by Dean Jolly

Created on: November 10, 2008   Last Updated: December 08, 2008

Social control has the primary aim of bringing about an idealised social order. This social order is maintained, through the various established institutions and influential mediums such as Politics, Education, Religion, the Media, Family, the legal system etc...I will deconstruct each of these in an attempt to gain a deeper understanding of how Social Control works on the minds of the ordinary everyday member of the public.

The family as a social institute is our first port of call, as it is here, that each of us were taught the norms and values deemed acceptable by the standards of wider society. Straight from the off we are immediately bombarded with social control, with the aim of making us act in a certain way, to view certain things as good, right, acceptable, to be encouraged, to be awarded, and to see other things as wrong, Immoral, Evil, unnatural, different, to be shunned, to be avoided, to be curbed and ultimately be eliminated for the greater good. This is the very backbone of Social control. Our thoughts, and our sense of what is Right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad is established here.

Let us move on to the role education plays in moulding us into model citizens, with good jobs and sturdy moral compasses. Our knowledge is regulated by what is taught to us in a set curriculum which is set out by the Government. And in this way, any and all lessons taught, have the primary aim of socialising children into an acceptance of the idealism of the ruling class. Not to get too overly Marxist in my article but certain things within the education system can be interpreted as being in place distinctly to benefit a capitalist ruling society, Such as Sports Day', which sounds ridiculous, but Sports Day could socialise children into an acceptance of competition as being the Norm. The way schools are run, can also affect our ideology, as schools have a hierarchal system, a chain of command leading down to the pupil, which socialises people into an acceptance of a hierarchal society. The role of Education acts to churn out conformists who follow social order without question.

Religion is a potential Gold mine of Social Control, possibly the most water tight institution which could bring order out of chaos. Religion uses fear and consequence to keep the masses in check, regulating behaviour towards a specific desired end. Telling us:- If you are good and follow the words of god you will be rewarded in heaven, while warning us:- If you stray from the

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