War and conflict is due to a clash in ideologies, coupled with circumstances, timing, susceptibility to violence and leadership. The question however remains what is ideology in the first place and how can it have enough strength to mobilize armies and make man ready to kill or be killed. " By definition ideology is a collection of ideas. The main purpose behind an ideology is to offer change in a society through a normative thought process.
The crusades are one such example where such a clash in ideology resulted in war, both the Muslims and Christians believed Jerusalem to be their holy land and they believed themselves to be the rightful rulers. Nationalism; the idea that each nation deserves its own land is responsible for many conflicts around the globe today. The conflict between Shite and Sunni factions is also another example. The idea of a nation is an ambiguous one, nationalism can be based on similar language, culture, religion and other factors, infact there are many definitions to nationalism. Some theorists think that it is not nations which have created nationalism but nationalism which has created nations.
Revolutions have been a result of ideologies Marxism was the foundation of socialist and communist republics, and it was the idea behind the Russian and Cuban revolution. The French revolution which might have been the bloodiest revolution in history also has its roots in the thought that commoners should rule themselves and not be serfs to the nobles.
Ideologies are also propagated to gain a sense of community. Dean Ornish in his book love and survival writes about human need for intimacy and its role in human survival a gist of his research is this, "As human beings we have an inherent need to connect and feel a sense of belonging, ideologies are able to provide us with those feelings from time to time. Human being have such a strong need to feel connection, intimacy and community that at times if they are not able to find it in beneficial ways they will be willing to find it in destructive ways. The need for intimacy is so strong that it will over ride our basic instinct for survival, which pretty much is an understanding that all life is important and in order to survive we need to find that connection with all life.
Community can be developed in ways that bring us towards healing or towards suffering. One way to have a sense of community is to form smaller and smaller tribes around a hatred of a common enemy or a common idea. What we are seeing in the world today is this tribalization, this breakdown into smaller and smaller units based on seeing the difference between us and them. The true believers and the Heretics, when we revert to tribes to find a sense of belonging and to find a sense of community based on a common enemy we fight those who we feel are different from us, ultimately it is a false sense of community because a tribe that is unified by anger, fear, paranoia is likely to turn that suspicion on its own members until it breaks down further and further. Right now in Pakistan the TTP is an ideology I think. It is not just a bunch of people some nameless faces. It is people who are just like you or me but are truly believing that what they are doing is correct. It is ok in their eyes to kill another human being who does not share their world view. The only way to fight an idea a thought process is by changing the thought process, by bringing in a new idea which challenges the old idea. The first step to challenge an old idea is the realization and awareness that there is a problem, that some people amongst us have a pretty polarized world view, most of us know the reasons for the creation of the Taliban and they were trained and encouraged to take up arms with the ideology that they were waging a war to protect Islam, they were fighting the Heretics etc. Although at this point in time we all have a general good idea of what political forces were the motivation behind their creation. What we need to realize at this point in time for the sake of our country is that Taliban is not Islam and Islam is not Taliban. The Taliban ideology is a very constricted view point which was created only to promote killing, religion was only used in name to promote and motivate them to kill. They were taught to hate any one who did not share their world view. Now the enemy which they were created for is no longer there so they are going to turn them selves towards any one who does not share their world view. In this instance it is religious parties who do not share their ideology or Agenda. Taliban are not picking up arms because they are being dealt with badly or being killed by drone attacks. The innocent people who are being killed by drones are not the ones becoming suicide bombers.
History has shown that an ideology alone cannot bring about social upheaval or violent conflict. Timing is crucial the idea has to come at a time when the society is ripe for change is ready to accept the idea and be prepared to implement it. Very good examples would be the Iranian revolution and the Arab spring. In these instances economical situations of the country were not good, people were frustrated and were looking to place blame on some one and were ready to try a new idea.. That idea was spread using the tools of propaganda and it was accepted by the masses due to the current leadership or due to the forces of social structure.
The big question is how a common man is prepared to raise up in arms for an idea, There are many theories as to what mobilizes a man to violence, Some writers like Richard Rhodes suggest that it is behavior which is learnt people who have experienced it and out of that experience learned to produce it more or less on demand. Weapons enter the picture as tools violent people may or may not use to amplify their violent production. Governments monopolize violence by authorizing some of their citizens to use violence in circumstance deemed legal and official. Apart from violent training group psychology also plays a part in mobilizing people to arms and conflicts. Propaganda and leadership play a great role in both these spheres. Could their have been a World War II without Hitler? My answer is no, because without Hitler there may never have been a Nazi Germany and consequently no WWII.
An idea can bring about changes, huge massive impressive changes it is but a flame which can ignite revolutions but one more crucial key to a revolution is the role of leadership and the personality of a leader many times is often more decisive in bringing about that social change than social or economic factors. The idea when propagated in the right manner at the right time combined with enigmatic leadership who is able to mobilize people to action can make the people believe in themselves and in their cause can bring about a social change.
The crusades are one such example where such a clash in ideology resulted in war, both the Muslims and Christians believed Jerusalem to be their holy land and they believed themselves to be the rightful rulers. Nationalism; the idea that each nation deserves its own land is responsible for many conflicts around the globe today. The conflict between Shite and Sunni factions is also another example. The idea of a nation is an ambiguous one, nationalism can be based on similar language, culture, religion and other factors, infact there are many definitions to nationalism. Some theorists think that it is not nations which have created nationalism but nationalism which has created nations.
Revolutions have been a result of ideologies Marxism was the foundation of socialist and communist republics, and it was the idea behind the Russian and Cuban revolution. The French revolution which might have been the bloodiest revolution in history also has its roots in the thought that commoners should rule themselves and not be serfs to the nobles.
Ideologies are also propagated to gain a sense of community. Dean Ornish in his book love and survival writes about human need for intimacy and its role in human survival a gist of his research is this, "As human beings we have an inherent need to connect and feel a sense of belonging, ideologies are able to provide us with those feelings from time to time. Human being have such a strong need to feel connection, intimacy and community that at times if they are not able to find it in beneficial ways they will be willing to find it in destructive ways. The need for intimacy is so strong that it will over ride our basic instinct for survival, which pretty much is an understanding that all life is important and in order to survive we need to find that connection with all life.
Community can be developed in ways that bring us towards healing or towards suffering. One way to have a sense of community is to form smaller and smaller tribes around a hatred of a common enemy or a common idea. What we are seeing in the world today is this tribalization, this breakdown into smaller and smaller units based on seeing the difference between us and them. The true believers and the Heretics, when we revert to tribes to find a sense of belonging and to find a sense of community based on a common enemy we fight those who we feel are different from us, ultimately it is a false sense of community because a tribe that is unified by anger, fear, paranoia is likely to turn that suspicion on its own members until it breaks down further and further. Right now in Pakistan the TTP is an ideology I think. It is not just a bunch of people some nameless faces. It is people who are just like you or me but are truly believing that what they are doing is correct. It is ok in their eyes to kill another human being who does not share their world view. The only way to fight an idea a thought process is by changing the thought process, by bringing in a new idea which challenges the old idea. The first step to challenge an old idea is the realization and awareness that there is a problem, that some people amongst us have a pretty polarized world view, most of us know the reasons for the creation of the Taliban and they were trained and encouraged to take up arms with the ideology that they were waging a war to protect Islam, they were fighting the Heretics etc. Although at this point in time we all have a general good idea of what political forces were the motivation behind their creation. What we need to realize at this point in time for the sake of our country is that Taliban is not Islam and Islam is not Taliban. The Taliban ideology is a very constricted view point which was created only to promote killing, religion was only used in name to promote and motivate them to kill. They were taught to hate any one who did not share their world view. Now the enemy which they were created for is no longer there so they are going to turn them selves towards any one who does not share their world view. In this instance it is religious parties who do not share their ideology or Agenda. Taliban are not picking up arms because they are being dealt with badly or being killed by drone attacks. The innocent people who are being killed by drones are not the ones becoming suicide bombers.
History has shown that an ideology alone cannot bring about social upheaval or violent conflict. Timing is crucial the idea has to come at a time when the society is ripe for change is ready to accept the idea and be prepared to implement it. Very good examples would be the Iranian revolution and the Arab spring. In these instances economical situations of the country were not good, people were frustrated and were looking to place blame on some one and were ready to try a new idea.. That idea was spread using the tools of propaganda and it was accepted by the masses due to the current leadership or due to the forces of social structure.
The big question is how a common man is prepared to raise up in arms for an idea, There are many theories as to what mobilizes a man to violence, Some writers like Richard Rhodes suggest that it is behavior which is learnt people who have experienced it and out of that experience learned to produce it more or less on demand. Weapons enter the picture as tools violent people may or may not use to amplify their violent production. Governments monopolize violence by authorizing some of their citizens to use violence in circumstance deemed legal and official. Apart from violent training group psychology also plays a part in mobilizing people to arms and conflicts. Propaganda and leadership play a great role in both these spheres. Could their have been a World War II without Hitler? My answer is no, because without Hitler there may never have been a Nazi Germany and consequently no WWII.
An idea can bring about changes, huge massive impressive changes it is but a flame which can ignite revolutions but one more crucial key to a revolution is the role of leadership and the personality of a leader many times is often more decisive in bringing about that social change than social or economic factors. The idea when propagated in the right manner at the right time combined with enigmatic leadership who is able to mobilize people to action can make the people believe in themselves and in their cause can bring about a social change.
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