The Sociological Perspective: Culture Shock

The sociologist Peter Berger has come to view sociological discovery to culture shock without the geographical displacement and one would agree with him because it is a fact that the views of individuals tend to change as they mature and undergo active socialisation. When individuals are growing up, many of them tend to perceive the world innocently, not realising that the world is made up of many complexities which are hidden just below the surface. The first perception that individuals tend to have of the world and their societies is always based on their immediate surroundings and these surroundings can be considered to be the starting point of the process of active socialisation as well as the development of the realisation of different sociological perspectives. As individuals continue growing and their social circles expand, and these mostly happen when they go to school, the come to encounter for the first time the different sociological perspectives which they are not prepared for in their domestic social environment (Muller, 53). For example, it is often in school that individuals come to encounter, for the first time in their lives, social conflict and this often comes from instances where they witness such incidents as bullying. In addition, it is in the school environment that individuals also encounter social conflict in the form of racial discrimination, where it is normal to witness the marginalisation of other students who come from minority groups. Such encounters often end up tarnishing the individual perceptions of the world as they end up coming to the realisation that their society is not what it seems in the first place, and this takes place without their experiencing any geographic changes.

It is therefore necessary for a sociologist to take into consideration that the world is not as it seems and that he or she must work towards unravelling the truth concerning the issues which are normally taken for granted. It is the duty of a sociologist, for example, to make a critical study of the society so that he can find out the various underlying conflicts that exist within it and after doing so come up with theories and perspectives concerning how the said society deals with these conflicts. A sociologist should realise that the society is not always what it seems and that while there may be peace within it, this does not necessarily mean that all is well especially when one considers that in every society, there are always class divisions as well as other underlying conflicts which are normally taken for granted by its members and never addressed (Muller, 51). One would take the example of France before the Revolution where the nobility took the peasant suffering for granted believing that it was in the latter’s lot to suffer as well as to serve them. They did not realise that the peasants were at the time becoming tired of the continuous heavy taxation by the nobility as well as their daily suffering. The result of such ignorance was the abrupt beginning of the French Revolution which would eventually change the lives of all the French people at the time from what they had previously known into what was then unexplored social territory in Europe.

It is a fact that most individuals take the various aspects of their lives for granted and this is a failing in the society because of the fact that such ignorance may lead to the development of situations that may be beyond their control. One of the aspects of society that are often taken for granted are its political aspects and this can be seen through the belief that the American political system if the best and that any decision take by political leaders, especially the president, concerning international matters, is done for the good of the American people. This, it has come to be realised, may not necessarily be true because most of the decisions made by the presidents of the United States for the past decade, especially on matters concerning the Middle East have brought more harm than good for the Americans. When the former president George Bush declared war on Iraq a decade ago, it was justified through the belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be a lie. The righteousness of this decision came into question by the American public which came to the realisation that it had supported military action over false allegations and that this had created an atmosphere of extreme dislike, and even hatred, for the Americans in the Middle East.