Conflicts exert powerful influence over lives and in societies
Conflicts shape how we recall and tell our stories. It’s an important topic because how conflict is depicted and reflected back to us shapes and influences our understandings of the world.
I’m often disheartened at the negative and simplistic ways that conflicts are analyzed in fiction, nonfiction, popular culture, and current events. Inadequate analyses of conflicts contribute to the divisive polarization that currently rend politics and set us against each other.
Being conflict competent allowed me to deal with the wretchedness of quadruple (yes, four) mastectomies after I was diagnosed with a rare, potentially deadly form of breast cancer.
Knowing how to understand conflict is (or should be) a core competency for navigating modern life in increasingly complex and complicated societies.
Conflict is the heart of a story in media and in life
Stories are how we demonstrate our conflict competence and conflict incompetence. Stories are a safe place to figure out what we do or don’t want in our own lives and relationships. For those reasons, I find it helpful to use popular culture as examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly of conflict.
On the other hand, fiction about competent conflict management, I am told often, won’t sell. Conflict sells. Incompetence sells. Dysfunctional interpersonal relationships also sell. Managing conflict with skill – big yawn.
My novel’s protagonist is a Conflict Manager and very good at her job. For a time, I’d believed that my novel would answer those who say proficiently managing conflict isn’t interesting. But, even conflict competent people have problems, so I’ve loaded her down with a freight car full, and then we’ll see how she gets it all resolved.
