Framing History

"If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail." --Abraham H. Maslow

Have you ever stopped to think about your high school history books and whose perspective the history was presented? There is no omnipotent, impartial scribe to record every thing that ever happened from every perspective, obviously, but the only view of history schools seem to teach is the world from the perspective of the powerful elite. We learned Columbus 'discovered' the new world. We learned Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

This is clearly an overly simplified description of a narrow overview, but I use these examples just to make a point. If we're viewing history from the perspective of those in power, we're not really viewing history, are we.

The frame that education uses, the frame mandated for public educational institutions, (funded by public money and which curriculum is determined by the "powers that be"), is a positive one, for the most part. Revising history is a work of fiction, '1984', and couldn't possibly happen. But if you think about it, all history is revision.

Someone recently sent me a copy of "The People's History of the United States". This book has been around for over thirty years and has new editions as time moves on, so that it's updated to include the most recent history.

The way this book reframes history is an excellent example of how the idea of reframing works. It's not completely negating that Columbus "discovered" America, but it's saying, well, there were people here first and technically, Columbus wasn't a hero because he was responsible for bring disease to and slaughtering the native population. And even if you don't share this perspective, it's a whole new take on the country through the eyes of the disenfranchised.

Look at Columbus' "discovery" from the perspective of the people who were already there: genocide and blankets with small pox.

Or how about the pilgrims in their cute hats? They were supposed to be fleeing religious persecution as they explored the New World, but maybe the natives didn't see it this way. . .more of a violent colonization.

At the end of the most recent edition of "The People's History" is an amazing reframe of the "war on terror". For the most part, people have accepted what the media and powers that be have handed out as the reason Arab terrorists attacked us on 9/11--they hate our freedom. Hmmm. . . But maybe they hate our foreign policy and would leave us alone if we left them alone. Maybe they're simply fed up because we have stationed "U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia... sanctions against Iraq which... had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children; [and] the continued U.S. support of Israel's occupation of Palestinian land."

But wait. . .That's not what the TV or newspapers tell us. Why? Because it doesn't fit with what they want to do or how they want us to be passive in their doing it.

Frames are complicated, just as reality is complicated, just as life is complicated, but if we can see the frames for what they are, then we can control them.

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.

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