS ON LIBERTY The Personal Practice of Freedom You can practice what you profess to believe. There never was a sales man who really went to town if he didn't believe in his product enough to use it himself. You can't sell Fords effectively if you ride up to see your prospect in a Chevrolet. You can't sell Camels convincingly with a package of Chesterfields sticking out of your pocket.

Your friends and acquaintances may not always believe what you say, but none will question for one moment the fact that your personal con duct and consistent personal practices speak the truth as you see it. You cannot convince your neighbor by word of mouth that you are a believer in temperance if he sees you staggering around your house each Satur day night. You cannot convince him that you are in favor of government economy and then sign resolutions calling for fe«jleralfunds with which to build your town a bathing beach or even a hospital. You cannot convince him that you believe in economic freedom and independence for the individual and then ask that Washingtol'l underwrite your per sonal or business risks. The first step, then, is to make certain that we actually believe in this thing. We have got to want it enough to practice it personally. If not, the answer is already given as far as we are concerned.

ED LIPSCOMB Robert LeFevre THE ABSTRACTCONCEPT OF HUMAN LIBERTY WHEN it comes to using their brains, people fall into various classifica tions depending on their respective interests. By far, the majority think and talk about people, themselves and oth ers. The focus may range from be havioral examination all the way to gossip. The topic of humanity, either individually or in groups, is fasci nating to most of us and to some will generate so much interest as to pre clude inquiry at any other level. In a number of instan~es, how ever, the events which are promul gated by human beings become a separate level of interest, thinking and discussion. The focus shifts to a degree and human happenings pro vide a stage for concentration and inquiry. The various news media Mr. LeFevre founded and for years presided over the Freedom School in Colorado and has lectured and written extensively in behalf of freedom and the mar ket.