Misunderstanding and Being Misunderstood are often the cause of
fights. This is true among friends, romantic partners, families
and even nations. One of the techniques often used during a
misunderstanding is to rally the support of friends, family,
neighbors and other nations. To do this, you have to tell a
story. If you tell the story "well enough", you take ADVANTAGE
OF the misunderstanding the one you're fighting against has
about you, and use that to be able to say, "See!? See!? This
proves our story is true!" One example in World Politics is the
fight between several Western Nations and Extremist groups in
the Middle East. These newer Extremist groups are *masters* of
communication, which is why they are able to rally support
rather quickly, while the West has been having a lot of trouble
accomplishing the same goal. Fact is, the West HASN'T BEEN
LISTENING to the story the Extremist groups have been telling;
to get into the mind of a person who already in agreement but
just looking for someone to give them the right words is not
easy; This is not an isolated situation; it happens everywhere
there are Groups. Within any Group above a certain amount of
people, there always ends up being SIDES; and it's rare there
are TWO sides within a group, but rather MANY. Some examples: a)
Many extreme Christian groups in the USA will use the Bible to
rally support in this fashion; b) a prominent scientist or group
of scientists may use validated but selective Evidence
(especially References) to help get funding for a project; and
will often disparage other scientists or groups of scientists in
the process; This sometimes has a ripple effect in Education;
leading Textbooks to not only favor certain ideas but to reduce
or eliminate many other ideas that don't cleanly fit. If
masterfully done, a competing scientist or group can be set back
DECADES in research, as they will struggle to get the funding to
continue their work, now that the stacks are against them within
that whole system. c) Politicians may quote famous politicians
of the past to rally support for an election; but even moreso,
using the other's words against them. This doesn't require any
explanation as simply watching TV during an election year in the
USA and you WILL see this kind of "setting the other party up
for failure" in action quite clearly. d) The #1 place this is
used worldwide is: Law. The WHOLE SETUP of Law - whatever that
system of Law happens to be for; happens in this fashion; not
Law in a pure sense; but as with all human endeavors, we are not
computers; there's always SOMEBODY who someone else wants to
CONVINCE - both FOR something and AGAINST something else
simultaneously. And yes; I'm doing it too, right in this
writing; it's part of the nature of 'convincing'; Now that I've
potentially offended a good portion of readers; if you've made
it this far, Here is the results of a study done by the Center
for Strategic Communication at ASU. It was funded by the US
military intelligence because, well, it's an area that the US
military NEEDED more intelligence in - and got it. And now, I
quote: "The most surprising is the near absence of the
well-known *Verse of the Sword* (9:5) from the extremist texts.
Widely regarded as the most militant or violent passage of the
Qur*an, it is treated as a divine call for offensive warfare on
a global scale. It is also regarded as a verse which supersedes
over one hundred other verses of the Qur*an that counsel
patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. We conclude that verses
extremists cite from the Qur*an do not suggest an aggressive
offensive foe seeking domination and conquest of unbelievers, as
is commonly assumed. Instead they deal with themes of
victimization, dishonor, and retribution. This shows close
integration with the rhetorical vision of Islamist extremists.
Based on this analysis we recommend that the West abandon claims
that Islamist extremists seek world domination, focus on
counteracting or addressing claims of victimage, emphasize
alternative means of deliverance, and work to undermine the
*champion* image sought by extremists."
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Lisa Davila, Gary Wayne and Trevor Tidwell like this.
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Trevor Tidwell Know thine enemy as thyself.
20 hrs * Unlike * 1
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Kenneth Udut Trevor Tidwell I love proverbs and sayings;
they can successfully compress a whole load of complications
into just a few, well chosen words. Thank you! That sums it
up perfectly.
19 hrs * Like * 2
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Kenneth Udut Trevor TidwellI also surprised myself; I almost
never write about politics because I don't care for any of
it; but at least I'm understanding better *why* I don't like
it; it's the whole process of making someone else MAKE
THEMSELVES look bad by tellin...See More
19 hrs * Edited * Like * 1
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Trevor Tidwell As a politically active person, I totally get
that. That said, everything wrong in politics, also happens
to be the stuff that's most thrilling, intriguing, exciting,
and fun about politics.
10 hrs * Like
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Kenneth Udut Trevor Tidwell I completely respect that - I
don't follow sports * but I see a lot of parallels between
sports and politics. I also see parallels in The kind of
drama in reality TV - novellas and soap operas in the old
days, and, in short, anywhere that you are rooting or booing
with great attention to detail xD I tried reading the sports
pages a few times in my life, and it read like a
testosterone filled soap opera drama, set in the Fields of
Battle. And I'm not criticizing any of it * I think the
existence of all of these things is marvelous! And, as much
as I say "I don't like politics " I know it's not entirely
honest. There are causes that I could see myself fighting
for - and, I have in the past and even subvertively at
present. Fighting for a cause is completely political in
nature - collecting negative things about that which I fight
against, and collecting things supporting the sides I
believe in. The one thing I HAVENT found - is a banner under
which to join others. If the urge to fight becomes strong *
and I have to create the banner myself? THEN I've just
entered Politics itself - and could easily get shredded to
bits if I wasn't prepared xD
7 hrs * Like * 1
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Trevor Tidwell Oh it's terrible. I wish we didn't have to
fall under party banners in order to get anywhere. I would
rather just have a discussion as a whole, than try to keep
up with factional conflict management.
6 hrs * Unlike * 1
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Kenneth Udut Trevor TidwellYes - the discussion side of
politics is interesting; but the "factional conflict
management" (ooh what a great combination of words - I love
it and may use it one day) is the part that makes it
distasteful.
Factional Conflict Management. Wow, 3 words and you've
summed up successfully one of the things that I get
'political' about; no matter what the topic is; It's when
someone says, "ideal, ideal, ideal, ideal - and this is why
MY ideal is better than YOUR reality"
So, I find it my duty to point out, "I'm sure your ideals
are great; but your REALITIES are just as bad as your
opponents"
Them: "Oh, our realities have nothing to do with our ideals.
Our ideals are AWESOME, but THEIR realities are ATROCIOUS
(lists examples)"
Me: "But THEIR ideals are also pretty good too"
Them: "Oh their ideals? hah! Laughable. I mean... just look
at their REALITIES? (cites more examples)
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