Conflict Actors
7. Massively Parallel Roles & Tasks
As we explained in our introduction to MPP roles, we distinguish between "big picture thinkers," who we call "strategists" and the more detailed, action-oriented people and organization, which we call "conflict actors." ("Conflict actors" can also simply mean anyone engaging in conflict, i.e., disputants, but that is not how we are using the term here.) Among the different roles we include in the "actor category" are engaged democratic citizens (who aren't engaged professionally, but are still actively involved in politics or governance in their local communities (or higher up), as well as
- Visionaries - who help us imagine a society in which we would all like to live (and be willing to work to help create),
- De-escalators - who help us reverse escalation and polarization dynamics, stop and prevent future violence, and cultivate mutual trust,
- Constructive Communicators — who help us replace evil stereotypes and enemy images with genuine understanding, overcome our cognitive biases, and learn to talk to and listen to people who disagree with us.
- Issue Analysts -- who help us understand the specifics of a particular complex problem and evaluate possible solutions. They, together with constructive communicators help people sort out "fake facts"/mis- and disinformation for good, factual information.
- Collaborative Problem Solvers --who help us identify and pursue mutually beneficial ways of dealing with her problems,
- Power Balancers — who enable us to wisely and equitably make tough decisions in cases where mutually acceptable solutions aren't achievable,
- Defenders — who help us effectively oppose those who seek to inflame our differences and undermine democracy.
And each of those has numerous sub-categories that we will describe in later essays.
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