Orlando’s Pulse club had long been renowned locally as a place of love and self-expression, being a compact, upscale venue with chandeliers, mirrors and waterfalls among gold and metallic tones. On a typical Saturday night came the mass shooting that resulted in 49 casualties and several others injured, breaking this harmony and freedom the club had long enjoyed. June 12, 2016: a day that will forever endure in the tides of history.While offering our deepest condolences to the wounded and the gone, we saw a self-loving community who took care of each other despite the brutality of this shocking massacre. Underneath this image of chaos is the clash between a tightly-knit minority community characterized by sexuality and an armed force driven by extreme fundamentalism. This is just one of the many collisions that has been happening around the world, with the frequency and, unfortunately, impact of collisions increasing as the year goes on. Although we live in a more peaceful time compared to war-torn 20th century, we increasingly witness more comparatively small-scale yet traumatic conflicts between communities with opposing or diverse values and principles. Up till the Cold War, the idea of a clash of civilizations was unseen and unheard of. Samuel P. Huntington posted a forward-thinking idea in his book A Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order that alignments defined by ideology and superpower relations are giving way to alignments defined by culture and civilization. In today’s world, cultural communities are replacing Cold War blocs, and the fault lines between civilizations are becoming the central lines of conflict in global politics. Whether it be the LGBTQ community, the Islamic State (IS) or other religious groups, or other groups with specific agendas, these newly emerging communities with principles, values and orientations different from the status quo pose new threats to the legitimacy of the majority. The minority, or groups with less influence in the global culture, often involve themselves in negotiations, and sometimes resort to terror as in the case of IS, to gain more power and status and further their goal.To further investigate, understanding underlying contradictions between different cultures is the center of tackling such issues. Often we find ourselves caught in political games of choosing sides and telling “right” from “wrong”. Dogmatically accepting political correctness blinds us from approaching the core of conflicts: a division of cultural systems . In reality, rather than rushing to judge minority groups with the majority’s standards, we should bear in mind that any standard would lose its validity without its cultural backgrounds and contexts. Based on different logic or rule, one may come to even conflicting conclusions about the legitimacy of a minority group. For example, it is hard to challenge and revise the established values that have existed for centuries about the taboos on same-sex relationships. The LGBTQ community has long been suppressed by religious fanatics and even often brutally treated with violence, as in the case of the Stonewall Riots in 1969. The existence of same-sex relationships and behavior contradicts the doctrine of some religions, yet the phenomenon can neither be ignored nor proven wrong rationally. Is the fact that Mother Nature allows such diversity to exist not proof that it must be natural, or at least tolerated? There is no reason to connected evil with the LGBT community. Quoting Shakespeare, “...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (Hamlet, Act 2, Scene II). Thus understanding the system of culture before jumping to conclusions should be a stepping stone to confronting the clash.The digital revolution of the 21st century has severed the collision of cultures into a more complicated and uncontrollable issue. Gone are the days when superpowers and mainstream culture dominated the globe. The efficiency of the internet and the immensity of information it delivers empowers cultures that have previously been oppressed or in the minority to emerge and thrive. On the other hand, there are several downsides to a more open internet, such as terrorist groups that use the internet to gain followers. Exposed to enormous data on the web, netizens are extremely vulnerable to radical opinions which increases the chances of being manipulated. Since the beginning of the 21st century, “the battle”, which was previously between Cold War Blocs, has shifted into a dubious and unknown direction. It’s no longer just a competition between military forces, but now also includes a “battle” of opposing cultures (for example the Civil Right Movement), a “battle” of binary systems (such as terrorist organizations using internet to recruit members), and a “battle” for the union of several, though different, cultures. The past months have seen Britain exit the Europe Union, a massacre at an Orlando gay club, tragic terrorist attacks at several locations, and many more mishaps and discouraging events around the world. With the unstable state of regional conflicts filling the screen, it is high time for our generation to dive into the opposing culture(s) or country(ies) to fully grasp their intention and standpoint. It is the basic rule of negotiation, yet it is easier said than done. This article was written by Daniel Huang. 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