Ethnocentricity
is the natural favoritism of one's own ethnic group over
other ethnic groups wherein the individual cultural group's
values, norms and beliefs are seen as superior to all others.
While not as overt as racism, it can still cause problems
between members of different races or ethnic groups simply
due to the fact that the person simply believes that his
or her culture is better than the other. Racism obviously
causes problems in a similar but more open manner. The person
that looks down upon another person simply because of his
or her race is bound to cause problems any time he or she
interacts with another race. Neither of these problems would
disappear with the equal sharing of territory and resources.
A world that shares territory and resources must interact
as the territory and resources are not equally distributed
in every part of the world. It is within the context of
that interaction that ethnocentricity and racism would continue
to cause such problems as crime and war.
Religious
conflicts would also not be excluded by the sharing of territory
and resources. Throughout the ages, wars have been fought
based almost purely on religious beliefs. The early Muslim
holy wars or "jihads", the Christian Crusades
and various other wars based almost entirely on a desire
to convert the rest of the world to a particular religious
faith have raged throughout history. There are various reasons
that otherwise religious people believe that they must make
war in order to fulfill their religious beliefs. Some religious
writings, particularly the Quran, specifically mention making
war on all "infidels" that do not believe in its
teachings. An example of this is found in the Islamic extremism
of Osama Bin Laden and other Islamic militants who have
vowed to kill all "infidels" in declaring "jihad"
on all nonbelievers. Others can take religious writings
out of context to find that they "require" them
to convert others by whatever means are necessary. Certainly
there are many religions that focus on peace and harmony,
too many to mention here. But the sheer presence of any
religion that believes that others must be converted at
all costs ensures that even a world with equally divided
territory and resources will continue to suffer from crime
and war.
Finally,
mankind as a species too often suffers from the twin evils
of envy and greed. From the earliest days of humans, envy
and greed have caused conflict even when the two parties
involved don't really have anything that the other party
needs. Greed could probably be best defined as the desire
to have more than you actually need. Envy can be defined
as wanting something that someone else has, whether you
need it or not. In a perfect world, an equal division among
the world's population of both territory and resources would
solve these two problems. But humans are not perfect and
are not infallible. The saying "the grass is always
greener on the other side of the fence" is popular
for a reason. It is simply human nature to want what you
don't have. Dividing all territory and resources equally
cannot solve this problem.
The
human condition is part of what makes up human nature but
it cannot be considered as the full cause of the various
actions of human beings. History has shown that there are
other motivations for war and crime that spring not only
from an unequal division of territory and resources. The
distinctly human problems of ethnocentricity and racism,
religious conflicts, envy and greed will most likely always
give rise to crime and war.
