Social Structure in a Changing World - Assignment Example

This became increasingly obvious during the heyday of the nineteenth century when the Industrial Revolution changed forever the way in which people on this planet lived their lives. Numerous theories were brought forward as a means of attempting to solve some of the more vexing problems of the age, such as the profound inequalities that led to worker unrest and non-production, including the somewhat extraordinary theories of Edward Bellamy, whose ideas spawned a national political movement. By comparing the seemingly revolutionary ideas of Bellamy with other great thinkers of his time such as William Sumner, one can begin to appreciate how Bellamy’s unique religious position enabled him to envision an altogether different form of social organization.

Edward Bellamy received fame through his utopic novel Looking Backwards in which he established the perfect society as one led by the principles of the Religion of Solidarity. The world that he sets up is presented as a natural outgrowth of the labor troubles experienced in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As the various labor unions organized strikes against the major conglomerates that had removed human rights from their factories, Bellamy’s fable indicates that the government finally was obliged to take control of all industries as the only means by which both commercial and individual rights might be upheld.

In relinquishing control of industrial privateering, society was peacefully and entirely restructured. Rather than individual corporations, federal administration oversaw all production efforts throughout the nation, regulating all industries and seeing to the education and welfare of all individuals. Equality in pay was brought about by adjustments in the expected working hours based upon the labor-intensive quality of the work as it was determined by the workers themselves, who also determined for themselves what part of service they would like to volunteer for.