SYNONYMOUS WITH UNFULFILLED NEEDS

Even casual conversations about different views can turn into a fierce battle for supremacy, for the feeling of being in the RIGHT and rallying the other person behind you and your opinion. Attack and defense are dominant, securing one's own position. The actual substantive debate has become a minor matter. A rapprochement, a common consensus is hardly possible any more. There can only be one thing in such a debate: two losers and a bad feeling on both sides. Why do we invest so much energy in such fights, creating anger within us in the knowledge that we are very unlikely to achieve what we want? A quote from Marshall Rosenberg puts it in a nutshell:

DO YOU WANT TO BE RIGHT OR DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY? YOU CAN'T HAVE BOTH!

There are many sources that deal with this topic. For a brief insight, I really liked the essay by Simone Anliker.

FIGHTING in a different way . . .