Causes of Violence in Culture - Essay Example

Causes of Violence in Culture Modern era looks undergoing an unabated increase in violence and aggression in almost all societies of the globe. It is predominantly the case with the multicultural societies of USA and Europe, where the people belonging to different ethnic, racial and religious groups and communities live in one and the same cultural environment and enter into interaction with one another (Kymlicka 2012). Though history is replete with the presence of violence in every society of the world since the known records of human life on the face of the earth; somehow, contemporary era has noticed the growth in violence among the members of various group and communities. It has led to the perturbed law and order situation in its wake. Hence, intolerance and prejudice observed by the modern societies have given birth to the concept of fanaticism and violence in the world. The contemporary era is aptly viewed to be the age of technological and nuclear advancements, which has turned life speedy, progressive and complicated one. Revolutionary alterations in the fields of communication, navigations and travelling have also played their significant roles in respect to creating multicultural societies (Macionis 2008). Since the people coming of rival ethno-racial backgrounds have settled in modern societies, situation of clashes between them is a normal factor. However, growth of clashes and conflicts between the communities results into turning the entire scenario violent and aggressive. Marxist perspective declares unjust and unequal distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities as one of the most dominant reasons behind the rise of conflict and antagonism between the groups and communities. The capitalist economic system, according to Marxism, creates an extremely unjust society, where the owners or producers of the agricultural or industrial units exploit the workers and laborers, called proletariat, by offering them very little amount out of the huge and heavy incomes and profits the agricultural and industrial units earn because of the hard toils made by the workers for the growth and development of those specific units. Since an overwhelming proportion of wealth and profit is taken by the ownership, by dint of the investment of money they have made, the laborers are deprived of their respective share against the investment of time, energy and labor they have made for the growth of that particular unit (Ritzer 2010). Consequently, sense of alienation haunts the minds of the laborers, workers and peasants, which start viewing their workplace to be just a source of exploiting their services. Since their workplace is unable to fulfill their financial and emotional requirements, they begin abhorring the entire exploitative system eventually. Hence, these feelings not only hurt their minds, but also tempt them to take revenge from such a cruel and unjust system. Thus, violence starts raising its head everywhere, challenging and putting the existence of the entire system into grave stake subsequently. Consequently, socioeconomic imbalances appear to be one of the most dominant reasons behind the upsurge of violence in all societies of the world without discrimination. Ethno-racial hatred and apartheid are also referred to be the most significant causes of growing violence in societies. It is particularly the case with the multicultural societies of USA and England. There was a time when the African Americans were looked down upon by the majority of the white people since their forced arrival in the USA as captives during 17th and 18th centuries onward as slaves, and were considered to be serving their white masters. Not only this that the blacks were deprived of every kind of rights and privileges, but also they did not have any spirit in respect of taking decisions about their personal life. Somehow, time took drastic turn, and the blacks started making silent but persistent struggle in order to win the rights equivalent to the white people. The denial made by Rosa Parks in respect of vacating seat in favor of a white passenger in December 1955 was a turning point in the history of struggle being made by the blacks (Parks 1999), which paved the way towards the blacks’ winning further rights, including the right to vote in the US society. However, the blacks started turning violent after the inclusion of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King by the beginning of 1960s as leaders of African American community. Till that period, the violence in various US states could be observed between the black and white racial groups on the basis of their ethno-racial differences. Another imperative reason behind the growth of violence in modern societies included the emergence of clashes between the civilizations because of religious differences. The chronicles of events that had taken place in the aftermath of WWI maintain the most decisive role in the increase in violence the world observes in almost all societies. Since the US-led Allies had inflicted harsh punishments and penalties on the vanquished Germany and its allies (Mahajan 2003), the Nazi Germany found the hand of the Jewish community behind the deterioration of German financial and political position; consequently, the Nazis inflicted cruelties on the Jewish community, which also resulted into aggravating differences between the communities. Since Germany once again lost the war against the Allies, the Jews were awarded an independent state at the heart of the Arab world in May 1948 against the services the community had rendered in order to ensure German defeat (Miller 2001). The establishment of the state of Israel gave birth to the clashes and bloodshed between the Jews and Muslims, where the extremist Muslims also adopted aggression and violence in order to stop the atrocities the Israeli forced had been observing against the unarmed Palestinians. Some of the Arab states secretly started funding the violent groups in the name of religion, which these extremist groups allocated in massacring their rival groups. On the one side, the extremists targeted the Twin Towers in September 2001, and on the other side these violent Sunni Muslims started killing the Jews, Christians, Shiite Muslims and other political and religious rivals just in the name of faith. Thus, violence appears to be encircling the entire globe under its clutches, turning the entire globe into an unsafe place to dwell. Thus, on the one side, the world witnessed the massive killing of the humans at the hands of the war-monger George Bush in Afghanistan and Iraq, and on the other side, the extremists belonging to Al Qaeda and Taliban inflicted mass murder of the non-Muslims and Shiite Muslims as well. As a result, the entire world looks the victim of intolerance, aggression and antagonism in the contemporary era. In addition, globalization and establishment of international markets at world scale have also created multinational corporate environment; as a result, the individuals with divergent ethno-racial backgrounds are rendering their services as professionals under one roof as colleagues and co-workers. Outsourcing also offers employment opportunities to the efficient, qualified and experienced professionals from foreign lands, which has not only put the explicit majority of the indigenous population in grave jeopardy, but also appears to be creating frustration and anger in their minds because of their being unable to avail themselves of the opportunities their social establishment should offer to them instead of the foreigners. As a result, the tension and resentment captures their minds, and they look for applying violent acts in order to capture all the wealth and resources attributed to their respective nations. To conclude, it becomes evident that social, economic, religious, racial, ethnic and political factors contribute to bringing unrest, chaos and violence in societies; it is particularly the case with the contemporary era societies of the world, where violence witnesses tremendous increase because of unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities on the one side and the prejudiced behavior observed by the powerful stratum against the weak on the other. There is an urgent need of entering into dialogues between the leaders of divergent groups of society, so that the violence could be eliminated from the world eventually. Works Cited Kymlicka, Will. Multiculturalism: Success, Failure and the Future. Transatlantic Council on Migration Institute. February 2012. Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/multiculturalism.pdf Accessed on 03-28-2013 Macionis, John J. Sociology: a Global Introduction. Prentice-Hall. 2008. Print. Mahajan, V.D. A History of Modern Europe since 1871. S. Chand Group. 2003. Print. Miller, David. The Cold War. Pimlico. 2001. Print. Parks, Rosa. Rosa-Parks-My Story. Puffin Books. 1999. Print. Ritzer, George. Sociological Theory McGraw-Hill. 2010. Print. Read More