Conflicts from history can teach us many things about ourselves.
In the 5th century, the philosopher Plato insightfully noted, ‘Only the dead have seen the end of war,” with history showing this to be true. People have continued to engage in all manner of conflicts, be they petty arguments or large-scale confrontations from which valuable lessons have been learnt about human nature and the present. History has revealed the flaws and primitive nature of people irrespective of the mistaken belief that progress has led to civilisation and order. Past conflicts teach that individuals, communities and even nations do not learn from past mistakes but continue to repeat them and that despite eventually being resolved, the effects have the ability to linger and haunt subsequent generations. History also teaches that conflict invariably occurs when people or nations act for self-interest and personal gain, or and when uncompromising authorities exploit their absolute power over citizens to ensure their authority remains unquestioned. Also by understanding the causes of past conflicts, individuals may reflect on their own behaviours and hopefully prevent them from occurring in the present, or if they do, provide a guide as to how to best minimise the damage they cause by knowing how to resolve them quickly and equitably before they spread beyond the main combatants which they invariably do.
History has shown that conflict emerges as a result of individuals’, groups and even nations’ subjectivity relating to their needs, values interests. It is during these periods of heightened emotions that individuals are required to re-evaluate notions of right and wrong, and in the process, forced to choose between their beliefs and desires, and the negative consequences to others. The duality of human nature, largely the result of the inability to control our emotions sees people become reactionary and fail to act rationally or morally without consideration of the ramifications of their actions. History has shown that ignorance and selfishness create and fuel conflicts seeing many incapable of acting humanly or with compassion. The British colonisers in the past believed that they had the right to claim Australian lands as they are no written records kept, despite the Aboriginies having lived their for tens of thousands of years. The colonisers simply claimed Australia as their own and imposed English laws to all inhabitants including the natives, killing those who opposed them. In the speech given out by President Keating in the 1990s, now known as the Redfern address, he acknowledges that it ‘our ignorance and our prejudice’ that allowed for false truths and beliefs to be created and racial injustices to occur; the Stolen Generation and the attempts to destroy aboriginal culture as cases in point.
Past conflict shows that nations and individuals are prone to act in the interests of their self. Mankind’s self-serving and greedy natures are common and it is the inability to govern these desires that give rise to conflict. History teaches that many powerful countries have instigated and fuelled conflicts irrespective of the consequences, in order to promote their agendas and cement their power. Greed for power, resources, land or the protection of political ideologies and lifestyles are common in the historical record. US fear of the domino effect during the 1950s and the 1980s, as related to the spread of Communism across Asia led to the invasion of Vietnam with the justification that the war would bring freedom and democracy to a nation on the cusp of a revolution that was leaning towards communism. The hypocrisy of a freedom loving nation imposing its political ideology upon another has long been condemned, and yet the political agendas that drove it have been repeated time and time again with the current Iraq war evidence of this. History also teaches that all conflicts invariably spread beyond the initial combatants, as was the case with Vietnam which saw Russians, Chinese and the Koreans take up arms, but also Australia and other Western nations.
History teaches that power imbalances will inevitably produce conflict, and that the weaker party or individual must always surrender to the will of the powerful or be destroyed completely. The Greek Historian, Thucydides, succinctly expresses this reality, ‘The strong do what they could, and the weak suffer what they must.’ History shows that unequal relationships of power see the stronger party dictate and prey on the weak; committing injustices in the process of securing their own political and personal agendas. The fanatical Taliban’s strict fundamentalist interpretation of the Quran is viewed by other religious and even other Muslims as a means of furthering their political agenda of creating a theocracy which they rule. Through their interpretation of the Quran, the Taliban impose their views on the people, views that justify torture and killing, as well as the oppression of women. Citizens are powerless to resist knowing that any opposition will be quashed and justified as being in the name of Islam. European countries such as the Poles, Hungarians and the Romanians have garnered much criticism over the years for allowing the Nazis during World War 2 to commit unprecedented acts of genocide on the Jewish people. Fearing for their own safety if they defied the Nazis, many European countries complied, which in turn led to the massacre of millions of Jews. In defence, these European nations rationalised that they had to submit as they were powerless to stop the Nazis. However, their passiveness is considered by many to be immoral and thus is believed to be as guilty as the perpetrators themselves.
The past reveals that it is difficult to prevent the escalation of conflicts, and that the negative consequences they cause do not simply end when peace is declared. Having been involved in civil wars to Western invasions over the centuries, true peace in today’s Afghanistan becomes increasingly unlikely. Conflicts in Afghanistan are self-perpetuating, and the consequences of one war will only breed the causes and conditions of the next. Najaf in the Rugmaker points out that Afghanis are so use to conflict that he knows men ‘who would be prepared… to commit themselves and a hundred generations of their family to battle, from now until the end of the world.’ Najaf’s understanding of conflict acknowledges its futility and tendency to ‘tear down every building,’ as they are generational and the negative consequences continuing after a tentative peace is achieved. The loss of human life impacts families as does the destruction of infrastructure that prevents people from living normal safe lives and achieving all forms of progress. The historical wrongs involved in the colonisation of Australia is an example of racism continuing to haunt the nation today, as aboriginal Australian continue to be marginalised and feel the effects of past racial conflicts, despite Rudd’s recent apology.
Though accustomed to a life of conflict, looking to the past can provide valuable insights as to how best resolve and prevent the instigation and escalation of conflicts. While conflict is an inherent part of being human, there are also ways in which individuals or nations can behave in order to minimise the damage conflict can inflict. History teaches that understanding causes of conflict and then practicing constant vigilance both as individuals and communities is the only way to avoid them or minimise their damage.
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