Conflicts

What is conflict? I won't go into the detail of it. I expect everyone knows what it is. I would rather explain different types of conflicts in engineering terms. Below are the types of conflicts -

1. One to One
2. One to Many or Many to One
3. Many to Many

One to One :

Our mind is a constant chattering machine. It constantly chats with itself and it is difficult to stop it. My mind wants to do task A and at the same time, my mind thinks to concentrate on task B. When we are at two places at the same time, it creates a conflict. This kind of conflict is in our control. We can fix it by meditating, consuming psychedelics, playing, etc. There is no one pill fix-all solution. For Person-A meditation might work. For person-B playing might work. It depends on their persona and a lot of other things.

One to Many or Many to One :

Those who have already studied database management already know this term. When Mr. A has a conflict with Mr. B, Mr. C, Ms. C, etc, it can be called a one-to-many conflict. If someone is going through the recent controversy in the Indian developer community, they can relate to this. In these cases, both sides have an agenda to prove. These conflicts may occur in private or in public. If it is a private conflict then it is easy to resolve. If it is public, it complicates the issues. Let me elaborate on the problem in public conflict management -

• Taking a stance: Once we take a stance in public it is difficult for us to come out of that. Our internal reward system rewards us when we prove our point to the public( to know more read the blog https://meltingasphalt.com/crony-beliefs/ or read the book - The Righteous Mind by Jonathon Haidt). To come out of this reward system takes years of habit. If one of the parties doesn't have this habit, the conflict will prolong. Otherwise one of the parties might think, that they proved their point and close the conflict.
• Dopamine Boost by Spectators: Once conflict occurs in public, it becomes a play. We are habituated to watching cricket, football, etc because it gives a dopamine boost to us. As a spectator, we tend to support one team. Being neutral does not give enough dopamine boost. Supporting one team makes us feel better. In a playground, spectators use tools like cheering, showing banners, etc to support their team. In the age of social media, the tools are 'like', 'comments', etc. In a nutshell, spectators indulge in dopamine boost and at the same time, conflicting parties are also hit by the dopamine boost. It prolongs the conflicts.

Many to Many:

Normally diplomatic conflicts are many to many conflicts. As an example, India vs Pakistan, India vs China, etc are some examples of many-to-many conflicts. It looks like only two parties are involved. But ultimately so many parties are involved eg. political parties, the local public, the international community, NGOs, etc. I don't have any specific knowledge in this area. So I won't write much on these conflicts.

If you agree or disagree with my thoughts please share your comment. I would be happy to gather some knowledge.