Oppression and Humiliation in Conflicts - Article Example

Introduction Conflict is natural disagreement resulting from individuals or groups that differ in beliefs, attitudes, values or needs. It can originate from discomfort from fear of the unknown, past enmities and personality differences, when one’s values and perspectives are threatened, lack of fulfillment and negotiations before the right timing or before needed information is available. It is a state of opposition, antagonism or discord, which can be either internal or external. We can also define conflict as a part of disagreement that arises when there is actual or perceived opposition of opinions, needs, values and interests. According to Johnson, conflicts are inevitable and without proper resolution, they can result in stress or tensions among stakeholders in the society. When an interpersonal conflict occurs, it has broader effects and can adversely affect many individuals and relationships other than the two individuals involved. Deutsch’s typology of conflicts includes vertical conflict, which is conflict existing objectively and is perceived accurately, contingent conflict, which depends on an easily altered aspect of the environment, and displaced conflict in which the participants argue about the wrong thing. It also includes misattributed conflict where conflict occurs between the wrong parties and over the wrong issues, latent conflict, which is a conflict that should be occurring but is not and false conflict where there is no objective basis for a conflict at all. Conflict can be either destructive or constructive. Conflict has destructive results if its participants are dissatisfied with the outcomes and that the conflict has made them lose. A conflict has constructive consequences if the participants are satisfied with the outcomes and feel the conflict has made them gain. One can determine a course that a conflict takes using several variables such as the personality of the participants including their strategy and tactics, aspirations and objectives, beliefs about conflict, morals and motivations, physical, intellectual and social resources and power relationships. Other determinants are participants’ prior relationship to one another, the nature of the issues giving rise to the conflict, the social environment within which the conflict occurs, the interested audiences to the conflict, strategy and tactics employed by the participants and the consequences of the conflict to each of the participants and the other interested parties. Adverse effects of conflict include hampering productivity, lowering people’s morale and causing inappropriate behavior. They also cause more and continued conflicts. Conflicts however have many potentially positive outcomes. For example, they bring the development of solutions, help establish groups and personal identities, stimulate interest and curiosity, prevent stagnation, help raise and address problems, energize work to be on the most appropriate issues, help people to learn how to recognize and benefit from their differences among others (McNamara, para2). Some conflicts endure and lead to repeated cycles of escalation and violence. Eventually, they may stabilize as malignant social processes, which have a powerful emotional component that contributes to their endurance .They, also vary over time by their degree of destructiveness. The intensity of the conflict raised depends on the extent to which the cause of the conflict affects the party involved. It is important to note that conflict is not always the problem but the problem comes in when a conflict is poorly resolved or managed. Below is a discussion on humiliation and oppression, which shows how both relate to conflict. Humiliation is the act of putting down, holding down and rendering a person helpless in such a way that he or she is not in a position to resist the debasement. It is a complex phenomenon whereby acts and feelings can occur without the involvement of shame. The victim is made helpless, acted upon and forced into passivity (Deutsch, para1). Humiliation can further be defined as a complex cluster of acts, feelings, and institutions that entail the legitimate or illegitimate holding down of a person or the forceful lowering of a person, a process of subjugation that takes away ones pride, honor or dignity (Lindner, para2). Further, humiliation means being placed against ones will, in a situation where one is made to feel inferior. Humiliation is a profoundly violent psychological act that instills a deep wound to the psyche of the victim (Rosenberg, para1). Linder states that humiliation is the necessary concept for defining victim hood as victim hood and is the key ingredient that makes conflict comprehensible and thus preventable and manageable. She adds that victim hood at the hands of fellow human beings must entail the notion of humiliation. Further, she asserts that feelings of humiliation are the strongest and can permeate ones life with an all-consuming intensity. To her, they are the most potent forces that create differences among people. Scholars also describe humiliation as a loss of face. Face is the positive social value a person wishes to attain in a social interaction. Feelings of humiliation arise when people become aware of human rights values. However, it is important to note that humiliation is not always intentional. It may be a result of misunderstandings or may emerge when people wish to help but fail to realize that their help brings humiliation. Some scholars say that there is a link between humiliation, violence, aggression and malignant narcissism arguing that a person who is under shame and humiliation may develop narcissistic rage and acts of aggression to increase self-worth and lessen pain. Different people respond to humiliation differently. Some deal with feelings of humiliation violently while others choose peaceful struggle. In an attempt to change a system of humiliation, peoples rage may overflow resulting in an eruption of a violent conflict including large-scale atrocities such as terrorism or even genocide. Therefore, to reduce violence between and within groups and nations, people should understand the role of humiliation as one cause of violence. Deutsch further argues that humiliation best explains why violence and terrorism are prevalent within and among nations. There are basic elements that make up humiliation experiences, which include feeling demeaned, feeling excluded, loss of face and violation. The dynamic of humiliation is the most important factor in sparking and fanning the flames of conflict between individuals, groups and even entire nations. The offended parties maintain vendettas that bridge lifetimes, handed down like precious heirlooms from one generation to the other. Humiliation also fuels revenge (Reiss, p.75-78). Most scholars contend that extreme reactions seen in many conflicts are primarily based on emotional responses, which are characterized as moral emotions that motivate moral behavior. One key moral emotion is humiliation, a particularly toxic emotion and is destructive to oneself and ones group. In the recent past, humiliation has received attention in research and in the popular media. The psychology of humiliation indicates that humiliation has a central function in intractable conflict. Oppression, which Deutsch depicts as related to humiliation, is the experience of repeated, widespread and systemic injustice. It refers to the vast and deep injustices some groups suffer because of assumptions and reactions of well-meaning people in ordinary interactions, which are often unconscious. The media and cultural stereotypes and the structural features of bureaucratic hierarchies and market mechanisms often support these assumptions and reactions. We can further define oppression as the placing of a burden on a person or persons unjustifiably by interfering with their interests, powers or opportunities. It is keeping a person down by unjust use of force or authority. It may be deliberate or unintended and one may recognize it for what it is, or it may even go un-remarked by its victims. Oppression is not always extreme, violent and does not always involve the legal system such as apartheid or slavery. Deutsch agrees with the use of the term civilized-oppression to characterize the everyday processes of oppression in normal life. This form of civilization is implanted in unchallenged habits, norms and symbols, in the assumptions underlying institutions and rules, and the collective effects of adopting those rules. Most serious and enduring conflicts in the world such as racial conflicts, religious conflicts, conflicts between citizens and their dictatorial governments, conflicts between employees and employers among others result from oppression (Deutsch, Para1). The aftermath of oppression is an objective conflict of interest between the oppressor and the oppressed. The conflict may be overt and active where the oppressor seeks to defend his or her advantages against the attempt by the oppressed to do away with the injustices or latent, where the oppressed lacks an activating political cognizance of the possibility of overcoming oppression. In most cases, active conflict between the oppressor and the oppressed takes a destructive course. This is partly because the oppressor justifies his or her advantages whereby he or she believes that it is his or her due since he or she is superior and the oppressed inferior. It is also partly because when the oppressed develop an active political awareness of his or her oppression, he or she also becomes more aware of his or her feelings of humiliation and rage toward the oppressor. This awareness sometimes makes the oppressed desire to humiliate and to revenge against the oppressor. Another reason as to why oppression often leads to destructive conflict is that the oppressor fears experiencing humiliation from the rage and revenge of the oppressed. In the same way, the oppressed not only seek to overcome the oppression but also fears that his or her attempts to do so will lead to attacks by the oppressor. These two groups therefore experience the conflict as a win-lose conflict. Deutsch points out various factors that contribute to the maintenance of oppression. The superior power of the oppressors greatly contributes to the maintenance of oppression. They possess high effective power to dominate, control or exploit the oppressed whose power is insufficient to prevent such exploitation. Their power comes from such resources as intelligence, knowledge, wealth, status, organizational skills, respect, affection, weapons and reputation of being powerful among others. These increase their chances of getting what they desire. The next factor is the social production of meaning in the service of legitimating oppression where various institutions of society and aspects of its culture utterly declare the superiority of the oppressors identity. The oppressors use science, the law of nature, history, language, the criteria of art, the social institutions of society and the will of God to justify their superiority and to despise or minimize the identity of the oppressed. The other factor is the self-fulfilling prophecies arising from oppression, which support the myths of intellectual, moral and motivational superiority of the oppressors. Since societies have ways that make life relatively easy for the oppressors and relatively difficult for the oppressed, the oppressed have deficiencies that permit the oppressors to justify their oppression by labeling the oppressed as dumb, immoral or lazy. Distorted relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor is another factor that contributes to the maintenance of oppression. Usually, the oppressed is dependent upon the oppressor. If the oppressed has needs, which the oppressor strongly disapproves and denies him or her right to express his or her desires, the oppressed becomes frustrated, angry and anxious. To reduce the anxiety aroused by the temptations to manifest his or her desires, the oppressed builds and internal barrier to his or her expression and internalizes the threat through identification with the oppressor. The oppressed becomes guilty, develops rage, self-hatred for having the desires and for abandoning himself or herself and a sense of moral superiority towards the oppressor who is responsible for his or her self-abandonment. The result of all these is that the oppressed becomes depressed, submissive and obedient to the oppressor as they interact or when in oppressive situations. On the other hand, the oppressor’s need to control and dominate the oppressed and his or her intolerance of the autonomy of the oppressed makes him or her dependent upon having vulnerable weaker victims for the definition of his or her own power. Deutsch points out various strategies through which one can overcome oppression. He suggests power strategies for the oppressed where apart from resigning into depression, they can increase their relative power by either enhancing their own power or decreasing the power of the oppressor. There are also persuasion strategies aimed at convincing the oppressor to change in order to reduce or eliminate oppressive practices. He also urges people to awaken their sense of injustice. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is evident that humiliation and oppression lead to enduring, intractable and destructive conflicts. When people are oppressed and humiliated, they react violently out of a desire to revenge and in turn subject their masters to the same or even worse conditions. This has led to extreme conditions such as genocide or massacre in some countries. Works cited Deutsch, M. Oppression and Conflict, (2005). Retrieved 20th March, 2009 from: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/oppression_introduction/ Johnson, D.W. Academic Controversy: The Value of Conflict, (1997). Retrieved 20th March, 2009 from: http://www.ntlf.com/html/pi/9710/johnson_1.htm Lindner, E.G. Dynamics of humiliation in a globalizing world, (2007). Retrieved 20th from: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-34226204_ITM McNamara, C. Clarifying Confusion about Conflict, (1997). Retrieved 20th March, 2009 from: http://managementhelp.org/intrpsnl/basics.htm Rosenberg, S. Humiliation [1], (2003). Retrieved 17th March, 2009 from: http://crinfo.beyondintractability.org/essay/Humiliation/ Read More