21–30 of 35 posts
I see this pattern a lot in history. Things are bad until something worse comes along. There's some quote about each country needing a reasonably strong enemy. Without one, the country starts trying to find enemies and conflict within. Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with e…
I see this pattern a lot in history. Things are bad until something worse comes along. There's some quote about each country needing a reasonably strong enemy. Without one, the country starts trying to find enemies and conflict within. Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with e…
> It's a sad state of human nature but apparently works.
I don't think that's sad at all. In fact, it's brilliant that function is built in to us.
When aliens attack, do you really want the world powers to be wasting time with their chess game they've been playing since WWII? If aliens did attack, 99% of that nonsense would be put on hold overnight. Yeah, you'll probably still get some small groups who aren't going to play by those rules, but on the grand scheme of things, the human race still manages to make the whole group a priority even if it's out of convenience.
However, I don't think your assessment that the mediator is made an enemy is correct. In fact, it's the exact opposite. If the mediator was an enemy, the path of least resistance is to ignore the mediator and for both negotiators to continue to rationalize and cement their positions. But if the mediator isn't an enemy, but simply a disappointed helper, it would follow that the negotiators are more likely to resolve their differences in order to correct the group imbalance, which is a natural tendency.
You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works because it's the only news sourse for many people. It’s psychological thing that a common enemy brings people together. Really hope it will change. We even have this idiom — my enem…
This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. I'm born and raised in the US, and this is pretty much how news has been since I was a kid watching talking heads drone on about how dangerous the world is. (Especially, Arabs, Latin American rebels, and pretty much anyone from Eastern Europe.)
Nowadays we throw in China and certain other Asians as "dangerous", but you get the idea. I'd bet the news is like this in most other nations as well, just with a different set of "enemy" people or nations.
I see this pattern a lot in history. Things are bad until something worse comes along. There's some quote about each country needing a reasonably strong enemy. Without one, the country starts trying to find enemies and conflict within. Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with e…
> Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with each other. > It's a sad state of human nature but apparently works. I don't think that's sad at all. In fact, it's brilliant that function is built in to us. When aliens attack, do you really want the world powers to be wasting time w…
However, it appears as in this study that conflict and competition are far better drivers.
You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works because it's the only news sourse for many people. It’s psychological thing that a common enemy brings people together. Really hope it will change. We even have this idiom — my enem…
"...Everyday we see on national tv that [insert enemy here] countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works..." This works everywhere in the world, there is nothing endemic to Russia in this strategy. I'm born and raised in the US, and this is pretty much how news has been since I was a kid watching talking heads drone on about how dangerous the…
You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works because it's the only news sourse for many people. It’s psychological thing that a common enemy brings people together. Really hope it will change. We even have this idiom — my enem…
You can definitely see that in Russian politics. It’s very “enemy” oriented. Everyday we see on national tv that west countries are bad and against us. That we have our own path and so on and so on. And it’s very frustrating that it works because it's the only news sourse for many people. It’s psychological thing that a common enemy brings people together. Really hope it will change. We even have this idiom — my enem…
I see this pattern a lot in history. Things are bad until something worse comes along. There's some quote about each country needing a reasonably strong enemy. Without one, the country starts trying to find enemies and conflict within. Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with e…
> Same thing might be happening in these mediations. By adding a bigger "enemy", the two parties probably quickly back down from trying to defend against to enemies and compromise with each other. > It's a sad state of human nature but apparently works. I don't think that's sad at all. In fact, it's brilliant that function is built in to us. When aliens attack, do you really want the world powers to be wasting time w…