Everyday, somewhere someone is victim of extremism, terrorism and barbarism. We fail to understand and comprehend, as human being what actually causes such brutal step or reaction. It seems as a society we still are immature and long way to go to address extreme behavior.
Somebody killed in the name of religion other in the name of ethnicity or politics.
Have we ever asked, what are the psychological factors that are responsible for terrorism? What social conditions cause them to develop? And what can we, as individuals, do to influence them?
Globally the World-Trade Center disaster has provoked an intense U.S. led offensive against terrorism.
Baloch nationalist political demand and struggle for economic rights provoked extreme Pakistani State offensive.
Most people seem to think that this kind of war or behavior is something new. It's not. Many other tragic conflicts in recent times fit the same model;
Genocides that occurred in Kosovo and Bosnia
Attempted extermination of the Kulak peasant class in Russia
Actions of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia
Hutus vs. the Tutsies in the Congo
Turk’s genocidal massacre of the Armenians
Holocaust of European Jews at the hands of the Nazi's
While on the surface, these may seem like completely unrelated events, they all embody a similar core philosophy.
These conflicts are each characterized by having one group which sees itself as being tragically oppressed, and seeks freedom or prosperity through the annihilation of an 'evil' group of oppressors. Sound familiar? It should.
The comparison between the scenarios mentioned above and the situation that prompted the September 11th attacks or killing of Bugti or Balach in Balochistan is obvious.
America is the perceived oppressor at which Bin Laden directs all of his rage. Pakistan’s arm offensive towards Baloch made Baloch perceive Pakistan as oppressor state, in both cases result is extreme responses. Some people seem to think that we can obliterate terrorism simply by wiping Al Qaeda and its 'evil leader' off the face of the earth. Such a belief, however, is far from true. Even if one kills every single terrorist or miscreant who lives on this earth today, the future would still remain uncertain.
We do need military action, but we need to supplement it with psychological tactics.
We must know why these situations occur, and act accordingly.
As society today, we have a basic understanding of how such conflicts emerge, and solid ideas as to how their development can be interrupted. Central to the creation of extremism is a concept called totalism.
For our purposes, totalism can be thought of as an exaggerated form of something that exists within each one of us: the tendency to see ourselves as wholly good and 'the enemy' as wholly bad.
The only path to win-win situation is, to get rid of totalism …..answer lies within, it is the way we think about others.
3 comments:
I like your article and the way u end it with the concept of totalism!
your writing has matured :)
Hey thanks alot, ya totalism is an old concept which i think is relevant in contemporary world affairs.
We need to get rid of totalism to make world a better place :)
Wow, good analysis. Totalism might even cause such unrest here in the U.S., if many citizens perceived that they were marginalized too greatly in a political or social sense. The perception of so many Americans of belonging to the "middle class" probably helps prevent such extreme reactions to political alienation, even if the perception isn't real. Of course, we have our own versions of extremism here. Ever hear of Rush Limbaugh? :-)
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