Psychology of the image of the enemy in mass consciousness

Sociopolitical confrontation, which is based on the existence of contradictions and clearly expressed conflict of an interregional, interstate and global nature, can lead to direct physical and mental violence. The basis of any military confrontation is the struggle for resources and the possibility of possessing them. Material (natural) resources, as well as spiritual, intellectual assets, and ideological convictions act as resources that can be the subject of conflict. The motivational potential of waging war is always more powerful if the external, resource-based reasons for its occurrence are based on high ideological convictions that differentiate people into «own» and «foreign» people.
Military confrontation can take place in the physical, economic, cultural, socio-political and informational spheres. The integration and globalization processes of the 21st century, which despite everything (the struggle for resources, overpopulation of the planet) acquire a humanistic color, form in society a sharp and unambiguously negative attitude towards physical violence. Any physical aggression must be justified, especially when it is carried out within a territorially and socio-culturally integrated community.