Divided Nation - Civil War in United States

The civil war era presents most unstable period in the history of America. During this period, the society was divided by slavery, sectionalism; where there was the emergence of differences in customs, social structure, economies, and political values in regions such as the North and the South. After the end of this era, the nation regained calmness and unity, until the emergence of the current society which hosts a skewed population, which exhibit division in social, political, and cultural aspects of the community. Consequently, the paper will examine how the state of the nation has worsened almost to match the civil war period and utilize sociological theories and concepts to explore such present occurrences.

The society has shifted from the principles of coexistence, and adopted the conflict approach, where the residents live on a competition basis, making it impossible to share the limited natural and artificial resources. Due to these factors, large structures or wealthy individuals have gathered more influence and power than others, and utilize them to uphold their status in the community. This has resulted in exploitation reports, and emergence of cartels that control the economy of the US. Thus, this has resulted in a wide gap between the rich and the poor in the society, where only a small portion of the economy utilizes the available resources. This indicates a shift from the structure-functionalism method, whereby the social institutions collaborate to meet individual and social needs of the nations population.

Additionally, the current society has developed a social structure, where they have less or no trust in the established institutions such as the media and the federal government. Such a trend has resulted in the emergence of features associated with the social constructionism, where the population focuses on the actions of various institutions, without considering the cause and effects. For instance, the society has condemned the move by the government to spy and track their calls and movements (Majdzadeh & Pourmalek, 2008). In such a case, there has been an emergence of the range between the citizens and the government, where the residents consider the action as interference with their privacy, without the consideration of other issues such as security enhancement.

Moreover, the causes of the civil war such as slave trade were sectionalism. Such concepts divided the society into various sub-sections and communities such as the blacks and whites, Muslims and Christians. These groups led to community disintegration, which resulted in a divided nation. Such occurrences have started to emerge in the current society, where an individual is treated by the racial presentation, spiritual orientation, and also the social class. Racism has become a prevalent trend in the nation, where even government officials can publicly condemn or insult a specific race or society. For instance, the black community has been experiencing increased levels of discrimination in the society. Such an occurrence defies the principles of structural-functionalism, which majors in the promotion of cohesion and internal stability between the communities in the country.

In conclusion, the paper has examined how the state of the nation has worsened almost to match the civil war period, and utilized sociological theories and concepts to explore such present occurrences. Issues such as unfair competition for natural resources has emerged as a major issue, where the influential individuals exploit the less fortunate and take their share of the natural resources. Additionally, the society has less trust in institutions such as the federal administration, and also the emergence of sectionalism by race. Such occurrences are almost identical to those in existence during the civil war era, thus exposing how the society has worsened toward such levels.

References

Majdzadeh, R., & Pourmalek, F. (2008). A conditional probability approach to surveillance system sensitivity assessment. Public Health, 122(1), 53-60. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2007.04.011.