Question

Make recommendations for the Louisiana governor by discussing any actual implementations of anomie theory and the overall effectiveness of such strategies that may have been used in prior implementation strategies. Be creative and discuss some possibilities that you may have in mind.

Answer 1

The idea of anomie means the lack of normal ethical or social standards. This concept first emerged in 1893, with French sociologist Emile Durkheim. Durkheim's theory was based upon the idea that the lack of rules and clarity resulted in psychological status of worthlessness, frustration, lack of purpose, and despair. For Durkheim, anomie arises more generally from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards, or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations.

Examples:

Urban areas with high-crime and low employment rates can lead to anomie’s extremes. In this scenario, society’s expectations (e.g. achieving the ‘American Dream’) are generally unachievable for members of these neighborhoods; leading to the breakdown of an individual’s bonds with their community.

Less extreme but more insidious mediums of anomie would be reality TV and social media’s contribution to moral decay. Reality TV, which is more ‘dystopian TV’ than it is reality, promotes social interaction that is the antithesis of a civil society. Lord of the Flies was a great book, but who would want to live that way? While the anonymity and lack of consequences that the internet affords has led to the advent of internet trolls that thrive on breaking social norms.

A poor person belongs to a society which places rich people at higher/better positions in hierarchy. Here , the poor person must earn to live a better life. But, there are no opportunities available for him to get anywhere in life, because he is poor.

As this society impels people to acquire wealth to be able to be accepted in that society but at the same time ,doesn’t provide opportunities / means for them to do so. The individual ultimately either succumbs to the feeling of worthlessness and commits suicide or he violates the norms and uses unfair practices to get where he wants to /he commits crime.

Thus social behaviors become unpredictable in such a society which lacks norms and regulations

Law, innovation, science, management, the business they all cause anomie, but they are accepted by our existing system. For example- if someone is seriously ill, what should one do? Should he give preference to rush the patient to the hospital and pay the fine later? Or should he follow the traffic rule, and let the patient die due to traffic rule at signal?

I found that if the workers work according to the rule made by the factory the production rate would become low, but the workers responded in their interview that if they work according to their own way without caring the rule they produce more, therefore the factory workers skip the rule, in order to meet the demand of production. So, this also is an anomie. Even today, where there has been no research in agriculture, it would be difficult and impossible to feed around 8 Billion people on the planet. Research made possible to reduce the number of irrigation, decreased the size of the stem in crops, reduced the number of periods of time taken, etc. In the same way, what a lawyer does in court? He defends a criminal in the court and puts the criminal charges on the person, who may not have committed the crime.

Management practice also does the same management efficiency is not merely the minimizing and utilizing the resources but also by reducing the costs- especially the labor cost in handling the production and distribution process. Anomie is accepted and an integral part of our modern civilization. Anomie is a social fact and it is found everywhere.

Hence, if suggested to the Louisiana governor by me, I would certainly like him to look into this in depth and take this opportunity as a challenge and also to encourage it in harmless way, creating less damage to humankind.