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I recently had the extreme displeasure of being part of a rather one-sided debate on an issue obviously dear to someone's heart.  We'll call her Daisy.

Daisy is incredibly passionate about this issue and feels it affects not only her, but also the world at large, and is contributing to the problem of people starving in developing countries.  It isn't, and never will, but I never had the chance to make that point.  The issue is irrelevant - it could have been anything.

Daisy's arguments were all based on facts, evidence, and studies provided by the proponents of her cause.  She had no neutral or unbiased resource.  And she seemed to refuse the validity of any other facts or evidence, no matter how well supported or how unbiased they were.  Furthermore, her logic (based on her false evidence) was faulty.

The 'debate' quickly became a preachy lecture - Daisy's attempt to educate the ignorant masses.  Her passion morphed into fanaticism.  

And I disengaged.  

I made one last futile attempt to encourage Daisy to 'dial it down a notch' so people would consider her information.  Her response was to call me hardheaded and imply that I was an idiot for my beliefs.

Not exactly the most effective way to convince me of her position.

In the end, rather than converting me, Daisy had me convinced she had been brainwashed and her cause must be a cleverly veiled corporate ploy to get me hooked on some strange product line (or something like that).

My point?

Being passionate about a cause is great.  Informing people about it is good too.  But jumping on a soapbox and cramming your position down someone's throat, not considering or even listening to the opinions of others, and insulting their intelligence for not jumping up on the soapbox with you, is not going to help your cause no matter how good the cause is.

Provide useful, unbiased information, and let people make up their own minds.  Then respect their position and opinions.

Perhaps you will educate people to some degree.  And - more importantly - perhaps you will learn something too.

 
 

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