Diary: Why Labels are bad

In the last diary, "On matters of Advocacy", I introduced some simple ways to distinguish beliefs from truths. It's not important that you agree completely with what I have written. However, it is important that you do consider the matter of truth -vs- belief to a degree where you can distinguish the two with a high degree of accuracy and express that in a completely defensible way. Where legislating morality is concerned, you cannot successfully advocate your position if you fail in this.

This segment deals with labels and why you should avoid them when you are engaged in advocacy.

Since my use of the word label is itself a label, I will define it thus:

A label is a word where:

it's meaning is not mutually accepted by everyone

, and

is used to generalize what would otherwise be a more complex matter.

Examples of labels are: liberal, conservative, commie, neo-con, lefty, rightie, etc...

Lables are normally coined terms that come about as a means to refer to more complex ideas, groups of people or things. While this is helpful, there are drawbacks; namely, your use of the label advances both your idea and that of others using the label for their own means. This is communication by proxy and is generally not a solid means of communication.

Avoiding the use of labels is difficult at first, largely because more words are required in general. Where advocacy is concerned, brevity is important. Too many words are often lost on your audience.

This effort suffers from that. If you are reading this, I must assume you are interested in advocacy on a deeper level where this can be tolerated.

So where to draw the line?

I have found a proper balance lies in key points. Many matters come down to a small set of ideals that are fundemental to the idea as a whole. Avoid labels in these areas so that your primary position is clear and defensible.

When you see others using labels to support their position, call them on it. Ask them to tell you what they think without the labels. In this, the conversation remains focused on the matter at hand and not on the differences in meaning the labels introduce. From here, distinguishing facts from beliefs becomes easy as well.

Remember, by definition a label is a generalization and is not a solid supporting element for your point of view. It should be obvious that a poorly supported point of view does not make for solid advocacy.

Next: The importance of value judgements.