In order to define Structural violence, we would be looking at elitism, ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism, ageism, and discrimination based on dis/ability, and their definitions. Elitism is the belief that a selected group of elites has more influence and authority over the others. Their view on matters should be taken more seriously than the others, and their actions are to more constructive to the society as a whole.
Ethnocentrism is a belief in which one judge another culture based on one’s own cultural values and standards. It is judge on language, behavior, customs, and religion, these judgments often lead to a negative connotation. Classism is an act of discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes the system of policies and practice that would benefit the upper classes and take from the lower classes.
Racism is the prejudice of biological difference between people. It often leads to social practice, actions, or beliefs, to consider different races to be rank differently. Sexism is discrimination based on a person’s sex or gender. It might come from traditional stereotypes or gender roles. Adultism is the belief that adults have prejudice against young people. It leads to the social belief that an adult’s actions, ideas, and attitude is superior than those of youth.
Nationalism is the attraction of one to one’s nation, it involves national identity, unlike patriotism which involves social condition and personal behaviors. Heterosexism is the discrimination based on the identification that one if heterosexual, which is the norm and therefore superior. Ageism is the belief in discriminating against individuals or groups on their age often lead to prejudice against old people. Discrimination based on disabilities is a belief that individual or populations with disabilities are to be more inferior to the others.
Now explaining which of these, elitism, ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, adultism, nationalism, heterosexism, ageism, and discrimination based on dis/ability, is the most pernicious, we would create a terms of levels as to rank the which of these had the worst effect on humanity.
Ranking from the worst, racism, nationalism, ethnocentrism had caused the most disasters in the world. Nationalism is the cause of all wars between countries, and if the citizens of a country don't feel loyal to their country, the war wouldn't have probably happened. Any country that doesn't have nationalism in them either breaks apart easily or is already concurred by the other countries. Racism and ethnocentrism is accountable for initiating World War II when the Germans accused the Jews and conducted the genocide. Ethnocentrism and racism also lead to the massacre of Natives Americans in America, and other inferior groups.
The next level of how pernicious each structural violence is classism and elitism, they caused the uprising of the lower level classes in many cases in history. One case that happened recently and killed many people was probably the Arabian uprisings. Classism had caused the classes to be separate, and therefore rebellion takes place, and the most effective result of the rebellion is probably the fact that most countries in the world is democracy, stating the fact that everyone is equal.
Although the bottom level of the structural violence pyramid is not as harmful as the once listed previously, they had casted great harms on individuals in the human history. They are the adultism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, and discrimination based on disabilities. These structural violence did led to misery upon populations, but they hadn’t had enough record to be as harmful as the other levels of structural violence.
It would be great hardship to eliminate these forms of structural violence. But if it were to be eliminated at the different levels of analysis, I would start with global changes. To eliminate nationalism, racism, and ethnocentrism, the world would need to have an amiable diplomatic relationship that is started to build as counties globalize. The problem would soon be solved if the world were to become a global community. The hostilities between countries are acentric to solving nationalism, so at an interstate level of analysis, countries would need a complex interdependent relationship that would lead to peace.
In order to solve structural violence at a domestic level, states would have to eliminate some cultural traditions that lead to the idea of sexism, or to introduce a more non-sexism friendly idea. To get rid of heterosexism, one big factor to fight is religion that also led to sexism. It would be a time consuming project to alter thoughts, but as time had also proven, some homosexual priests are starting to be accepted into the community. To eliminate structural violence at an individual level, education would be the most effective way of spreading the idea that structural violence should be eliminated, like IR a course that discuss the importance to eliminate structural violence.