CONFLICTS: Incompatibilities can be seen in changes in objective circumstances—a lowered standard of living; demographic changes or population movements; technological changes that alter communications, material capacities, weaponry and relative power. Subjective changes can also generate conflict through, for instance, newly felt social resentments or a rising new nationalist ideology; these subjectively felt changes can arise whether or not objective changes have occurred. The parties’ emotional states and mental outlooks influence conflict. Time is a factor as well: observers note that with time, a conflict’s subjective content gains importance as its objective basis is obscured. A group or nation’s objective circumstances do not themselves cause violent conflicts. Conflicts only arise out of these conditions—or changes in them—when it is perceived that interests are threatened by some other party.
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:37:54 +0000