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The most important point about revealing one's philosophy of life is that a person may and should do so among his friends and the people he knows well. After people know you for your basic characteristics they will not think you a crackpot if you express ideas which are new or disagreeable to them. Among his friends a person is quite entitled to say, "As for me, the more I read about war the more I am a pacifist" or "It seems to me all this planned economy, even rent control, is a half brother to communism." When a group reaches the level where it can spiritedly and many-sidedly, yet amicably, discuss ideas and theories, such as those, then it is ready for really worth-while conversation. Every person should promote this sort of thing. While in some circles this may not be practicable in months, yet in others, if the earlier talk has been exploratory enough, it may interestingly be done after a group has been together for an hour or two. In a truly successful conversation the talk should gradually rise up until it is in the realm of ideas. In that realm each person at the start thinks his ideas are the right ones. But a cultivated conversationalist will also be prepared to modify his ideas in the light of the facts and ideas and evidence presented by the group. He will advance his own ideas, too, in the hope of winning the others to them — or of being persuaded by adequate data to reshape them to theirs. |
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