These days, many countries small and large are coming face to face with turmoil within their own country confines. Some of these small skirmishes turn into large scale wars that last for years, even decades. It's very sorrowful to see civil wars happen because at times many precious cultural items are caught in the middle of gunfire and bombing, making areas not also dangerous, but devastated, and some violent acts eventually lead to all-out destruction. Small scale civil skirmishes often show up as interracial violence, armed terrorist conflict, and inter-faction fighting.
In this case it's useful to differentiate between the cause and the symptom of civil warring, which is something many people, including scholars, tend to overlook. For example, political violence obviously has its roots in dissatisfaction with political leadership or governmental positioning somehow. The bi-product is an all-encompassing civil tension that eventually stretches and bursts, exploding outwardly, and is most definitely a symptom of something deeper. We can almost for certain say it is not a cause of unrest that leads to wars. People are people and most of today's living of life with financial, educational, and familial burdens can bring unrest for one reason or another. But what, then, causes violence and civil unrest? Is it just political dissatisfaction? For me, no. I think political unrest is just the springboard bringing to light things that lie deeper. I believe unrest comes from two major factors: 1) Proximal distress, which is the inability to live within close proximity with one another. Here, people are not able to coexist readily with other people in close situations, and the closeness makes people react negatively outwardly. This also includes information explosion where one is so burdened by information overload that it makes one outburst negatively. 2) Financial and civil inequality, where the majority of people are dissatisfied with their financial and civil positions in life which also makes them react negatively because they feel as if they should have at least as much if not more than the general population. They feel they have been and continue to be treated unfairly which leads to negative outbursts as well. How then do we thwart the underlying causes of civil unrest? First of all we all should have more patience and compassion, and that includes governments. Civilians are important and are the major merit of any country. Without civilian life all countries would cease being countries, would they not? It's not until this point is solved that we can continue to move on in fruitful directions. Otherwise, we all might very well be doomed.
