The Codex 18: They must be shown

We are obligated to hide. To be silent. To shape the course of history in secret. But some of my brothers and sisters disagree. They grow angry, insisting it is a mistake to shroud ourselves. They say it slows our work. But they do not understand the risks. To expose ourselves now would be too dangerous. I fear we would be branded madmen and attacked. So it goes. So it always has. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that men do not learn by being told. Instead they must be shown. They must make the connections themselves. If I say unto a man, be kind, be tolerant, be of an open mind – these words will wither and die long before they've affected change. It would be a waste. And so we must maintain our course...

Commentary: Here we see the reason for the Assassin's valuing of free will. I've always hated debates. I used to be apart of debating societies, at first I was great at it. But as time moved on I got worse, started losing the crowd, then losing my nerve. I always scored high marks in rhetoric and whatnot but I could never argue successfully with my opponents. I never understood why. Until I realised my flaw. That which is the greatest weakness of any politician in the current Western democratic system. 
I wanted to listen to my opponents.
I would take into account what they had to say and then try to reconcile that with some of my arguments. I sometimes would realise my own stance to be false and because I was stuck on one team, I would have no choice but to lose faith in my own speech. 
It was about then I realised that debating was not about finding the truth of an argument. It was about shaming your opponent and persuading the audience by appealing to their irrationality. Reading Plato's accounts of the life of Socrates, I began to realise a better way. Socrates' uses questions to discuss an argument with his opponents. Over the course of the discussion his opponent himself would prove his own argument incorrect while Socrates' own stance would be modified to better suit what was logically determined as closer to the truth. 
People don't change when you nag them or berate them or even prove them wrong in a debate. Their ideas are intrinsically linked to their feelings of self worth. They see their idea as being wrong as equally meaning they themselves are wrong. To question their idea is to question their self worth. Hence, we have the existence of radicals, fanatics and stubborn stance takers. 
In order to change someone's mind, you must feed them knowledge and slowly ask them to question their own beliefs. Over time, they will make their own mistakes and craft their own paths that will lead them into the light of truth.
And in that process, they may even see something you did not and then you, yourself will be their student.