Everyone responds to conflict according to their values

People react to conflict due to their values. In the novel ‘Every Man In This Village Is a Liar’ Megan Stack has allies who make an oath to protect her at all cost. A person’s values may also include, they would never physically hurt another person and they are against it then in times of conflict due to their values despite whether it is a physical conflict or something else they wouldn’t resort to physical harm. Another major conflict issue is honestly within war and everyday life.

Stack is offered protection for when entering The Middle East by her friend Zaman because Stack will be experiencing a lot of external conflict upon entering Afghanistan. “He was solemn. “I take your life on my honor,” he said from the heights of his mountainous nose. “They will have to kill me before they can harm you.” Zaman wants to help Stack be safe when in Afghanistan so she can successfully do her reporting.

The Marine’s values would have been different if the person instead of Stack was a Middle East Arab. People’s values may not change even if they are experiencing conflict. As an election was going on Stack wanted to report on what is happening during the election however Stacks camera is taken off her. Stack resists and fight back to retrieve her stolen camera. “Sahafiyeh!” I yelled, digging around in my jeans pocket for a press credential.” Journalists! Give us the camera back!” Due to Stack being in a sticky situation with her camera being taken off her she tries to attack back to obtain her camera, but really this is not a value that Stack would often preach. Sometimes when people fear for their life they will change their values to survive without even thinking about it.

For an example when Stack and Nora were in a storekeepers shop a man was getting beaten up by the storekeeper man, because the guy getting bashed committed a crime of some sort. “Somebody was shouting and we turned to see a shopkeeper holding a demonstrator by the collar, punching in the face, over and over. “Get out of my store!” This external conflict responds to the storekeeper’s value because he feared for his life and demanded that the man leave the store, why is why he responded to that conflict due to his values. Stack explains to the audience that the Americans honestly are not fully truthful. The US government created a myth that they are the good people and all the people in the Middle East are evil and deserve to have havoc wreck upon them. “American officials talked about ‘the enemy” and “the evildoers” and it sounded odd, empty, like a legend.”

This is trying to show that nobody can always tell the truth as individuals or as a nation hence is why Megan Stack named her book “Every Man In This Village Is a Liar.” Once American civilians learnt that everyone in the Middle East was corrupt and evil the way they responded to conflict was changed due to their values being covered with lies. It is more likely that people’s values will change according to the different type of conflicts they face. Stack’s friend’s values changed due to wanting her to survive being in the Middle East, some people did not want to physically harm others however some people did only when they felt like their life was in threat. People are likely to agree that everybody acts differently to conflict based on their values.