DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT ?: THE STORY OF CONFLICT

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DO WE HAVE TO FIGHT?: THE STORY OF CONFLICT

“Brian”, I yelled as stared at my young brother’s dead body. The murderer ran away from the scene of the crime. I was in tears until I woke up. It was all a nightmare.

Dearest reader, above was a simple narration of the dream I had yesterday. It ended in young brother’s murder. It was unpleasant and scary just to summarize. I couldn’t go back to sleep. The reason for young brother’s death in the dream was a land conflict between my dad and a neighbor. My young brother is ok in real life if you are worried about him.

After the nasty nightmare I started to think why would someone do that because of a land conflict. Most would have mistaken the dream for not being real but dreams project real life situations. For me the death of a loved one due to conflict might have occurred in dream but for someone else somewhere, it might have really happened.

So today on the platter is conflict. Conflict is a big part in human life  it is everywhere. I mean everywhere from our movies and stories to poetry and in my case that nightmare. To study conflicts I am going to dissect human conflict in a scientific and philosophical way.

I’d also like to thank Brigitte Mvaa for inspiring me to write this post.

To be clear, the conflict I mean can be defined as

“A SERIOUS ARGUMENT OR DISAGREEMENT”

The arguments I am going to talk about range from simple quarrels to fist fights to full blown wars between nations.

To understand conflict, I made up some questions to better understand conflicts. These are;

·       Why do conflicts exists?

·       Are conflicts necessary?

·       If conflicts are not necessary, how can you resolve a conflict?

WHY DO WE FIGHT?

We all have had our conflicts. From fighting with our parents to fighting with friends to fighting over fan theories online to fighting ourselves. So why do we fight? Can we just stay peaceful? Are we created as a warring species?

According to my sources, fights occur because of a plethora of reasons from obvious ones like self-protection to less obvious reasons like not getting enough sleep, but human conflicts can be narrowed down to self-protection and pride.

Remember humans are still animals, we fight most of the time to protect ourselves from danger or something harmful. Early human ancestors would fight off wild animals to protect their lives but one can say,” most of today’s problems are not caused by life threatening situations”. So why do we still fight? That’s where pride comes in.

Humans are still animals but unlike all other animals, humans are ideological creatures. Humans carry a set of ideas and ideology close to them and most humans are too proud of their ideologies to accept other people’s ideas. In short people do not want to swallow their pride and accept they might be wrong. This explanation might sound to simple or not complete but think about it. Look to the past for good examples. A good example is the Cold war that took part in the later stages of the 20th century between the USA and the USSR. Both the USA and the Soviet Union couldn’t admit that both capitalism and communism are flawed and ended up being in state of conflict and distrust for almost half a century.

To summarize most of our conflicts are caused by self-protection from danger and the inability for most humans to swallow their pride.

ARE CONFLICTS NECESSARY?

So we fight because of evolutionary reasons and ideological reasons but does that mean conflicts are a necessary aspect of human life. Can’t we stay peaceful for long periods of time?

After a lengthy stay in google, I was able to find some answers. According to Luc de Mestre, a former research engineer. Humans are one of the least violent animals on earth and humans are not engineered to fight one another. Even the death toll caused by human conflict is actually low. Its 1.42 deaths per 100,000 people.

But does this mean, humans can stay their whole lives without fighting. If its physical fighting it is possible. Some people are recorded not to have hit or physical fight someone in their whole lives.

Fights are normal in human lives

But arguments are normal. Conflict is normal in our lives and most end up being resolved. So the next time you fight its normal do not feel bad about it. Since we have different ideas and beliefs, fights are normal. You just have to find a common ground with the person you are fighting with.

HOW CAN WE SOLVE CONFLICTS?

So I established the most important thing when it comes to conflicts what matters is how to resolve them. Even in movies and art, what matters is the RESOLUTION of the conflict or else you have a never ending boss fight and no one wants that in a movie.

So here some tips on how to handle a fight or argument or a conflict:

·       RELAX

When triggered by person do not let your anger get the best of you. Relax and evaluate yourself.

·       TRY TO RESPOND WARMLY

Since fights are usually clashes of ideas, try your best to respond warmly to your opponent. A fight can be a learning opportunity and a way to evaluate yourself and what you stand for

·       COMMUNICATE EFFICTIVELY

Instead of lashing out, try to communicate effectively with the person you are arguing with and try to empathize with your opponent and say your arguments in a way your opponent can understand.

These are some ways to resolve conflicts but they are 100% assured to solve your problems. I surely hope Vladimir Putin reads these tips and stops the invasion of Ukraine because no wants a fight.

CONCLUSION

We fight that is normal in our lives. Conflicts are evident everywhere in our lives. From our dreams, literature and even religion.

But conflict can be something nasty and most human beings dislike conflicts. As I elaborated above what matters is the RESOLUTION of the conflict.

Again I would like to thank Brigitte Mvaa for coming up with this post’s idea and to you the readers for using your time to read post in the being human blog.

If you have any suggestions, stories or just fun facts you can comment below or contact the author of the blog, me via the contact form below or via my Instagram grayjr_05.

I wish you all a fulfilling existence.

NEXT WEEK’S POST: QUALIA: THE STORY OF EXPERIENCE.

REFERENCES

·       www.psychologytoday.com

·       www.quora.com

·       www.hurstpublishers.com

·       www.africa.businessinsider.com

 

 

  

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