Peacemaking Reflection Assignment, Free Essay Sample

The political groups that involve hostilities of considerable magnitude and duration

Conflict is a state of discord that comes about due to the perceived or actual opposition of values, needs, and also interests. It is known that war results due to conflicts among the political groups that involve hostilities of considerable magnitude and duration. According to United Nations (UN), major wars are those wars that inflict more than a 1000 battle deaths every year. Therefore, war is brought about by conflicts due to political or religious interests and other interests. Research shows that the pattern of war has been uneven for quite a length of time and the casualties have been increasing over time. Therefore, countries have to understand the causes of conflicts and wars to eventually come up with strategies for addressing them and ensuring peace throughout the world.

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In most cases, wars and conflicts ensue because of the political interests. One side might be supporting a particular political party to win, and he or she will engage in anything even fighting to see to it that such a party wins. If the party, unfortunately, losses, the people supporting such a party may start fighting the opposing side. Additionally, conflicts have also been reported to start because of the property possession or due to boundary disputes. Additionally, war can also ensue because of opposing sides that support different individuals on political or religious grounds. For example, the Jews and the Islam might be having ideological differences that may spur conflicts and eventually engage in wars. Someone might fight for his or her religion or the person that they support, but at the end, there is nothing that such an individual might get after engaging in war.

Non-violent strategies

It is known that a war in most cases is justified only when it is waged by an authority that is legitimate. Many scholars have been arguing that just war should only be waged as a last resort when all the non-violent strategies have been exhausted and have failed to produce fruitful results. In most cases, a just war can only be started when the legitimate authority feels that it wants to redress a wrong suffered cause. For instance a war can be considered just when one is engaging in self-defense. Even though a just war can be fought with the objective of success, injuries and deaths might also be witnessed in the cause of fighting a just war.

Quakers have a belief that there is something of God in every person and each has a unique worth. Thus, according to Quakers, all people are equal, and anything that might harm people such as wars should be opposed. Morality should be the basis of any society and people should seek truth in everything that they undertake through peaceful dialogues. Quakers stance of not fighting in wars is important because it takes life as valuable and that we should love all our neighbors and enemies for peaceful societal coexistence.

In Chapter six, it is seen that being Smith being a believer in social gospel advocates for the use of non-violence tactics to achieve social justice for all the people. He organized workshops to train people on the importance of non-violence when pursuing their social justice rather than resorting to conflicts and wars.

The video-games that show violence

There is an assertion that our culture such as the TV, Video games and movies cause people especially young people to become violent. This is because when young people engage in viewing the video-games that show violence, such people have the tendency to develop violent behavior. Research has shown that violent movies, games, and TV programs have an impact on the behavior of the viewers of such games, video or even programs.

When Jesus said "turn the right cheek," he meant that people should not take revenge but should try their level best to have peace with the enemies. He meant that people should respect each other and in return, there will be peace throughout the world. Ideally, instead of revenging someone that has caused wrong to an individual such a person should be taught the importance of forgiving.

Martin Luther King Jr. was right to urge people to engage in nonviolence strategies of pursuing social justice. Nonviolence strategies of pursuing social justice are necessary because they do not result in injuries or deaths to the victims but the objective may eventually be achieved. According to Martin Luther King Jr., demonstrations should be peaceful and nonviolent strategies should be adopted during such protests. If I were marching with Martin Luther King Jr., I would have to remain non-violent even if we are attacked and explained to the enemy our grievances in a peaceful manner, and they will be in the position to grant them rather than engaging in wars.

I was taught that violence and fighting are bad because it results in personal injuries or even deaths. Instead of pursuing a person's interests or social justice through wars, it is important to adopt non-violent means and thus achieve the objectives without losing lives or inflicting personal injury.