In every part of life there have been various disputes involving religion, culture, gender, class, and ethnicity that has created an endless conflict of war. And why is this? It all has to deal with human variability. It is this, in which causes such arguments take affect and create barriers between others. Communication is the only resolution to conflict; yet many argue that ignorance is the occurrence of conflict evolving many factors of tradition, power, and authority that can never be resolved.
Conflict is an inevitable part of our lives that is developed through the differences in race and appearance thoughts and opinions, as well as a person’s overall identity. Those that argue about conflict explain how it only brings bad occurrences; however the majority of the time it leads to creativity and carries new ideas that can be constructive. The interaction between individuals can bring both negative and positive aspects, but communication can help resolve issues and better understand others perspectives.
It is the use of communication that is key to understanding what is unknown, “But intercultural communication in popular culture can also create new sources of misunderstanding, misreading, and misappropriation that exacerbates rather than remedy social divisions” (Lipsitz 2). The lack of communication is the willingness to listen without this there is a clear intention of ignorance. Although, we can try to base our beliefs onto others, some may be too tenacious to listen or see from our point of view. The importance of communication is that it leads to not only expressing others wants or needs, but our own as well.
Being more open to others judgments, disregarding our own and allow ourselves to think in a certain way that enables us to be unbiased to others opinions. As humans, it is innate to disagree as well as agreeing with people based on our thoughts and ideas. Our actions and opinions are shaped by our lifestyle and experiences in the natural world. According to Professor Spivey, who gave a lecture at the University of California, Merced, titled “Cognition and Language”, “We are all highly effective humans who act differently according to the way we think”.
Our everyday actions are impacted by the process of our thoughts and are one of the many reasons we are distinctive from others. Most of the things we act on and the way we think are automatic and uncontrolled due to our feelings and emotions. Debates are prime examples where individuals bring their ideas, opinions, and emotions into effect. In this case, debates can create heated tension as well as various disagreements in one environment. When the way we think, is contradicted or proven wrong, this can escalate to cause conflicts.
The reason for these conflicts is due to perspective as certain individuals may interpret a sentence to be completely different from what is actually stated. However, there are many positive outcomes to this such as analyzing different views and opinions, gaining both listening skills and interpersonal relationships with different people. Our cognitive minds provide great insight to other things in life and are the reasons for so many created interpretations. In this sense it is natural for us to face differences in opinion among people and not come up with a consensus to everything as we all think in a unique way.
Many issues may arise when it comes to differences in appearance and the diverse variety of race. Aside from opinions, differences in appearance are a big component that creates conflict. There still holds strong discrimination against the color of our skin and ethnicity from many races among the world. From David Torre’s lecture of “Space, Identity and Public Power in Nineteenth Century Los Angeles” at the University of California, Merced, “These sorts of conflicts are what reflect segregation and according to Torres, race draws on boundaries of groups as well as drawing the lines that separated them”.
This causes an impact on the social relations we have with people and are what leads to complications due to the minds of certain groups. There continues to be those that disfavor others depending on their tone of skin and moreover judge them without getting to know who they truly are. Racial conflict has had an effect on the way humans treat others and continues to luence behavior. Individuals seem to separate and categorize themselves apart from others who are not part of their race.
People can see the subtle differences in color, yet these differences should not reflect an individual’s background. There should be no change in attitude when it comes to a persons sk preference and no classifying of any sort. Diversity is not a threat, yet should be a strength and opportunity for a person to show oneself. Living in a world of diversity means individuals are identified differently based on their profiles, but these distinctions are what can cause conflict within other groups of society.
In addition, we identify others based on their characteristics, qualities, and beliefs. There are strong identity differences within our society, and our identity is a condition that allows others and us to see those differences. According to Baldassare in Regional Diversity, “To some extent, the differences in perceptions throughout the state can be explained by the composition of the populations–that is, by variations in their social, economic, and political profiles” (3). Much of society tends to argue on money issues and economic factors that affect the way they spend their money.
Those who are in the bigger paying scale tend to disagree and blame those in the poverty line for their actions and life choices. They make remarks and state how there own decisions in life from the past make the outcome of their future, but many do not realize the privileges people are born with. It can be challenging to understand the discreetness of these profiles as individuals are raised in different societies either lacking the necessities of life or having the benefits of it. We were all brought up differently according to our environment, beliefs, and family, which are linked to our present culture.
Differences are what make makes us rare creatures and gives us value in life, but “In such a culture, people would view arguments differently, experience them differently, carry them out differently, and talk about them differently” (Lakoff & Johnson 5). Different cultural values and beliefs may cause confrontation among other people and place them in an odd state. A recognizable example can be set on about abortion in which many individuals have different opinions about. This sort of controversial topic has caused a tremendous amount of culture conflict due to making ethical decisions based on various views and opinions.
It is by culture differences that bring in the majority of conflicts within our society, however should not be seen as negative, yet as positive. Conflict is unavoidable and is encountered to all individuals. There are all kinds of conflicts and all sorts of causes to them, yet they provided many benefits to us. According to a lecture presented in the University of California, Merced titled “Shifting the Origin: The Legacy of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton”, “Everything we know and grow from is based on assumptions, commodities, and opinions” (Breugel).
The conflicts we get involved in should never be taken for granted as they bring life long lessons to how we live and learn. Without communicate, the conflicts we encounter would be everlasting and would only bring unresolved severe consequences. Taking up a conflict is never the right route to take as it may bring negative externalities to both sides whether they know it or not. At the end, whether small or big, appreciation of conflicts helps become better individuals in society.
