Components Of Society

Religion
Religion describes the beliefs, values, and practices related to sacred or spiritual concerns.

In the wake of nineteenth century European industrialization and secularization, three social theorists
attempted to examine the relationship between religion and society.

French sociologist Emile Durkheim (1858–1917) defined religion as a “unified system of beliefs and
practices relative to sacred things”.

German philosopher, journalist, and revolutionary socialist Karl Marx (1818–1883) also studied the
social impact of religion. He famously argued that religion “is the opium of the people”

German sociologist and political economist Max Weber believed it was a precipitator of social change.

Functions: Durkheim proposed that religion has three major functions in society.
 Social cohesion: It is provide to help maintain social solidarity through shared rituals and
beliefs.
 Social control: To enforce religious-based morals and norms to help maintain conformity
and control in society.
 Offers meaning and purpose: To answer any existential questions.

Benefits:
Health, mental health and relaxation: One of the most important needs of man is
mental health. In the present world, despite the scientific and technological spectacular
advances of humanity, depression and anxiety are overtaken by man over the years and the
desire for more mental and psychological relaxation is felt. The role of religion in mental health
and relaxation is important in many ways

Religion and tolerance of psychological pressures: Research shows that religious

beliefs have an effective role in alleviating mental illness, reducing anxiety and
tolerance of psychological pressures. Religious people are suffering from much less
psychological discomfort.
A tight-knit social group: This sense of community is probably the most important. A large
worldwide social group, so anywhere you go you can meet people with common goals and
beliefs. People that help and stand by each other.

Meaning and purpose for life: Logic shows us no reason to believe in the supernatural, or
an afterlife, however if those don’t exist, and never have existed, then we have the full
potential for meaning and purpose in life as anyone else ever has. Logic puts forward these
three.

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 Chances are, we only live once. Enjoy life as much as possible, never waste it.
 We live on genetically through our descendants. Therefore a primary purpose of our life
should be to do everything possible to give our children a chance to thrive.
 We live on in people’s memory of us. Therefore another primary purpose of our life
should be to have as positive an impact as we can, on as many people as we can.

A way to defeat fear of death and other fears: It’s universal. Death happens to
everyone. It isn’t a tragedy, wasted life is a tragedy. Fearing something inescapable, is an utter
waste of time and emotion. Focus on life, not death.

DRAWBACKS:
 Religion has historically been a source of war on conflict between people ever since people
started believing in it. Religious people tend to believe that their particular religion is the only
correct one and all the others are false.
 Religion discourages free inquiry and restricts freedom of thought, by encouraging the idea that
fundamental answers can only be found in a fixed and specific book or belief system. Preachers
and religious leaders can also encourage a culture of unquestioning loyalty amongst their
followers.
 Religion holds back humanity from progressing. When the Christian Church dominated Western
Europe in medieval times, scientific inventions and discoveries almost ground to a standstill and
it wasn’t until the arrival of secularism that things began moving again.
 Religion often uses fear to gain itself power, such as threatening people with Hell.
 Religion absolves people from personal responsibility, because they can say that God told them
to do it.

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 ECONOMY
An economy is the large set of inter-related production and consumption activities that aid in
determining how scarce resources are allocated. The production and consumption of goods and
services are used to fulfill the needs of those living and operating within the economy, which is
also referred to as an economic system.

Function: Economy examines how individuals, businesses and entire societies manage scarce
resources. Resources are, by nature, limited. Only a finite amount of land exists, for example, and
people do not have unlimited time to meet all of their needs and wants. Because no resources
exist in unlimited quantities, societies must establish priorities and decide how best to allocate
resources in such a way that meets as many needs and wants as possible.

Benefits of Economy:
Higher living standard: Helps to lift people out of extreme poverty and improve development
outcomes.

Employment Effects: Sustained growth stimulates jobs and contributes to lower

unemployment rates which in turn helps to reduce income inequality.

Fiscal Dividend: Higher economic growth will raise tax revenues and reduce government
spending on unemployment and poverty related welfare benefits.

Accelerator Effect: Rising growth stimulates new investment, for example, in low-carbon
technologies. Better growth may attract foreign direct investment projects.

Higher average incomes: This enables consumers to enjoy more goods and services and
enjoy better standards of living. Economic growth during the Twentieth Century was a major
factor in reducing absolute levels of poverty and enabling a rise in life expectancy.

Lower unemployment: With higher output and positive economic growth, firms tend to
employ more workers creating more employment.

Lower government borrowing: Economy creates higher tax revenues, and there is less need
to spend money on benefits such as unemployment benefit. Therefore economy helps to reduce
government borrowing. Economy also plays a role in reducing debt to GDP ratios.

Improved public services: With increased tax revenues the government can spend more on
public services, such as the NHS and education etc.

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Money can be spent on protecting the environment: With higher real GDP a society
can devote more resources to promoting recycling and the use of renewable resources.

Investment: Economic growth encourages firms to invest, in order to meet future demand.
Higher investment increases the scope for future economic growth – creating a virtuous cycle of
economic investment.

Increased research and development: High economic growth leads to increased

profitability for firms, enabling more spending on research and development. Also, sustained
economic growth increases confidence and encourages firms to take risks and innovate.

Drawbacks:
Inflation risk: If demand races ahead of aggregate supply the scene is set for rising prices. This
is also known as structural inflation.
Environmental Concerns:
 Increased consumption of de-merit goods which damage social welfare.
 The depletion of the global resources and impact of global warming.
 Over Population.
 Destruction of rain forests.
 Specie destruction leading to biodiversity.

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 Politics
The term politics is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, but politics has been
observed in all human group interactions. It consists of social relations involving authority or
power, the regulation of political units, and the methods used to formulate and apply social
policy.

Benefits:
 Politics help to maintain the integration of society by determining norms.
 Politics help to adapt and change elements of social, economic, and religious systems
necessary for achieving collective goals.
 It protects the integrity of the political system from outside threats.
 Politics is all about the rule of ORDER, to put everyone in society in their right niche, for true
development.
 Working in politics or with politicians can yield great power, fame, knowledge, and sense of
achievement. There one takes political knowledge into practice, while at the helm of a country
changing it directly; or one takes political experience into theory, for better understanding of
politics and life.

Drawbacks:
Chaos When citizens don't learn or practice enough politics, they may want to have their full
rights immediately, or force their political views on others without hearing them to see the
whole picture. Fighting for one's rights, which is a legitimate cause, can turn futile, chaotic,
barbaric, and bloody sometimes, if one doesn't control one's passion, focus on
priorities/basic rights, know one's role & abilities, and appreciate time, dialogue,
and diplomacy.

 Bringing politics to workplace can lower service/product quality, which shouldn't be affected
by whatever happening politically.
 In trade, political discussions (or any unnecessary discussion) can turn away customers, who
may get offended, angry, or bored. If customers themselves initiate the conversation, one's
response should be friendly, short and neutral.
 Political activism on campus or even classroom discussions can create unnecessary divisions
and distract students and teachers from education, the main reason they are there for.
 Even among family members or friends, politics can eat away at the bond, time, and simple
pleasures they share.

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 EDUCATION
Education instill and transmit the social norms values and beliefs into the next generation.
Teacher himself or herself have been through the similar phase of learning, after learning the
social norms, teachers forward it to the next generation. Though, the exact social norms are not
taught and transmitted to the next generation there is few changes in it due to social change
and the personal experience of teacher.

Benefits:
Social integration: Education unify the individuals in society and create the sense of
solidarity among them. It helps the individuals and groups to cooperate with one another and
find a common ground for social life. Nations are built because of education because it unify
people into an organized unit.
Career Selection: Education helps individual to think about their career which they want to
pursue in future. It prepares them for future endeavors. Provide them with all the necessary
information regarding the social life and professional life.
Techniques of Learning Skills: Education teaches an individual various techniques of
learning professional skills. There are different educational institutions for learning different
professional skills. For example if a person wants to pursue a career in engineering, there are
engineering colleges and universities which will equip him/her with the skills required for
his/her career.
Socialization: Human beings are social animals, in order to learn social skills and social norms
of society, one have to socialize. Educational institution provide us the platform, to interact
with different people of our own age and common interest. It help us to groom our personality
and acquire quality personality traits.
Rational Thinking: Education helps us to think rationally and conclude any event, situation
and issue with reasonable explanation.
Adjustment in Society: Education groom the personality of individual which helps him/her
to adjust in any environment, group, community and society.
Patriotism: Love for nation and country are instill in people from very young age through
educational institution. They learn their duties and obligation towards nation and their
country.

Drawbacks:
DISCRIMINATION: Education makes one of the way for discrimination. The people who has
more degree or experience have thoughts that they are ahead of everyone. And also the marks
or grade system will create difference from smaller age in the children. So, education should be
thought as the subject matter not as a competition.

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RESTRICTION OF PERSONAL THOUGHTS: Education makes people some facts to be
blindly accept, that makes people restrict their own ideas in the process of learning. Education
should make us think bigger and smarter but a bad education might fail to do so.