Whether is it necessary to settle conflicts or is it necessary to win in conflicts and to become to controller?

[Valery Staricov]

It is a lot of charlatans-conflictologists today which promise to settle all conflicts insociety for fee. But is it possible and necessary on principle?

 

1. Debatable questions of conflictology.

 

In such science as conflictology, there are several unresolved problems:

 

· Of than does consist the essence of the interrelation between the concepts social conflict and social control?

 

· Do conflicts have a benefit?

 

· In than do the reasons and the purpose of conflict consists?

 

· Whatis criterion for the classification of conflicts?

 

· WhetherIs it necessary or is it possible to settle all conflicts on the basis of thevoluntary agreement of conflicting parties?

 

· In what does consist the basis for agreeing the conflicting party's during the settlement of conflict?

 

2.Definitions.

 

Social conflict - this is the form of social interaction, with which the participants attempt to gain the victory above their enemies with the help of different means with the aim of the physical destruction of enemy, his transformation into the object of control or conquering of the somebody else's sphere of influence and somebody else's resources.

 

Social control - this is the form of social interaction, with which thecontroller constrains the object of control to the fulfillment of standardswith the aid of the threat of the application of positive or negativesanctions, with the aid of the introduction of stereotypes.

 

Thus, there are two statuses (controller and objects of control) in relations of social control.

 

Sanction is reward or punishment, thus, sanctions are positive or negative.

 

Norma is the rule of behavior.

 

Stereotype is the model for the imitation, which is takes root in the consciousness of the people through the media and culture.

 

There is no description of the logical principle of the interrelation between the conceptions of "social conflict" and "social control" in the sociological literature.

 

The essence of this interrelation consists of the following:

 

· From one side, the conqueror in the conflict becomes controller before the following flash of conflict, lost in conflict man becomes to the object of control, and lost in conflict man is forced to perish or to yield the sphere of influence to conqueror.

 

· From other side, the controller is forced to support the optimum level of the strictness of the sanctions of social control, because too severe or too soft level of severity of social control causes the new flash of conflict because in this case the object of control begins to doubt in the ability of controller to fulfill its functions.

 

In the case of too severe level of severity of social control the object of control goes to the conflict with the controller because of a feeling of desperation and decides to risk by its life, by achievements in the career or by wages with aim of the release from too severe a control. In the case of too soft a control the object of control obtains hope for the victory over the controller, because object of control begins to consider by controller too weak and incapable to use punishments. For example, the pupils arrange the disruption of lesson in the case of the too tyrannical or too tolerant style of the guidance of order on the lesson from the side of teacher.

 

3.About the benefit of conflicts.

 

The positive functions of conflict is that the conflict is the reason for change and development of social system and the natural selection of aspirants to controllers; therefore the complete eradication of conflict is utopia, conflict is the necessary element of social structure.

 

4. The purpose and the reason of social conflict.

 

The purpose of conflict is the conquest of resources, status of controller or sphere of influence. The reason for conflict is the human needs for wealth, prestige and authority due to other people. The consequence of these conflicts is the inevitable and natural inequality between the people in the society. The status of controller, the be conquered sphere of influence, the wealth, the prestige and the authority are prizes to winner in the conflict.

 

5. Criterions for the classification of the kinds of social conflict and social control.

 

Criteria of kinds for social conflict is the type of combat means with conducting of conflict.

 

Criterion of kinds of social control is the form of sanctions and stereotypes.

 

In five types of control adapt five corresponding types of the sanctions:

 

· Moral sanctions - praise or swearing.

 

· Armed sanctions (body's punishments).

 

· Administrative sanctions - either increase or reduction on the service, either assignment of work or release.

 

· Religious sanctions - threat of eternal flour in hell or eternal bliss in to paradise, the promise of advantages or penalties in the process of reincarnation (in the process regeneration soul).

 

· Economic sanctions - reward or penalty.

 

Aesthetical and ideological kinds of control are built on the mechanism of the introduction of stereotypes.

 

6.Classification of the forms of social conflict and social control.

 

There are eight kinds of social conflict and eight analogous kinds of the social control:

 

1.Psichological conflict. 1. Psychological control.

 

2. Moral conflict. 2. Moral control.

 

3. Armed conflict. 3. Armed control.

 

4. Administrative conflict. 4. Administrative control.

 

5. Religious 1conflict. 5. Religious control.

 

6. Economic conflict. 6. Economic control.

 

7. Aesthetical conflict. 7. Aesthetical control.

 

8. Ideological conflict. 8. Ideological control

 

Kinds of social conflict and social control were invented not simultaneously, but on the turn in the process of the history of human society. The translation of norms and the threat of sanctions in the process of psychological control and conflict is achieved not with help of the words, but in the language of gestures frequently. It is possible to give the following examples of each form of the conflict:

 

1). Examples of the psychological conflict:

 

· the mutual intimidation in the language of gestures,

 

· explanation in the process of the flirtation of that fact, who is leader in the amorous relations,

 

· the competition of demagogues for the influence on the crowd.

 

2). Example of the moral conflict:

 

· the quarrel between the people in the process of fight for status of leader in the small group.

 

3). Examples of the armed conflict:

 

· hunting on wild animals,

 

· war between the countries,

 

· Civil War,

 

· war between the criminal groups and against police,

 

· the armed seizure of power,

 

· political murder,

 

· extremist terror,

 

·duel,

 

·sport competitions.

 

4). Examples of the administrative conflict:

 

· political elections,

 

· the conflict of bureaucratic cliques, clique- is group or the gang of adherents, which strive with help of different base methods to dismiss from the work of the members of other cliques and to move the members of own clique upward on the administrative official stairs,

 

· the strike of workers.

 

There are three forms of the political elections:

 

· straight elections at the people meeting,

 

· elections in the privileged meeting,

 

· nation-wide election for the political leaders (deputies, governors or the President).

 

Election system in the people meeting was brought to the perfection in Ancient Greek Athens, election system in the privileged senate was brought to the perfection in Ancient Greek Sparta and in ancient Rome, and the system of national elections was brought to the perfection in England and the USA.

 

5). An example of religious conflict is religious competition between the church and sectarian organizations for the sphere of influence on the believers within the framework of the observance of the freedom of conscience, invented in the USA.

 

6). An example of economic conflict is the market competition, under conditions of which that manufacturer survives, who can produce and sell goods on the smallest price and with the best quality. Market relations were invented by Phoenicians and ancient Greeks in Athens. They had invented sea trade and seagoing ships, handicraft production of goods to sale and particular ownership of the means of production, but as the work force they used slaves. Gold money invented in Lydia. The market was abolished in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, and are restored subsistence economy. Market relations were restored in Western Europe in the New Time on the new basis - in addition to the old signs of market were invented oceanic trade and ocean-going ships (caravels), hired work force and machine production. Oceanic trade Caravels invented in Portugal and Spain.

 

7). An example of aesthetical conflict is the competition between creators of art, aesthetical conflict was invented in ancient Athens.

 

8). An example of ideological conflict is dispute or discussion between the scientists, between the politicians or between the media. Formal logic (science about the laws of correct thinking) and rhetoric (science about the eloquence) were invented in ancient Greece.

 

It is possible to give the following examples for each kind of social control:

 

1). Examples of the psychological controllers:

 

· hypnotizer,

 

· demagogue, who knows how to influence to crowd,

 

· "fateful" lower or mistress.

 

2). An example of moral control is the control of leader in the small group with help of such sanctions as praise or swearing under the conditions of the moral support by leader from the side of the majority of the members of this group.

 

3). Example of the armed control is control in a farm against domestic animals, control in criminal group, control in any total organization (barracks, hospital for irresponsible, prison, slaveholding economy, concentration camp for prisoners) with help of such sanctions, as body's punishments.

 

4). Examples of the administrative control:

 

· control inside the vassal- feudatory system, any bureaucratic organization (tax service, army, church, the police, government's sector in the economy, socialist command-administrative system, the ministerial system of executive power) with help of such sanctions as dismissal or employment, increase or the reduction on the service. Administrative control was invented together with the invention of bureaucracy in ancient Egypt and states of Mesopotamia.

 

5). An example of religious control is the control "of the prophet" in the charismatic sect and of the priest above the believers with help of such sanctions as the threats of eternal flour in hell or the promise of eternal bliss in to paradise, promise of advantages in the process of reincarnation. Religious control was invented in such world religions as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism only. The mechanism of religious control was invented in the period of the sunset of Roman empire.

 

6). Examples of the economic control:

 

· control in particular enterprise,

 

· the control of international banks under poor countries,

 

· the government control of market.

 

· The system of the government control of the home market uses such economic levers as privileges on the credits, the taxes and the duties.

 

Economic control is achieved with help of such sanctions as reward or penalty. Today this kind of control is most effective. Economic control was invented in the New Time in England and Netherlands.

 

7). An example of aesthetical control is control with help of the introduction of aesthetical stereotypes (attractive images).

 

8). An example of ideological control is control with help of the introduction of ideological stereotypes by the way of repeated repetition of norms. Political and commercial advertisement serves as an example of aesthetical and ideological control.

7.Need it to settle conflicts?

 

Settlement of conflict is the impracticable task until participants of conflict are agreeable observe some conditions of armistice. These conditions can consist of agreement about the repartition of resources, boundaries of the spheres of influence or about the observance of agreement, according to which winner in conflict becomes by controller and loser in conflict becomes by object of control. This agreement is the result of the test of forces in the conflict usually, but not by the result of the useless conversations with the psychotherapist frequently.

 

Not all kinds of conflict must be settled, since. it is profitable for society to support such kinds of conflict as market competition, political elections, creative competition, scientific dispute, sport competitions. For this purpose government fights against those participants of conflict, who have managed to win all their contenders in conflict and to attain monopolist position on the market, government support the opposition in the political sphere is supported and government watches for observance of political freedoms. The system of division of the authorities is built on the maintenance before acertain degree on the competitory relations between the branches of authority.

 

2.1.9.Two of the type of conflicts.

 

Conflicts are divided into two types:

 

· The conflicts, which are conducted without the rules and without the arbiter. This conflicts are conducted before the complete physical destruction of losers in conflict sometimes.

 

· Conflicts according to the rules, where there is an arbiter, who watches for observance of the rules of game and who awards a victory. Such conflicts finished never by destruction of losers in conflict.

 

As the conclusion it should be noted that development of society results in reduction of the sphere for kinds of conflict without the rules and to the expansion of the sphere of those kinds of the conflict, where there are arbiter and rules ofgame.

 

Above my answers were represented to all debatable questions in conflictology.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2012 by Valery Staricov

[ThorHammaraxx]

It is a lot of charlatans-conflictologists today which promise to settle all conflicts in society for fee. But is it possible and necessary on principle?

Quite a bit of work there, although still just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conflict. Not all conflict has to be a dominator/controller vs dominated / controlled.

Yes it is possible to create win / win scenarios to just about all conflicts.

I would offer a third type of conflict: "Educational conflict"

Conflicts according to the rules, where the available information is the arbiter, where victory is awarded to both parties. The loosing idea is replaced by the winning idea. The so called "looser" who's idea was defeated actually wins "New information". The so called "victor's" idea is further validated with the extra support. Such conflicts finished with only winners and no losers.

 

There are rules for this type of conflict and that is the recognition that it is the idea in conflict not the humans.

Second, anything that is mysterious or can not be 'known' (at least with current technology or knowledge) should be agreed to be allowed to remain a mystery and is pointless conflicting ideas over. Absolutely pointless. Lets give those ideas a value of 0 (Zero).

Ideas that have supported facts or at minimum strong theories can and should always be demonstrated in conflict. To these ideas we'll give a value of 1 (Boolean for "true").

Ideas that are a guess, learned from others without experience or experiment, or created for the sake of conflict will always be 'beaten' by an idea with a value of 1, so for these 'false' ideas, we'll give a value of 2. 2 being the first 'false' number as it is actually two 1's.

1's are the King of ideas and will trump a 0 or a 2.

Two 2's can 'battle' it out until, with enough support, one of those 2's becomes a 1, both of them can't.

The trick comes with 2's vs 0's. Often the person with the 2 thinks they have a 1 but in reality there may also be a chance the person with a 0 is right. 2 X 0 = 0

The later usually regards subjective ideas and rarely something that can be proven, otherwise a 1 would be in the scenario, so it must be agreed to draw.

If any conflict heads towards the physical, then you really have a moral/behavioural, possibly mental issue. That's another realm.

Conflict is good, it's natural, it leads to growth, it doesn't always have to include violence or domination.

And, that's OS012 in a nutshell.

"Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still." ~ Dale Carnegie

[Valery Staricov]

Your offers of a new kind of the conflict is a utopia.