By Arturo
Compartmentalization is a great way to organize things in life.
From scientific data to organizing your closet, separating the things around us into categories or "compartments" allows us to be more efficient in everyday life. Certainly it has its applications.
But, as I've spent more time here in what many consider to be one of the most efficient and proficient nations in the world, I've begun to see where this particular mechanism has bled into parts of society where its role is questionable to say the least.
I can't help but postulate the idea that the people of this nation for some reason beyond the scope of a short, school paper essay such as this one have allowed compartmentalization to enter their social and emotional systems.
Growing up in parts of the world where social structure is different from that of the USA, I saw the Hollywood movies about alleged American cultural paradigms, like jocks vs. nerds vs. stoners, but I was always unsure if movies did justice to what reality was and I considered myself relatively ignorant to the truth.
Several years later, I'm not so sure Hollywood has misrepresented this society that badly, at least not the youth.
To speculate, I would say that this being such a large and competition-oriented country has contributed to social compartmentalization in that an individual needs to be associated with something around here to have their personal and social needs met and essentially survive.
That is: no one (well, almost no one) wants to be alone, and alone is what a person is out here without a predetermined and recognizable group to be associated with. A person with no social circle is a rogue and unknown. People in this country are skeptical of the unknown, the tendency is to assume the worst, and no paradigm-bred "rational" being wants to be seen that way.
In this system, it is not the person who directly chooses their personal identities, their weekend activities or even their girlfriends/boyfriends; rather, it is that person's associations and the perceptions of others in light of those associations that define that person's life in this society.
So, at best a person has control over his/her life only in their initial selection of social circle or affiliation.
This is rather perplexing because this generation is centered on the idea that everyone has complete control over his/her life.
Many business markets, sports cultures, and companies are based on the idea of appeasing the wants of the individual.
Furthermore, social/economic grandeur by being distinguished from the rest is a very common goal, and yet for some reason people strive to play by these rules that essentially force them to conform to a sort of pseudo norm while attempting to maintain the seemingly contradictory above mindset.
Then again, this is a country riddled with contradictory doctrine: drinking age and military enlistment age, or the way women are pressured to act like sexual objects but called "whores" the minute they do.
Consequently, it should come as no wonder why divorce rates are so high when relationships are founded on dynamic, unstable and essentially shallow social affiliations and ideals.
Other side effects include things like one America's most dumbass contributions to the world: emo kids; elaborate as it may be, this system is an efficient recipe for cognitive dissonance among the sheltered suburban youth of this nation.
Holding two opposing ideas in one mind is enough to drive the average person mad.
The size and aggressive nature of this country could very well be the driving force behind this compartmentalization.
But, to be honest, that'd be too easy an answer and I don't think I'm nearly smart enough to even begin to comprehend the true nature of American social structure.
While I've put some work into these thoughts this is a question better addressed in a scholarly ethnographic work and not a few hundred-word article written on a bored and sober college weeknight.
That being said, I can't help but wonder if the simultaneous pursuit of grandeur, acceptance and efficiency in this country is leading to something unhealthy for the youth and future of this great nation.
This new system and the emerging goals of this generation seem to be steering us into danger.
Things like globalization and cultural collision are real problems for our generation to deal with; we do not have the time for truly petty internal social confusion.
?Arturo Bimrose is a senior ?computer science major.
