You may doubt that politics can be positive, or you may hope it can and should be. Believer, doubter, harmonist, or contentionist — you can improve your effectiveness in the political sphere. Most of us learn politics from personal interaction, but unthinking reactions leave us vulnerable and can feed divisiveness.
If you lean toward the contentionist end of the political spectrum, you may think positive politics would be foolhardy in a world where we need to be vigilant and fight for our rights. If you stand on the harmonist side, you hope that politics can and should be positive — ready to help people. Our goal with this site is to show that harmonists and contentionists together can contribute, pragmatically, to positive politics and bring healing to our political ecosystem.
Either outlook alone can fail. A special temptation of the harmonist is to think of those who use negative tactics as evil. Contentionists may dismiss harmonists as fuzzy-headed fools. Either outlook, taken too far, can undercut political achievement and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Positive politics require tolerance through honesty-to-self while honoring our common humanity.
Most of us participate in politics without really thinking it through. But unthinking reactions leave us vulnerable. Through this site we cover a complete introduction to politics. Start with the pages on Politics and Power. The page on Principles is an overview organized into three sections: Individuals, Community, and Institutions.
Learning Positive Politics can help you succeed in interactions with your family, your community, and your world. Whether you lean toward contention or harmony, positive politics can turn you loose to make good on potentials for planning and leading that you may not have known you have. Politics is how we get what we want — and positive politics gets us there with integrity and honor.
Positive politics may take longer — but we achieve more and have more fun doing it.