The Nature of Conflict

The first international peace conference was in 1899. It didn’t work.

Man has been at war forever. Brother against brother, tribe against tribe, city against city - if there is an “other,” there will be conflict.

While most of us denounce war and violence, conflict is the very nature of existence. An object at rest will remain at rest, unless acted on by an unbalanced force (according to Newton), and nothing is truly at rest. Everything is vibrating at a particular frequency - all the time. From subatomic particles to planets, nothing is still. Everything is in motion, and civilizations are no different.

Force must act on a particle for it to move along an electromagnetic field. It must be pushed forward along the field while it moves perpendicular to the field on its own. No matter how much the particle insists on going one way, it will end up going in a circle along the field because of the force being applied to it.

In the same way, the forces of life direct us, steering the wheel as we step on the gas. An opposing force that is strong enough will shift our direction.

In martial arts, the force imposed by an opponent should be redirected rather than resisted. Allowing the force to change your angle by pivoting magnifies the effect of a technique by adding rotation. Your opponent’s excessive aggression becomes your ally. Resisting the force of that aggression is turning down your opponent’s gift to you (rude), and results in inefficiency.

Positive and negative are arbitrary. Opposite ends of the same object must be identified for there to be any relationship between the two, be it attraction or repulsion. Up needs down, day needs night, and on needs off in order to exist. Everything is only identified through contrast.

Good or bad are moral judgements that are not absolute, and connot exist without each other. The tug of war of conflict is like a saw scraping back and forth against the trunk of an oak tree. Though the saw moves in two directions, the tree is sure to fall only one way. What appear to be opposing forces are actually working toward the same goal.

Conflicts between nations shift the balance of power for a time, before a new conflict shifts it again. Each shift allows a new group of people to introduce their worldview as the dominant presence in human civilization. Without these periodic global tranformations, the multidirectional expansion of humanity would not be possible.

We must see the world through different eyes to understand it better, and power is sometimes the only thing that gets ideas heard and ideals accepted. Christianity was a fringe sect that was illegal to practice, until Emperor Constantine converted from Paganism after winning the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. Whether that was due to seeing a vision of a Christogram in the sky, or because it was a shrewd political move, the Christian movement would not have grown the way it did without Constantine’s powerful support.

Often, what seems good turns out to cause havoc, and what seems bad becomes a blessing in disguise. For the most part, history is pretty murky when it comes to good and bad. Take a look at the enumerable contributions that Genghis Khan made to civilization - and the unspeakable atrocities he committed. God was behind tons of war in the bible, giving commands for lands to be taken and people destroyed by other people. You can’t get any more Good/Bad than that.

The world order is altered periodically in a predictable way, according to leading investor Ray Dalio (and psychologist Carl Jung). Understanding these cycles and using them to predict financial markets is a major reason Dalio says he has been able to amass his staggering wealth. Accepting change is a first step in being wise enough to anticipate change. A surfer won’t ride a wave he doesn’t see coming. He won’t be in position to get on his board just at the right time if he’s not looking out for the next bomb. When he sees it coming from a distance, he starts paddling.

The need for the other to be the catalyst for action is also inherent in our internal conflict. We all feel like there is a good and bad voice inside of us. This battle keeps us in motion, going one way or the other - making choices.

The encouragement provided by your angel and your devil is just to get you moving. Whether you choose right or left, you are still headed to the same place. We all are.

You’ll move in circles forever until you get there, feeling as if you’re making progress half the time, and moving backwards the other half. Time seemingly marches on as you judge the outcomes of your decisions as good or bad.

But an electron is only negative because it moves from right to left in an electromagnetic field, and a proton is only positive because it moves from left to right. There is no judgement. Night is preferable to day to nocturnal animals, and most humans wouldn’t appreciate life at all if they didn’t have death to contend with.