Fool's Choice vs Possible

"Break free of the Fool's Choice that's made you feel helpless to choose anything other than going on the attack or staying silent" (Grenny, et al., p. 100).

"Beyond the two sides, there is a third side. It is the side of all Venezuela--the side of your children and their future" (Ury, 2024, p. 224).

Ury was in Venezuela speaking in a large hall to a mixed crowd of chavistas and anti-chavistas. It was seeming as though civil war was likely. He helped convince at least some enemies to enter into dialog to help prevent war, to understand that the third side was more helpful than either positional devotion to one immutable side. 

This acceptance of much more choice beyond the Fool's Choice is at the heart of the last best response to existential threat. We know about flight, fight, freeze, abject surrender, and posing (well, hopefully we know about more than fight or flight at least). The only other choice, the only other response, is the illimitable power and capacity of human creativity, imagination, and the art of the possible.

References

Grenny, Joseph; Patterson, Kerry; McMillan, Ron; Switzler, Al; Gregory, Emily (2023). Crucial conversations: Tools for talking when stakes are high. 3rd ed. VitalSmarts.

Ury, William (2024). Possible: How we survive (and thrive) in an age of conflict. Harper Business.