Conflict can never be fully resolved. Discuss

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It is never possible to completely resolve conflict

  • Intro – London riots
  • England sigh of relief – riots subdued, but no over
  • Causes: retaliation to shooting, social problems, human weaknesses
  • Therefore seems never resolved
  • However, for very simplistic conflicts it is possible
  • 1 – Conflict, as a concept, will always exist  
  • Thomas Hobbes shows our propensity for conflict
  • Flawed beings – jealousy etc
  • Thomas Putnam
  • Ann Putnam
  • Therefore not possible to have a world without conflict
  • 2 – Conflict can be a necessity, meaning it is too dangerous to resolve
  • Modern democracies based on it
  • Waleed Aly – “very vacuity” of politics
  • Content free slogans
  • Parliament based on this
  • Walter Lippmann, “when we all think alike, no one thinks very much”
  • 3 – Conflicts can seem so complex that they are impossible to resolve
  • Thousands of years have seen Crusades, Muslim conquests etc
  • Religious difference still reigns
  • Islamphobia – some say September 11, but problem of ego
  • Requires millions of people to move out of ignorance – impossible
  • Crucible is same as conflict still existed after witch-hunts
  • 4 – Conflict can be so simplistic that it is possible
  • Feud over front seat of car or between students
  • In the Crucible John Proctor and Giles move past their dispute

Intro: London riots, not possible to resolve, too complex

England can breathe a sigh of relief at the moment, and rightly so – the worst riots they have witnessed for decades have been subdued. In light of this, a distant observer could understandably assume the conflict had been resolved. Yet, the increased number of police and vigilance on the streets is a sure indication otherwise. Indeed, the riots were merely the top layer of a conflict entrenched on a number of levels.  On one degree, they were retaliation to the police shooting of Mark Duggan, yet this too appears to merely be a trigger. In the wake of the riots, as England begins to return to normal and heightened tensions are lowered, it is slowly becoming clear that they were born from the frustration at entrenched social problems – chronic unemployment, slow economic recovery and cuts to public service spending.  And yet, these serve as no excuse. In this way, they were also a product of sheer human weakness – greed and envy manifested into criminal opportunism. Perhaps most disheartening though, is that these underlying causes will always exist. Human beings will always be flawed, and there will always be an equality gap between social classes. It is the sad nature of the world – some prosper at the expense of others. In this light, whilst we may not witness such riots again, the tension that caused them will never be fully soothed, and therefore the conflict will never be completely resolved. And so it would appear that for conflicts of this type, of such complexity, a resolution is never possible. Yet, it would be naïve to extend such sentiments to all forms of conflict, because they differ in their nature. Some are inherently simplistic, and thereby easy, or at least feasible to mediate. Therefore, it appears flawed to say it is never possible to resolve conflict in all cases, because ultimately it is not an absolute truth.  

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Conflict, as a concept, will always exist: human weaknesses, Crucible

Yet, conflict, when taken as an abstract, over-bearing concept, is impossible to resolve as it is an irrepressible, inevitable friction in life. Thomas Hobbes, the famed philosopher, certainly suggests ‘our natural state is war’, and indeed his book The Leviathan reflects on man’s propensity for conflict. Ultimately, we are flawed beings, and so, as long as we live, so too will our weaknesses – jealousy, envy, greed, pride, vanity, revenge and fear.  As conflict derives from such limitations, it therefore will always exist with us. Indeed, in Arthur ...

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