The Best Self-Help is Free: Avoiding "Trench Warfare" Issues in Argumentation and Communication

Chapter 16

This is Chapter 16 of The Best Self-Help is Free, a treatise by Mr. Stolyarov. You can read all chapters of this freely available treatise here.

In order to get things done effectively, you will often need to convince people that your approach to a particular issue, action, or project is a justified one. This holds whether you have a concrete aim in mind or whether you simply wish to advocate a broader idea that you cannot directly implement but hope to eventually see implemented.

Unfortunately, arguing in favor of your ideas is a highly delicate task and is fraught with perils. Most people already have extremely strong views on many issues - not an undesirable state in itself. However, these strong views are also intermingled with intense emotions that prevent those exhibiting them from truly evaluating the given issues on their actual merits. If their views on such emotionally charged matters are directly opposed, many people will react viscerally - without thinking - and will attack not just the ideas that oppose their own, but also the person espousing those ideas. It seems rather baffling that in our modern age it is still possible to make a lifelong enemy of someone simply by expressing an abstract disagreement - but this happens all too frequently to be ignored.

A good general rule for trying to convey your ideas is to avoid what I call trench warfare issues. During World War I, months and years would often pass without either the Allies or the Central Powers making any progress in expanding the areas under their control. Both sides remained dug into their trenches in grueling conditions, and hundreds of thousands of lives were wasted regularly without territory switching hands.