Causes of Conflict
Causes of Conflict
I. Causes-I: Primordial paradox: Humans are torn between two realities:
Reality 1: Human life is experienced essentially at the individual
level. Every individual is unique. And every
individual is sovereign.
Reality 2: Humans are social being, individual cannot
live alone. There is no life except through society. Life is actualized (earned) only through the
society. Humans have to live together. Society is the
second name of the individual.
Individual while being different from one another,
are expected to live together. Individual and society while mutually being
different, one is expected to lead social life even at the individual level.
This inevitably cause friction. This friction is called
conflict.
Life is co-determined by pairs of opposites. North-south, Day-night, male-female, life and
death, going out of house and coming into house, start eating and stop eating,
start working and stop working, yes to food and no to food...
Every aspect of life is co-determined by the pairs of opposites. Apparent contradictions actually complement life. Inability to comprehend this complexity is a cause of conflict. Individual’s inability to reconcile with the counter position, prompts him to see the person on the counter position as contradictory. The truth may be, the other person is, just different.
III. Non-realistic ventilation
When people are
subjected to unperceivable latent conflict, frustration accumulates in
mind. Unable to tolerate, the person
allows it to spill over the neighbour at any slight pretext, some times even
without a reason / cause. Such
unprovoked conflicts are mostly non realistic ventilations leading to further
conflict.
Human
tendency to ventilating frustration on an unprovoked neighbour is a cause of
conflict
IV. Conflict
Proliferation and Spiral
Conflict when expressed violently is
counter productive, for, violence begets violence. When an Actor initiates a conflict with one
grievance and if s/he adopts violence, the Alter, instead of seeing the reason for
the conflictof the actor, most likely to see the violence (means) of the actor
and make it a grievance for him/her and
initiate a new conflict based on this.
Thus the Actor ends up with two grievance. This is how conflict spirals.
Human tendency to be violent in one’s reaction
is a cause of conflict.
V.
Values and
Catalysts
Values are those attitudes, behavioral principles
and concepts that smoothen the conduct of relationship, for mutual gain. Love, compassion, trust, belief, faith,
honesty, forgivenss, help, are values, for, they are valuable characteristics
in our reciprocal human relationship.
The cardinal principle, however, is Life. All other
values are derivatives of Life. Those
which give benefit to life are valuable and those put life in difficulty are
not. Positive values help conducting
conflict inclusively. Negative values
(hate, distrust, enmity, exclusivity…) not only spoil that prospect, but
deteriorate conflict into a bitter experience.
Positive catalysts help
conduct conflict towards a pro-life end
Negative catalysts lead
conflict towards a destructive end
Catalyst –Positive
Fearlessness,
Faith in the goodness of the other (human), concern for the opponent, Empathy,
Morality, Openness, transparency,
Introspection, Confining to conflict points, Readiness to compromise,
voluntary initiation of dialogue, Quest for peace, Ability to comprehend the
situation,
Catalyst – Negative
Fear,
Force, Bad language, Exaggeration, Secrecy, Distrust, Prejudice, Adding new
conflict issues, Emotion, Rumour, Tit-for-tat, stereotype, mirror-image, black
top illusion ( ‘the people on the opposite quarter are good but their leaders
are bad’ sought of opinion), Apathy …
VI.
Denial, Deprivation or scarcity
Abraham Maslow enlisted needs are
fundamental for a human to lead a dignified and complete life. The non-availability, denial or deprivation
of these needs is a definite frustration in the pursuit of life. Thus non-availability of these needs becomes
a sure cause of conflict.
Impediment to life is called
Frustration. Deprivation / denial (of
physical, emotional, cognitive needs and the skills / tools necessary to achieve them) is perceived as
impediments and therefore frustration.
The sight of (occasion of)
Frustration creates a series of psycho-somatic reactions. First, frustration activates the
hypothalamus, which through pituitary gland activates adrenaline. Adrenaline activates our body organ,
particularly the muscles to function faster, the lungs to supply more Oxygen
into the blood, and the heart to pump the O2 carrying blood faster to all over
the body. And the person is now
hyperactive.
Uncontrolled frustration is likely to degenerate into hatred,
anger, enmity and manifest in the form of norm-less vengeance and
violence. It may also turn into
hopelessness.
A Lion chasing the prey is goaded by aggressive energy = its
frustration is the difference between degree of its hunger and rate of (in)
accessibility of food (inaccessible but in sight).
The deer fleeing the sight of a tiger is also activated by
aggressive energy = the frustration is the difference between the instinct to
live and the imminence of death (in sight).
Every challenge in life is a small piece of frustration. More challenging a frustration is, greater
the aggressive energy it generates (we experience).
Human gets aggressive at the point of frustration, and can equally
be aggressive at the point of ‘perceived’ frustration. Thus a person can get agitated if s/he
perceives a threat from outside, even if there is none actually.
VIII. Systemic and Structural inadequacy
Civic amenities and
infrastructural requirements have to be sufficiently provided and the members
be oriented to the availability, procedures and function of the systems, for
the best conduct of system for the best benefit of individual members. Primary infrastructures such as water
service, electricity, communication, transportation, education, health,
production, market, banking…. Needs to be equitably arranged, people oriented
to their function, given soft skill to be part of those systems for reciprocal
/ symbiotic relationship.
IX. Social Fabric – ripples effect
:
Social Fabric analysis reveals that we are integrally connected to
one another in the society. Hence,
individual welfare is contained in the welfare of all.
As the relationship with fellow beings have grown to the level of
organic relations, today, any act of killing or hurting is self-infliction /
suicidal.
As the other person is none other than my own extended self, we
have no reason to hate, antagonize or nurture enmity against.
Whereas non-realization of this organic relationship creates high
rate of friction with person who are close to us in the organic set up of the
society, that is a conflict by itself.
X. Social Actualization
Awareness
of one being a member of the larger society, necessity for reciprocal . symbiotic life by maintaining organic relationship
is essential for life is called social-consciousness. Absence of such consciousness, especially
when we lead a complex social life, is a cause of conflict by itself.
A
nation which has constituted itself into a democratic republic (every
individual in the nation is primary stakeholder, owners of the nation)
facilitate a long process of uniform collective enlightenment
(consciousness of being a nation in its fullest sense), and enables every one
of its member to actualize one’s life in the fullest sense. Such development is called social
actualization. Absence of a process
towards social actualization in a republic is a cause of conflict by itself.
When
a nation allows (knowingly or unknowingly) the prevalence of exploitation,
discrimination, inequality, injustice among its people, such unhealthy social
condition is a definite structural cause of conflict within.
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