It is nearly impossible to have civil discussion with leftists and progressives, which are those who desire social justice, equity, socialism, and even communism, as we’ve found that their emotional capacity was never able to progress past that of young children. The only thing that works when dealing with emotionally petulant children is setting and enforcing firm psychological boundaries; otherwise we’ll end up in energy draining power struggles. It is important that we do not let their physical appearances deceive us, for a grown up body does not automatically imply a grown up psyche.
Children are not capable of rational discourse, especially when they are emotionally charged, and attempting to start and win a power struggle. Therefore, setting healthy boundaries in our dealings with them, while maintaining empathy for their misguided plight, allows them to experience the natural consequences of their attitudes and behaviors. Children who are allowed to suffer the natural consequences of their behaviors with empathy, are able to see themselves as the source of their problems, figure out the reasoning as a result of the natural consequences, while at the same time protecting us from unhealthy, energy draining conflicts.
Once they are reflective enough, emotionally balanced enough, mature enough, and respecting our boundaries, we’re always happy to engage with them in a rational discussion, but only after our minimum standards are met. When our minimum standards are not met, we disengage and allow our boundaries and loving demeanor do the rest.
To learn how to do this with children, which is easily repeatable with emotionally stunted adults, we highly recommend the book “Parenting with Love and Logic“, by Foster and Cline.
Maintaining minimum standards of relating can tend to isolate us from interacting with the wrong people, and they may at times seem to isolate us from the right people too, but in the long run they will empower our interactions with our actual “right people”. Maintaining minimum standards of relating provides the necessary foundation to allow our regular interactions to transcend the need for survival responses by providing a set of minimum standards necessary for mature interactions, which will empower all such relationships to thrive instead. This means that our maintaining of personal boundaries will pull through and encourage the best in those who are earnestly seeking to connect with us and our work in some way. ~Nathan
Voluntaryism and voluntary relationships requires that individuals adhere to minimum standards of relating, otherwise all interactions will cater to the lowest common denominator of poor thinking, poor emotional intelligence, and poor behaviors. Maintaining minimum standards ensures the ability to stand in one’s power without lowering oneself to another person’s emotional capacity in order to engage in an interaction. Even one individual standing in their power and choosing to only interact with people when they meet these minimum standards, can empower meaningful dialogue, interactions, commerce, and personal growth.
Minimum standards include:
- Multilogical critical thinking
- Intellectual humility
- Intellectual empathy
- Accountability
- Honesty
- Desire for truth above all else
- Ability to work and process through differences in a logical manner
- Respect of each individual’s right to self-care and personal space
- Non-aggression principle
~Nathan
