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

In school, unless we had an alternative education, we were taught history through the eyes of the powerful and elite. We learned about Columbus' voyage to discover the new world and what he encountered there. We learned all about the founding fathers and the Declaration of Independence. We learned that 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.

Education uses frames to teach (without necessarily describing them as frames or admitting to them). The main frame used is that public education has limitations on what it can teach. Because it is funded by taxpayer money, the government determines the curriculum--what can and can't be taught. History books are revised not based on fact, but on what is most advantageous to the power structure. Revising history seems to be an Orwellian work of fiction. That couldn't possibly happen here, right? But when you think about it, all history is an act of revision and a work of fiction.

I came across "The People's History of the United States". It's a book that has been around for almost thirty years and continues to be updated as history continues to be move forward.

"The People's History" is a prime example of a reframe. Some would consider the perspective to be more socialist or radical, and whether or not you believe it to be valid, it is an amazing way to look at history which has seldom been seen through the eyes of the disenfranchised.

So Columbus' discovery, through the eyes of the natives was: genocide and blankets with small pox.

And how about those cute Thanksgiving pilgrims that we regard as fleeing religious persecution and bravely venturing onto the New World. The natives might see this as more of a violent colonization by early English settlers.

There's a fascinating reframe at the end of the most recent edition regarding the "War on Terror". Instead of accepting the perspective, the frame that Arab terrorists attacked us on 9/11 because they hate our freedom, think about this: they were fed up with our foreign policy, our "stationing of 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."

Huh? That's not what the news tells us. Why hasn't this perspective been reported?

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.

About the Author

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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