History--it's All Frames

"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.

Educational institutions use frames whether they describe them as such or not. The frame public schools work within has mostly to do with what the powers that be will allow as history. Text books are consistently banned for information that may seem to 'radical' which, in essence, is what all of history is. Helen Keller, for example, wasn't just a deaf/blind/mute woman, but a great humanitarian who spoke on behalf of change in a period of nationalism and capitalist control. The fact that many of the early presidents were slave owners is consistently glossed over because 'that's how it was at the time'. History is revised in a very Orwellian way when school boards choose what to present and what not to.

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 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.

With Columbus' discovery, the natives didn't see him as a hero, but as a bringer of genocide and blankets which spread 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."

That perspective is definitely not being given equal time, and yet if you think about it, unravel who stands to gain from the story that's being given to us, you'll see their reframe has brilliantly made people complacent.

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 techniques to earn the business of wealth clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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