Perspective

We make judgments everyday in our lives, whether we mean too or not. These judgments are not necessarily unfair or unjust,  they are simply based on how we see things through our eyes, our perspective on them, and we sometimes forget to look at the big picture. Many events, appearances, and interactions between two different parties are often seen quite different by each one respectively, and other outside parties could see it different ways as well. This difference in perspective is what causes many conflicts and contentions between two or more people at its most subdued level, and between two or more nations at its extreme. The biggest problem with perspective is that most people tend to believe what they see and fail to review the situation from someone else's point of view and therefore do not understand the contingencies and the disputes that arise, due to people's ignorance. An excellent example is Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, which uses a difference in perspective to help drive the plot and also shows just how bad things can go wrong when different parties each have different perspectives, or outlooks, on life and they clash with immense implications and consequences. In this book, we see multiple coups and religious-based factions uprising in the country of Afghanistan, including the Mujahideen and the relentless Taliban. The differences of each of these groups, in terms of perspective, are what causes their immediate loathing of each other, the Mujahideen with their very "hands on" approach of dealing with opposing views, the constant bombing and gunfire, which is somehow supposed to eventually create peace. Then there is the Taliban who were born solely based on the opposition of the Mujahideen and we see this in the "Taliban Rules" where women are given nearly no rights and extreme punishments are the consequences for even petty crimes. Also, when we see the Taliban rise to power and the Mujahideen look to the United States for help, this in the Taliban's eyes is a direct threat   on their belief and we see what pursued the U.S. helping the Mujahideen with the occurrence of 9/11. However, few people realize that the Taliban, although their views are extremist and in our eyes, erratic and ridiculous, are very passionate in their beliefs and religion and since our involvement in the conflict was seen as a threat, they responded with an action that was, although extreme, what they deemed as an appropriate warning. The U.S., seeing only one side of the conflict, immediately leaps into action instead of assessing the situation and the differences of our cultures and then proceeding from there. This has taught us a valuable lesson on how people's customs and beliefs and outlook can be viewed in a completely different manner from both sides.