Why Do Objectivists Fail at Persuasion?
Why do Objectivists fail at persuasion? One major reason is that we're seen as salesmen for a dogma rather than innovative problem solvers.
That's partly unfair, but it's partly fair. Even if you don't hold Objectivism as a dogma, if you try to sell Objectivism like it's the product--"Got a headache? Objectivism'll cure ya...Goin bankrupt? Objectivism'll cure ya...Want to learn banjo? You idiot, learn Objectivism instead"--you can see how it might come off like another version of Scientology.
Here's the mindset shift. Don't sell Objectivism. Use Objectivism (and whatever else you know) to solve problems.
If you want an analogy, Objectivism isn't the iPod circa 2001. It's Apple's way of developing products and it's intellectual property.
The most persuasive presentation ever
I like that analogy because it brings to mind what I regard as the most persuasive presentation ever: Steve Jobs announcing the original iPod.
Here's Jobs's argument summarized:
Apple is going to innovate in music because everyone loves music...especially Apple. But we're all frustrated by the awful options available for portable music. So Apple created iPod. If we look at all of the alternatives available today, the iPod is the overwhelmingly superior solution: whether it's size, number of songs, price per song, battery life, ease of use, iPod is the best choice for portable music. It puts 1,000 songs in your pocket.
Steve Jobs made it unforgettably obvious that, if you love music, you need to be an iPod. That's what persuasion looks like.
Let's take a deeper look at what Jobs is doing and what we can learn from him.
Your ideas have to be relevant
Apple isn't solving a problem it thinks the audience SHOULD want to solve. It's solving a problem its audience is already looking to solve--or, at minimum, it's solving a problem that the audience wants solved as soon as they hear the problem named.
What do Objectivists tend to do? Solving the problem we think our audience has, not the problem our audience wants solved.
"Hey, you need a philosophy and what a coincidence, I have a philosophy right here! 5 branches in your pocket!" Yes, people do need a philosophy. That's a value you can offer them. But they aren't looking for a philosophy: getting them to see that as a value takes work, and the work consists in part of addressing the actual problems they're trying to solve.
Your solution has to be superior
Apple gives an explicit comparison to alternative solutions and shows the iPod is massively better.
And where it's not massively better, it redefines "better." For example, Jobs doesn't compare the price of an iPod to the price of a CD Walkman. He compares cost-per-song.
What do Objectivists do? Sometimes we concede key values. This is seldom explicit. It usually comes through in the way we respond to attacks. Someone says, "How can you have morality without religion?" And then we go through a big song and dance about life and values without starting by making the point: "Actually, you can't have morality WITH religion."
Another common error: we don't have any contrast. We talk about our ideas without contrasting them to other "solutions" on the market.
But the most common mistake is what I call "unjustified contrast." This means contrast, say, selfishness with self-sacrifice, and the person comes back and says, "Hey, that's a straw man. I don't say that people have no right to exist for their own sake." Yeah, ultimately the choice is between selfishness and sacrifice, but it takes work to get people to see that. People aren't comparing Objectivism to altruism. They're comparing Objectivism to the hash of pragmatism, altruism, and common sense, by which they live their lives.
Your presentation has to be unforgettable
Unforgettable here isn't a synonym for awesome. I mean it literally: your argument is one they can't forget. It's incredibly retainable.
Jobs uses slogans, stories, metaphors, power facts, images, and demonstrations to make his case for the iPod unforgettable.
"1,000 songs in your pocket." Five words that make the case for the iPod. Five words you'll remember two decades later.
And yet Objectivists? We tend to ignore the issue of retention completely.
