Week 11 blog - "Conflict" / posted by So Jeong Yeon (연소정)

 

Introduction

 

In this week's class, we studied Conflict. It refers to some form of friction, disagreement, or discord arising within a group when the beliefs or actions of one or more members of the group are either resisted by or unacceptable to one or more members of another group. Groups with differing wishes each believe that the other will act or is acting against them, and engage in behavior seeking to damage the other group. In reality, we can see that conflicts occur on micro scale and macro scale. Nowadays, you know, terrorism which is one of conflicts has become a hot issue in many countries. It is a global issue. In this week, I want to post about this on blog.

 

 

My answer of the question

 

 

Q. Why is terrorism seen as such a danger, if so few people have been affected by it?

 

 

Terrorism is commonly defined as violent acts intended to create fear, perpetrated for an economic, religious, political, or ideological goal, and which deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants such as neutral military personnel or civilians. (You can see more in here)

     

  

Terrorism seems as a danger. I think we actually shake with fear when we heard the news of terrorism. However, Many scholars argue that risks of terrorism and cyberterrorism have been greatly overstated. In fact, Many people are killed in car accidents rather than incidents of terrorism. Then, why is terrorism seen as such a danger? There are some reasons of that.

 

 

The 911 terror

Wikimedia Commons

      

First, the aspect of incident is different. Terrorism is frightening and the results are horrifying. It takes on frightening aspect like a war. The terrorists can shoot a gun and drop a bomb. We think terrorism can grow into a battle between nations. On the other hand, the result of traffic accident is also terrible but it isn't like a war. It is a kind of individual accident.

 

      

Secondly, we don't know exactly the cause of terror. Terror has not happened by accident and can arise from a variety of causes - economic, religious, political, or ideological goal- but when it happens we can't explain simply about that incident because of complexity and shifting sands. Also, anyone is at risk of a potential terror target. In the past, 911 terrorism which had caused total chaos of the whole U.S, resulted in violence that kills innocent civilians. However, when car accident happens we can comprehended the causes of it. The accident can be due to the carelessness of the driver or bad road conditions. So we can reduce the number of car accidents if we are careful. But terrorism seems unpredictable and out of control as indeed it is.

 

 

NYC WTC

Wikimedia Commons

 

Finally, the number of deaths by traffic accidents is high but it don't be released in the media whenever it happens. By contrast, the press reports widely on the terror even if one incident happens. So we can see a special bulletin about terrorism on TV. In result, we perceive that a car accident is an everyday happening but less dangerous and that terrorism is an exceptional accident and so dangerous.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion  

We studied what are the characteristics of terrorism through discussion up to here. Analyzing the causes of terror deeply and looking for ways to prevent terrorist attacks remains an issue on which we need to do more. Because terrorism is a worldwide problem that needs to stop.