How do we respond to injustice and inequality Is violence ever the answer free essay sample

According to the 2010 Oxford Dictionary, violence means ‘behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something’. I believe there are different ways through which we can respond to situations involving injustice and inequality; in some cases violence is the answer. We can see this through both fictional and factual evidence. Our world has gone through two main wars with fighting still continuing today, but has the way we have responded with violence to these injustices been correct? And is how we have reacted to situation in the past and present benefitting the cause? World War One began because of four main reasons: Militarism, Alliances, Imperialism and Nationalism. It was started because of a conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, which could have been resolved, by fair play and negotiation but both countries resorted to violence. Throughout the war, because of the decisions countries made, war was prolonged for longer than necessary. We will write a custom essay sample on How do we respond to injustice and inequality? Is violence ever the answer? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This is proven in a statement on behalf of soldiers by Siegfried Sassoon, an English soldier and poet during the First World War. Sassoon admittedly entered the war believing that the purpose was of ‘liberation and defiance’ (S, Sassoon) but after fighting he believed that the war had become one of ‘aggression and conquest’ (S, Sassoon). In his statement, he proclaims that the people who have the power to stop the war are prolonging it and a conclusion would now be attainable by negotiation. Violence was the only way to stop some countries’ thirst for power and control, but if the leaders of the time had seen that the war could have been finished through negotiation, many men and women lives would have been spared. World War Two was caused through bitterness after the ending of the First World War and a great economic depression. Another reason was the leaders at the time, for in the early 1930s, Germany was under the rule of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. Hitler had a plan to conquer Europe and began with Austria and Czechoslovakia, but another element was the extermination of the Jewish race. This forced the world back into war, for the only way to stop Hitler was through violence. The same went for the districts in the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The Districts suffered oppression and injustice from the ruling state, ‘The Capitol’, and the only way to earn freedom was to fight. In both these situations, violence was the only answer to end injustice and attempt to bring back equality for everyone. A situation occurring right now involving injustice and violence is the crisis in Syria. Syria is in the middle of an extremely violent civil war, with the latest attack using poisonous gas that killed over 1000 people. The United States of America speculates that president Bashar al-Assad is behind the attack and is using chemical weapons against civilians. Fighting between the Government military and rebels has killed more than 100,000 people and created 2 million refugees, half of whom are children. For this, The US and allies are preparing for a possible imminent series of limited military strikes against Syria but is violence the answer in this situation? I believe it is, for if the world turns a blind eye on the Syrian Government’s continuous attacks on civilians, people who cannot stand against them, thousands of innocent people could be killed. The only way to stop this injustice is for more developed and affluent countries to step in using military force. Others argue that because of suffering and loss, violence in war should never be the answer, but because of past historical evidence involving injustice and violence in our world, sometimes the only way to make peace and equality, is through violence and military force. In World War One, violence was not the answer in the end and resulted in the loss many lives but if we had said no to violence in World War Two, how many Jewish people would be left in the world and would Germany be controlling most of Europe? Like Syria and situations to come, we need to use our knowledge of past experiences to determine what is best for the people, the country and the peace, is violence the answer?