‘Conflict is more often driven by self-interest than genuine sense of right and wrong.’ The Quiet American Essay

Conflict is more(prenominal) very much razzn by self- engross than genuine champion of right and wrong. disposition me a man who has no interest in his let good, and Ill show you a man who is not in touch with his bear pieceity. R. Alan Woods. Conflict can be driven by any sense whether it be greed, love, hate or lust, after all conflict occurs nevertheless when an mortal fingers something strong enough that they will not quell out front opposition in violation of this emotion, because of this assessing the or so(prenominal) frequent motive posterior conflict could be investigated by asking the question What emotion is the strongest and most frequent in humans? Doubtless, the answer to this question is relative to its target, a cynic might declare hate, a romantic love, a nationalist pride however all of these emotions can be elicited from twain(prenominal) self-centeredness and a sense of infringement of a individuals object lesson jurisprudence.Throughout the span of a humans life the iodine motive that remains central to a persons advent on life is the desire to fulfil champions owns emotions and take care of ones own interests, in Graham Greenes the Quiet American both Thomas Fowler and Alden Pyle act based on ain interest despite the usual contrast of both their emotions and their actions. Fowler desires Phuong out of a sense of loneliness and longing for companionship, whereas Pyle desires Phuong out of the desire for a wife and a desire fulfil the responsibilities placed on him by his culture, allowing his life in his point of view to be considerably improved, albeit with the significant addition of the finale of making Phoungs life better, which is similarly a manifestation of his own worked up need to rescue and help others, the fulfilling of which increases his emotional wellbeing.The desire to get along our own interest is the exponent that characterises most of our decisions, whether it is in the form of greater emotio nal comfort and wellbeing by carreling up against an usurpation in our moral code or the simple taking from the incapacitated for figure personal gain. It is for this reason, that conflict is more a good deal driven by expediency than a genuine sense of right and wrong. Catherine Susan deal Genoese was a New York City woman who was stabbed to demolition and repeatedly raped near her home. Investigations recorded 38 witnesses, none of whom attempted to assist sess personally and only one whom called the police, afterwards stating I didnt essential to get involved The incident of Kitty Genoveses death exemplifies the extraordinary lengths that humans can go in an attempt to impede self-loss even at the cost of anothers far more severe personal loss.By not acting these neighbors failed to stand up for their moral code and in doing so failed to act on behalf of what they presumably believed to be right at the cost of another s life, this also establishes the ability of egoce ntrism to not only drive conflict in the air that self-interest allowed the event to occur on the side of the attacker, who was probable motivated by lust or anger, provided to also reject opposing action in bystanders out of a fear of personal loss.The actions the witnesses of Kittys fate took mirror the attitude of a broad degree of the human populations attitudes. Historically, few stand up for their beliefs and moral code at great personal risk, the strength of self-preservation Is too strong for most , for every hero that acts, hundreds of bystanders fail to act. The existence of heroes Itself is deduction that humans often fail to act in times of conflict, after all if at that place was more populate who acted in times such as Kittys murder compared to those who failed to act then the heroic deeds of people such as Sophie Scholl who sacrificed her life for the sake of a moral regulation would become commonplace, merely regarded as a slight extreme form of the normal reaction.Instead these people are revered for their courage, having books written and movies wrote active them, while these people likely deserve such images and their actions are evidence of either an increased emotional sensitivity or little direct self-interest it reflects very poorly on the rest of the populations courage and willingness to stand up for what they believe in. Behind every action is an corresponding emotion , meaning the intent of every action is to fulfil our emotion, not to respond to some moral code or the unfairness of life or the cruelty of another, acting on our emotions is in fact an just about only if self-orientated activity .People love others not for who they are but for how they guess them feel said Irwin Federman.When a man acts to shelter a child it is not the fact that the child is in harms way that drives him into sheltering the child, but the emotion that the man feels upon sight of an exposed child, in this way in order to commit actions wi thout a self-driven motive a person needs themselves to either have no emotion or no emotional fulfilment, however exceptions to this could possibly be shown by the actions of individuals such as Hugh Thompson Jr, who risked his life for the sake of others lives through his actions in the Vietnam war, namely intercepting his own mash in an attempt to circumvent the massacre of hundreds of innocents.It is possible however for an individual to enter conflict with an self-orientated aim and transition throughout the conflict into upholding moral principles and beliefs that may directly oppose the individuals initial viewpoint. Demonstrated best by Oskar Schindler these peoples sense of right and wrong eventually conquers the greed and self-interest they feel until they abandon the hope of gaining for themselves and embrace the hope of upholding what their moral code stipulates, Oskar Schindler entered the mho world war initially motivated by profit but in a display of commendable ten acity and moral righteousness saved over a thousand Jewish workers in insubordination of the Nazi regime.The selfish nature of emotions also suggests that if emotions are the driving force of action and the individual fulfils the actions his emotions desire out of a need for emotional wellbeing then the majority of actions are driven by self-interest on one level or another, and that since conflict is the result of 2 opposing actions and that the motive of self-interest contains all other emotions and so in a way conflict can be driven by both self-interest and a genuine sense of right and wrong, that a majority conflict must be driven by self-interest.In conclusion, conflict is driven in the most part by self-interest but this is also true of almost every other action. The spectrum of emotions that self-interest encompasses is vast enough to include almost every emotion that an human can experience since actions are driven by emotions and conflict by both actions and emotions th e cause of conflict can, in the majority of cases be traced patronage from the action to the emotion behind it to the drive that causes humans to fulfil the actions their emotions demand. This drive can be identified as self-interest, in this way almost all conflicts can be traced back to self-interest as both a catalyst and a driving mechanism