The Causes of Division in Society
· Religion – Due the controversy that it always elicits when discussed, religion has become one of the most divisive themes in modern society and one of the main contributors to society’s tribal nature.
Ex. Continuing conflict between a Jewish Israel and its Muslim neighbors
· Politics – Though routinely discussed in society, politics has always divided society into at least two groups, those that agree with the current authority and those that do not. However, due to both sidesstanding staunchly against the other, believing that they are in the right, rarely are far reaching decisions between groups reached, which leads to nothing being accomplished.
Ex. Constant bickering between the major American political parties; The damaging division of the Democratic party between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton
· Entertainment – Entertainment allows regular members of society to distract themselves from their everyday lives. But rival groups jockeying for superiority over each other has caused society to choose sides, especially in sports.
Ex. Yankees Empire vs. Red Sox Nation; Inter-city rivalries in cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles where more than one group exists within one realm of entertainment
· Education – Not so much about how the way people are educated divides them, but about the educational environment that exists in modern society. In many places, the student body inevitably splits up into various “cliques” that, unfortunately, define how a person is viewed by others and how a person views themselves.
Ex. The various groups of jocks, goths, “mean girls”, etc that develop in the high school setting
· Economics – Throughout history, societies has divided themselves under class systems based upon one’s possessions. The quest to better one’s economic standing has led to a modern society based on greed and “me”, which has led to lack of a shared value structure that can unite the many groups within society.
Ex. The continuing conflict between the upper and lower classes of society.
I do not believe that religion is a main cause of individualism. Maybe if anything, the only problems we have are that which involve disputes over gay marriage. But in other countries, where religion is the way of government, the people are so divided in those countries. Why do you think we are still in Iraq? Iraq would fall apart if we weren’t there and they would be easy targets for surrounding countries. At least in America we can practice whatever religion we want.
*I had a whole argument for you that I spent 20 minutes typing, but I didn’t put in my email address, so the next page told me to enter my email address so I had to press back on my internet explorer, and I lost the whole thing. So this is just the main part of my argument. sorry
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