Why is NVC important in the world at this time?
by: Elke Haggerty
In a time of polarization, NVC offers us a way to get back to a common foundation for discussing the issues. It's harder to argue with "a dozen eggs cost me $X at the grocery store today" (observation) than it is with "eggs are outrageously expensive" (evaluation).
Observations empower us to find more common ground and a clear basis for talking about issues. Observations also help us to stay more grounded because they help us strip away assertions aimed at swaying our views and emotions from what actually happened.
Establishing an objective common ground is important now more than ever, I believe. Why?
Firstly, search engines bring us information based on past searches rather than a wide range of perspectives.
Secondly, it seems that news sources are presenting information through ideological lenses. For example, when I reviewed news articles with a group of NVC students, we noticed only 2 or 3 observations in articles 1.5 to 2 pages long. Interpretations, predictions, and other evaluations used the remaining space. When I have watched news broadcasts from decades ago, the reporting seems more fact-based to me.
Thirdly, I understand that there are influences from foreign political groups in our social media. Whether we agree with the above three points or not (and we could look for more observations to come to an informed understanding), it seems to me that having a shared sense of reality is a strong basis for tackling community, state, and global issues.