The Struggle for Power at the Cost of Human Lives

A small group of people within a society may, based on their own beliefs and interpretations, decide to oppose the government. They may advance various demands: from the defense of language and culture to freedom, religion, justice, independence, or the rights of the people.

But a fundamental question arises: Why should the beliefs of a small number of people become a problem for which millions of others must pay the price? No government abandons its political system and governing structure merely because a group of people holds different views. In no society does the mere demand of a particular group legitimize fundamental changes to the political system.

If every group that succeeds in gaining a certain number of followers considers itself representative of the people and, in pursuit of its objectives, draws society into confrontation, violence, and instability, the result will be nothing more than the transfer of the costs of a decision made by a small minority onto millions of people.

The problem begins precisely here. A group starts with an idea; gathers followers; attracts young people; elevates that idea into a political identity; and then claims that it is fighting on behalf of the people.

But when did the people choose this path? Does every young person who joins a group because of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, or despair truly make a free and informed decision about their political future? Or have their circumstances become a starting point for the exercise of political power?

This is no longer solely a matter concerning the government.

It concerns the right of an organization to make decisions about the fate of others.

A group cannot turn its own idea into the destiny of an entire society simply because it believes in that idea. If people want change, that desire must be expressed through the general will and legitimate political mechanisms, not by a small number of self-appointed individuals who claim the final say over the future of millions of people.

And when a group resorts to violence in order to impose its will, who bears the cost? The power brokers within the organization?

Or the very people in whose name they claim to be fighting?

In many cases, the answer is clear: the people.

People become victims of conflict, young people become victims of ideas, families bear the costs, the economy suffers, poverty worsens, and a society that was supposedly meant to be saved in the name of freedom or justice can instead be plunged into years of instability.

Therefore, my concern is not only violence; it is political exclusivity: a small number of people who regard a particular belief as absolute truth, present themselves as representatives of the people, and then use others to implement that belief.

No group has the right to impose its beliefs upon society at the expense of others.

If an idea genuinely belongs to the people, it should be capable of winning their support without weapons, without intimidation, and without putting human lives at risk.

Otherwise, what is presented on the surface as a “struggle for the people” may, in reality, be nothing more than a struggle for power at the cost of human lives and their deception.

Author: Gouya Roshan

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