Imagine a Positive Shared Future

6. Civic Knowledge and Skills

In the Guide section on Conflicting Visions and Frames we wrote that

Visions are, essentially, frames we have for the future — what we think is going to happen, along with what we wish to see happen. I have long argued that if you do not have a vision for the future, it is going to be very hard to figure out how to get there. But if one's vision for the future does not include the other side(s) living in it, that is, essentially into-the-sea framing, and it is going to lead to a long, drawn out struggle. On the other hand, if disputants work together to figure out future they all can live with, the chances for successful conflict transformation go way up.

In a talk he gave several years ago to the Alliance for Peacebuilding, former South African Ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool explained that "we need to start with the end." We nee to define our ultimate vision of American society as one where everyone can live in peace — including the whites who the left views as "oppressors," much as the whites were seen to be in South Africa. But the African National Congress (ANC) recognized early on that "the other [in this case whites] were there to stay" and therefore, they had to design a society that would work for whites as well as blacks. Applying this to the United States, he observed,

your [American] racism, your polarization, your discrimination, is sustainable only as long as you believe the other will disappear or go away." But they will not. This is their home too.

So, he said, we have to "begin to take responsibility for the country." Instead of fighting it out to the death and destroying all the oppressive structures, we need to seek to preserve as much as possible. To do this, he said we need to "isolate the extremes, but unite the middle. Even if the other is your oppressor, you must take responsibility "for finding the human commonalities with them." "Ideology must have a human lens," he argued. Rather than feeding fears and ignorance, it should appeal to "people's better angels." He also said that in creating this future vision, you must find the intersection between justice and peace: "Too perfect a struggle for justice means perpetual struggle, and too easy a reach for peace means sweeping justice into the coffin." You must find a balance.

So must we do in the United States. But the balance must include everyone, and to do that, we need to include everyone in its formation. <