Resolving Social Conflict

America the Divided

There are multitudes of social conflicts in America today. In fact, the list would be shorter if we were to enumerate the potential conflicts that aren't presently active. The more well-known ones include Rich vs. Poor, Black vs. White, and Unrestricted Freedom vs. Regulation.

Looking at that list, it is easy to see the parallels between the social conflicts that are the root cause of much of the nation's unrest, including driving crime, and the hottest political conflicts in our nation today. That is not a coincidence.

Arguably, every substantiative distinction between the political parties in the modern era stems from these very notions of social conflict. The people who seek to lead our nation need to prove to the voters that they have a plan to 'fix' what's wrong with America; to do that, they first have to identify the problems. And, in doing so, they inevitably encounter social conflict. Bearing that in mind, all that remains for a would-be politician to do is to pick a side.

Few of these conflicts are productive. Partly because of politics, but moreso because of the tendency of people to believe that their own views are correct, regardless of the available information, little is accomplished amidst all the bickering about political philosophy and attempts to secure some form of moral high ground. In the heat of the quarreling, little of substance is actually accomplished to resolve any of the issues.

Even when a conflict does begin to turn productive, opponents of the particular philosophy in ascendance will attempt to undermine it. Take Affirmative Action, for example. Here is a program designed to defuse some the conflict caused by racial imbalance and inequity. It is an attempt to turn the continued argument over race into a productive conflict. However, leaders who hold a differing viewpoint contend that Affirmative Action only serves to widen the racial divide by breeding bitterness and resentment on both sides.