Attacks Of September 11 example essay topic

In our culture there are rules for everything. Rules and laws are made for a reason. They are there to help protect us and "regulate" lives. Rules concern everything from how to act in school to traffic violations and everything in between. When these rules or laws are broken, they create a social change. Structural functionalism and anomie look at these ideals and changes.

Structural functionalism is a macro perspective. It states that to understand the individual experience we must first examine the larger social structure. There is a basic assumption that goes along with this theory. It states that society is stable and orderly.

Stability and order are maintained by consensus (agreement) about prevailing norms (rules). Every element of society serves some positive purpose (function). Structural functionalism argues that inequality can be a good thing. It motivates people to better their lives. The poor want to be rich, and the rich want to stay rich. This paradigm also states that deviance is useful.

Deviance promotes needed social change. The norms (rules) of society are reinforced by deviance. Social solidarity is promoted. It also strengthens social boundaries (us vs. them). This idea is seen when looking at prostitution.

Many functionalists argue that prostitution is not a bad thing. It acts as a "safe valve" to cut off rape and sexual assault. According to functional thinkers, prostitution helps sustain and maintain some marriages and relationships. Robert K. Merton was the founder of manifest function and latent function. Manifest function states that there is an intended purpose served by any element of society.

For example, colleges have an intended purpose of educating people. Another example is that functionalists see sports on a manifest level as providing recreation, physical conditioning and a harmless way of letting off steam. Latent functions as well, fostering social relations, generates jobs, encourages competition and pursuit of success. Latent functions have unintended / hidden outcomes. Emile Durkheim came up with the idea of anomie. He claimed that behavior could not be fully understood in individualistic terms.

It must be understood within a larger social context. Durkheim's interest was also in the growing division of labor found in industrialized societies as workers became much more specialized in their tasks. This led to what we now call anomie. Durkheim used the term functional in two senses. The first is that of a system of vital movements without reference to the consequences. The second idea is that a function expresses the relation existing between these movements and the corresponding needs of the organism.

On September 11, 2001, America was attacked by terrorists. Two planes flew into the World Trade Center that morning. This was definitely a deviation from "normal ness". I believe that it opened people's eyes to the threats that are in our society. Before September 11, the things going on with Chechnya, with its separatist war; in Afghanistan, with the continuing low-scale war; and with the Palestinian intifada would have not been labeled as terrorism. They would have been called. civil insurrection, or nationalist or separatist violence.

Since the attack on the World Trade Center, Americans are much more aware of actual terrorism. Many changes have been made to airports and airplanes since the attack. Security at airports is much tighter. They even go as far as to make travelers remove their shoes when walking through the metal detectors. For a long while after September 11, even postal concerns were heightened. The threat of letter bombs and anthrax was imminent.

Once it was determined that people of middle eastern descent were responsible for the terrorist attacks, views towards them became angered. I went to a university for my freshman year that had a large foreign population. It became apparent that after the attacks of September 11, they, in a way, kept to themselves for awhile. Many people became racist towards middle easterners. Even though people might not be from Afghanistan or Iraq, if they have the same complexion, they will be treated the same. I think there was a positive point out of all the tragedy and loss of September 11.

It produced a unity in the citizens of the United States that had not been seen in years. People rallied together to try and get back to normal life. The entire country supported New York. Americans tried to help people that were effected from the attacks try and cope and deal with their losses.

People supported the decisions of the President, more now than ever. There was also an increase in enlistments in the military. Americans wanted to defend and protect our country. It proved that even though America was vulnerable to attacks, that we would bind together and overcome obstacles that were thrown in our way.

I think the Structural-Functionalist paradigm is very useful when assessing unforseen actions. It helped to provide us understanding on how to get over the actions taken against our country on September 11. This theory was accurate when dealing with the attacks. Many changes came to the way certain things were handled. All in all, things were done to try and maintain order and stability in our country.