At the Heart of Conflict Is Fear

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At The Heart of conflict is fear When conflict erupts it can devastate individuals and community’s. It fractures families and causes long-standing animosity between nations and states. The underlying emotion at the heart of most conflict situations is fear. Whether it is the threat of dispossession, loss of friends or family or the fear of death itself, Fear almost always is at the centre of conflict. Those who are unable to navigate themselves through times of fear can most often expect to achieve a frightened illogical response. Many of those who experience conflict feel a sense of powerlessness and insecurity. As a result of their changed circumstances This generally is as a result of the fear they experience. “In the Rugmaker of Mazar-E-Sharif the protagonist Najaf sums up this state of mind when he realises, early in his rug making apprenticeship, that ‘this future of learning and gaining greater and greater skill all depended on things that I couldn’t control’. In order To cope, Najaf trains himself …‘not to think too far into the future’. Living with the fear conflict generates through war, therefore, changes how Najaf thinks. It also changes how he acts. It is explored throughout the novel that Najaf develops the instincts of a keenly aware animal. While hiding in the cupboard at Ashraf’s house Najaf and Gassem eat ‘in the way that wild animals eat, with our ears pricked for the sound of our enemies’. Najaf Proceeds to be’ always as wary as a wild animail’. His insecurity powerlessness resulting from fear causes him to go into survival mode. He becomes engulfed by conflict resulting in positive and negative psychological and physiological responses. Similarly in the ‘Crucible where good people are manipulated into doubting themselves resulting from theocracy. People were afraid of being falsely accused by

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