Each of Us Has the Power to Change the World

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the whole world has been seeking world peace harder than ever before. Ironically though, the world today has also seen tragic wars and conflicts that have the capability to destroy mankind. Possession of nuclear weapons, indiscriminate attacks against innocents, and abuse of human rights are the realities that we should not turn our back on but instead face up to. Strong individual, ethnic, and national identities sometimes lead to conflicts because they are entities which drive humans to become self-seeking, disrespectful, and often exclusionary. However, the process of becoming aware of individual identity also can result in the solution of international conflicts between people of different cultures and ethnicities. This happens because in the process of understanding who you are, you are also able to appreciate other people's identities. Hence, it is important for every single person, whatever culture or philosophy he or she possesses, to believe that an effort made by an individual can directly solve future conflicts between people, no matter what their ethnic differences.

One must understand conflicts to solve them. It is important to consider what they are, why they are, what characteristics they have, and how they can be categorized. Conflicts are natural among humans; people desire to protect their local society or, in the present, the international community. In fact, a conflict that maintains or eventually reunifies national identity is an advantage for human society.1 Imannuel Kant, an Enlightenment philosopher of the eighteenth century who strongly believed in international cooperation and peace, even stated, "All wars are so many attempts to bring about new relations among the states and to form new bodies...there is created a state that civic commonwealth can maintain itself automatically."2 In the same way, confrontation within a society sometimes has positive consequences. During the Civil Rights movement in the United States in the 1960s, African Americans were determined to draw a line between white people and themselves recognize themselves as an independent and equal entity. They suffered severe conflict to achieve this goal.

Conflict exists today because we have ethnic or cultural borders that are not only geographical (i.e. national borders) but also psychological. These boundaries are often mutable and situational, however. In fact, many anthropologists define ethnic identity and boundaries in different ways. One of the reasons for the different definitions is that people choose which ethnic identity to use based on context.