Limiting Divisive Us-vs-Them Framing

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

As we have explained earlier, us-versus-them framing is very destructive, as it overlooks the complexity of a conflict and misidentifies the problems that need to be solved, all while making those problems worse.

Like many problems, over-simplification is most easily "solved" by not doing it in the first place. But that's hard to do--everyone oversimplifies all the time out of necessity. We can't possibly take in, store, and understand every bit of information that comes our way. But if we are aware of the dangers of over-simplification, and we are aware that conflict narratives that say that "the problem is the other sides' fault" are almost always wrong, that's a good start.

Rather than going along with that narrative, and the related notion that everything would be fine if "they" either understood the truth, came around to our point of view, were resoundingly defeated, or simply disappeared, and working toward that, it is important to find out what is really going on and then base our response on that more complex, nuanced understanding of the problem. To do that we need to

Learn why the other side thinks and acts the way they do (it is seldom ever because they are stupid or evil).
Do a conflict map (or at least make a list) of all the things that are contributing to a particular problem (including how one's own side is contributing to the problem). Look at the pressures that are driving your side and the pressures that are driving the other side. And look at the interactions between all these factors. (See our "Why Chains/Why Web" Exercise to see how to do this.) This will not only help you reframe your image of the conflict, but it will help you see how and where you might act to actually help get your needs met, instead of naively hoping that the other side will either "go away" or "change" to become like you.

You'll note, as you look below, that there are LOTS of links. This is an area to which the peace and conflict field have given a lot of attention. Other topics have far fewer. Eventually, we hope to build those up, and perhaps cut some of these out. But right now, we urge you to scan what's available, and choose the articles which are most useful for you.