Question

Describe some methods of social control in the U.S. and their pros and cons.

Answer 1

Social control in any society is a form to rules and regulation imposed by the authorities on its population to maintain a structure of cobtrol over a complex division of labor. Without it, a purge would break, where chaos and lawlessness would occupy the streets. The primary way of social control is the process of socialization which is an on going set of rules that an individual follows throughout his life, to be accepted as a civil member of the society. This is achieved by imposing a certain set of regulations (cultural, social,economic and psychological) on people to follow. This is practiced by directing people on how to act and what to think. For example, to promote skinny white skin woman with blue eyes and blonde hair as the epitome of beauty, the media icon and celebrities act as agent to promote the idea. This not only benefits the beauty industry who profits from the meaningless consumption of beauty products, but it also generates profitable revenue of the pharmaceuticals who earn by selling numerous drugs to women suffering from anxiety,depression,eating disorder due to unrealistic expectation from oneself as imposed by the society.There are both formal and informal kinds of social control that is prominent in America. Formal social cobtrol are set of rules produced and enforced by the government body to keep a check on its citizens. Legal, medical,food,military etc are examples of it. For example, in case of theft, a police intervenes and solve the crime to provide justice to the victim. However, this very involvement of police has its own cons. For example, recently when Americans took the streets to protest against the building of wall as proposed by Trump(which signifies racism and division), the police acted violently to control the protestors from going against those in power. Government agencies like NSA and CIA keep a close track of data on American population, from their location,tapping phone,contents on their personal computer to as simple as their movement. Now, this can aid in identifying any illegal activities going around in an area and arrest the offender in concern, but it also misuse our personal data to persuade the population to follow a certain political ideology and also violat our amendment rights of privacy.Social control was build essentially to avoid choas and lawlessness inour society, but it has become a weapon to control the mind of the population through manipulation and invasion of privacy.Therefore, it has become an active agent to sustain those in power and works for those in power.

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