This week the meeting between President Trump and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani surprised both Democrats and Republicans.
In fact, beyond their political and ideological positions, these two men decided to work together for the people of New York. This is amazing and remarkable; they were able to overcome the limitations imposed by their own political factions and ideologies and put the will-being of the population of New York first. By doing so they opened a window of possibilities.
Trump and Zohran were able to modify their personal look on each other. We need more, and more meetings like this!
If we want to create a new future. We need to learn to go “see” outside of our faction, we need to work among other types of factions and protagonists! Otherwise the future will be rigid, violent and deshumanizes!
The rigidity of the mental direction of the factions
During a training session on conflict resolution and Active Nonviolence practices, I attended following the September attacks in New York at the Mahatma Gandhi YMCA center in London. Sylvia Bercu, the trainer, took considerable time to explain the importance of understanding the mental direction of the protagonists.
When she spoke of the mental direction, she meant the points of view, the stances, the beliefs, and the direction of their intention, and so on. She explains that most of the time in conflict, rigidity in one’s own point of view prevents the ability to see the other’s points of view. A rigid mental direction does not help to resolve the tensions and problems caused by a conflict; on the contrary, more the protagonists maintain a rigid direction and intentions, more tense and dangerous the situation becomes for the populations caught between protagonists.
Indeed, in deep-rooted conflict and during wars, many times factions have fixed images, beliefs and ideas about what the problem is, who is to blame, and what the solution is.
To resolve a conflict the protagonists must engage in dialogue and learn to see the point of view of the others. They should never forget the will-being of the people they claim to represent.
Otherwise, the future will be a repetition of repetition, one faction leading another faction in a conflict or in a war, without transcending and evolving towards a new future.
In a global world, all factions must learn to work together; otherwise, there will be no progress for any faction.
Whatever your position, opinion, or your faction, complete truth and liberty are not there, but rather the reverie. Truth and liberty arise when you realize that your position, opinion and faction are part of reveries… (Daniel Zuckerbrot)