CONCLUSION
This chapter concludes with highlighting the challenges we face at the current historic juncture. Newly recognized global ecological and social problems require global cooperation for their resolution.
Is humankind prepared? Conflict and emotions are at the core of both the problems and the solutions. Social emotions at the global level are no longer defined and channeled by a few diplomats. They are felt and responded to by millions of people and become salient for conflicts in the “global village” in unprecedented ways. Global terrorism is one outfall, an atrocious one and psychology is bound to gain significant importance in the field of political science.Two problems stand out, globalization and the human rights revolution. The coming together of humankind (globalization) increases anxiety and the risk for misunderstandings. This danger needs to be tackled in ways that safeguard cooperation and avoid new divisions. Traditional ingroup/outgroup demarcations hurt more than before. Ingroup pride, if built on outgroup disparagement, is no longer constructive. Concurrent with the ingathering of humankind, another unprecedented social phenomenon radically questions old norms: the continuous human rights revolution. This revolution (or transformation or movement or trend) affect our relationship with our children, spouses, and boss as much as world politics. The human rights revolution is fueled by feelings of humiliation, and it fuels feelings of humiliation in the global public arena as much as at home. Formerly legitimate humbling is turned into illegitimate humiliation. Feelings of humiliation cross-cut other explanations of violence. Conditions such as poverty, inequality, or conflict of interest can all be tackled constructively by cooperation: enabling environments can be built jointly; scarce resources can be shared. It is when feelings of humiliation emerge that rifts are created and trust destroyed.
If feelings of humiliation are not overcome constructively, at best, cooperation fails; at worst, violence ensues.All this is occurring at a time when humankind remains blind to the fact that it is emotionally unprepared. Many believe that Mandela’s maturity cannot be learned and that he is simply extraordinarily gifted. This might partly be true. But, we still have to try. We need to learn, for example, that we no longer can continue to hope that domination/submission will bring peace, justice, and love—at home or abroad. Rather than bringing peace and cooperation, an adversarial culture with combative communication styles triggers the fight-and-flight avoidance system and deepens rifts. We have to learn to swing back and forth, get into the others’ perspectives and feelings, and then move back into our own perspective, not faltering in the face of contradictions, but using them courageously and constructively. We have to learn to stay calm while using frustration creatively, with imagination and inspiration. For that we need to nurture in ourselves and in others the qualities of curiosity, courage, and patience. We need to learn to use firm respect and warmth to build feasible relationships rather than unfeasible fences, both at home and in the world.
We must learn to nurture positive emotions, particularly in conflict situations, because they broaden our problem-solving capacity. This is a daunting challenge, but we can achieve it if we train to attend to our negative emotions first, knowing that they are the gatekeepers to our deeper, more positive capacities. We must learn to tolerate a certain amount of negative feelings, respecting that negative emotion is a necessary—if unpleasant—component of conceptual change. “Positive thinking” can be overdone—we do not want to descend into “blissful ignorance.” We need to learn how to foster positive feelings that are firm and take from negative feelings only what is constructive, without letting them dictate us.
We need, in the final analysis, to learn to “wage good conflict” through mutual empowerment and cooperative problem solving. This chapter represents a guideline. We need to change our mind-sets deeply if we are to prevent and solve conflict at home and in the world. It is not a question of some experts having a collection of smart techniques. We have to forge new practices and institutions locally and globally. The shortest “hands-on” guideline for managing emotions in conflict would go as follows: cool down—yourself and others. Down-regulate negative feelings—far enough to avoid tunnel vision, yet not too far; avoid “blissful ignorance.” Up-regulate positive feelings by invoking a positive long-term vision—ask what kind of world do we wish our children to live in? Urge a joint learning orientation for humankind. Forge new, mature, Mandela-inspired emotion scripts that connect us in cooperation even when circumstances are difficult and humiliation hurts. At the global level, promote a decent global village in the spirit of Avishai Margalit’s call for “The Decent Society” with decent institutions that do not have humiliating effects. Craft global cultural practices and institutions for the stewardship of our planet as a joint task based on Article 1 of the Human Rights Declaration, which states that every human being is born with equal dignity.