Tuesday, December 5, 2006 at 1:01am
Humans are addicted to conflict
Column: All Paths
Last week in this column, I discussed the role culture plays in dividing the human family, and I referred to Samuel Huntington's book "The Clash of Civilizations." In this book Huntington states: "The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation-states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics. The fault lines between civilizations will be the battle lines of the future." This quote has dominated my thoughts over the last week.
Every time I look at news, watch some talking-head show or open a newspaper or magazine, Huntington's words come to mind. You see, the lead story or article is usually either about the war in Iraq, Darfur or the latest tragedy from the Middle East. I feel that this is extremely sad, because this means that the major news content for this planet involves cultural or religious conflict. So I ask, was Samuel Huntington's book a prophetic work or a good assessment of human nature? In my opinion, it's the latter.
Huntington understands that there is this flaw in human nature that makes us addicted to conflict. We feel compelled to impose our values and judgments on others. I believe this need to be absolutely right in our beliefs and declare our culture, religion, skin color, etc., as super-ordinate and all others subordinate is so deeply rooted in the human experience that you could say it is encoded in our DNA.
This is part of the process of socialization, from the most primitive tribe to the most developed society. In this process we are given a narrow filter that we are to use to judge all others. This is how we validate and manage our fear of the unknown or people and things that are different. It removes the responsibility of having to question our beliefs and come out from under our warm blankets of familiarity. So the conflict begins and never ends.
We fight hard to stay under our warm blankets of familiarity. It's so warm and cozy under them that we would rather go to war and annihilate other societies for that luxury. This is what most of the conflict around the globe is about. It's about hiding under or behind warm, familiar blankets/walls/lines or anything that prevents us from being exposed to something different from what we know and having our beliefs challenged.
When we are forced to step out from under or behind these barriers, we arm ourselves with judgmental filters, with which we label everything different as bad or wrong. Using these filters to label something as different and therefore wrong or bad means that it should be feared and is harmful to our way of life or survival. In his book "Emissary of Light," James F. Twyman said, "Our beliefs are like filters that we place between ourselves and the truth."
So what is the truth about the clash of civilizations — is it real or not? As I said above and in this column last week, I don't believe that it is a valid concept. Again, the problem is fear of what is different and seeing these differences as challenges to our way of life. We have to stop giving concepts like this supposed clash of civilizations form and substance. We hyper-focus on them. Then they become very real and grow way beyond their size and scope to a dimension where they dominate the global stage. Is this what we have done with Israel and Palestine or Islam vs. the West? It appears that we have.
I hope it is not too late to reverse this. The reversal can begin with the words of James Twyman: "It is through non-judgment that that all religions and traditions unite and become one."
— — —
Rev. Jay Speights is an interfaith minister and main United Nations representative for The New Seminary in New York. He has a master's degree in public policy. You can learn more about his work at the United Nations at The New Seminary website His email address is {email jayspeights@newseminary.org}jayspeights@newseminary.org{/email}. © copyright 2006 by Jay Speights
Every time I look at news, watch some talking-head show or open a newspaper or magazine, Huntington's words come to mind. You see, the lead story or article is usually either about the war in Iraq, Darfur or the latest tragedy from the Middle East. I feel that this is extremely sad, because this means that the major news content for this planet involves cultural or religious conflict. So I ask, was Samuel Huntington's book a prophetic work or a good assessment of human nature? In my opinion, it's the latter.
Huntington understands that there is this flaw in human nature that makes us addicted to conflict. We feel compelled to impose our values and judgments on others. I believe this need to be absolutely right in our beliefs and declare our culture, religion, skin color, etc., as super-ordinate and all others subordinate is so deeply rooted in the human experience that you could say it is encoded in our DNA.
This is part of the process of socialization, from the most primitive tribe to the most developed society. In this process we are given a narrow filter that we are to use to judge all others. This is how we validate and manage our fear of the unknown or people and things that are different. It removes the responsibility of having to question our beliefs and come out from under our warm blankets of familiarity. So the conflict begins and never ends.
We fight hard to stay under our warm blankets of familiarity. It's so warm and cozy under them that we would rather go to war and annihilate other societies for that luxury. This is what most of the conflict around the globe is about. It's about hiding under or behind warm, familiar blankets/walls/lines or anything that prevents us from being exposed to something different from what we know and having our beliefs challenged.
When we are forced to step out from under or behind these barriers, we arm ourselves with judgmental filters, with which we label everything different as bad or wrong. Using these filters to label something as different and therefore wrong or bad means that it should be feared and is harmful to our way of life or survival. In his book "Emissary of Light," James F. Twyman said, "Our beliefs are like filters that we place between ourselves and the truth."
So what is the truth about the clash of civilizations — is it real or not? As I said above and in this column last week, I don't believe that it is a valid concept. Again, the problem is fear of what is different and seeing these differences as challenges to our way of life. We have to stop giving concepts like this supposed clash of civilizations form and substance. We hyper-focus on them. Then they become very real and grow way beyond their size and scope to a dimension where they dominate the global stage. Is this what we have done with Israel and Palestine or Islam vs. the West? It appears that we have.
I hope it is not too late to reverse this. The reversal can begin with the words of James Twyman: "It is through non-judgment that that all religions and traditions unite and become one."
— — —
Rev. Jay Speights is an interfaith minister and main United Nations representative for The New Seminary in New York. He has a master's degree in public policy. You can learn more about his work at the United Nations at The New Seminary website His email address is {email jayspeights@newseminary.org}jayspeights@newseminary.org{/email}. © copyright 2006 by Jay Speights