Parent (Previous) Guide Folders
Constructive Conflict Guide >
The Complex Factors That Make Intractable Conflict So Difficult >
Conflict "Overlay" Problems >
Conflicting Visions and Frames
______________________
BI Article
Envisioning a Future (Almost) Everyone Will Want to Live In
How much could we change if we could just accept the fact that "America belongs to all who live here" and we set about the task, as South Africans did, to figure out how we could make that work for everyone?
BI Article
The Crane Brinton Effect
The Crane Brinton effect explains why revolutionary uprisings against tyrants tend to produce just another tyrant (rather than a more just society).
BI Article
Daniel Stid Talks about Ways to Strengthen Democracy by Replacing Polarization with Pluralism
Polarization is afflicting both leaders and followers, and the feedback between the two makes the problem worse. Key to fighting that is reinvigorating the value of political pluralism and openness to divergent views of problems and solutions, starting first at the local and state levels.
Related Folders
Us-vs-Them Framing, Enemy Images, and Into-the-Sea Framing
One common contributor to intractability is the tendency to simplify complex conflicts into simple us-versus-them, good side versus bad side narratives. These go so far as "into-the-sea" framing where adversaries tried to entirely get rid of the other side.
Related Folders
Limiting Divisive Us-vs-Them Framing
When we define a conflict in us-versus-them terms, asserting that "we" are the "good guys" and "they" are the "bad guys" we are almost assuring that "they" will do the same thing, and common ground (other than defining each other as the enemy) will not be found.
Related Folders
Constructive Framing & Future Visioning
If you frame conflicts as shared problems that need to be solved collaboratively, and work together to develop a vision for the future that will be acceptable to all, you are much more likely to be able to deal with conflict in a constructive way.
Related Folders
Imagine a Positive Shared Future
You can't get to a destination if you don't know where it is. Likewise, if you don't know what kind of future you want, it will be hard to achieve. And if you seek a future that the "other side" strongly opposes, you are also likely to fail. Constructive conflict involves developing an image of a positive shared future -- a future in which everyone in society would like to (or at least be willing to) live.
Related Folders
Visionaries
Visionaries help us imagine a unifying vision for a diverse society that maximizes self-determination while promoting joint action to protect the commons.
Related Folders
A Vision for a Democracy That Lives up to Its Ideals
The ability of conflict to advance, rather than threaten, the human condition depends upon having a shared vision of how to build a democratic society that fairly and wisely balances the competing interests of its diverse citizenry.
Related Folders
Failure to Recognize the Need to Limit Destructive Conflict
Many people think polarization, conflict, and even war is inevitable -- "it is just human nature," some say. But the lethality of modern conflict and warfare makes the importance of conflict limitation and war prevention of utmost importance.
Colleague Activities
Fight the Return of the Old Normal: A Guidebook for Envisioning a Racially Just & Transformative Future
We can choose to live in the "old normal" of racial injustice and human exhaustion or we can imagine and design a "new normal" built around a vision for a better future.
News and Opinion
The Warped Vision of "Anti-Racism"