Living in the Industrial (21ST Century) Society

¶ … Living in the Industrial (21st Century) Society

One of the most revolutionary events and changes that happened in all of the world's societies is the emergence of the Industrial Revolution during the turn of the 21st century. During this period, human civilization moved from a communal form of living to a highly-industrialized society, wherein commodities and the needs of people became readily available in quantity because of the invention of machineries and the process of mass production. With the growth and development that the Industrial Revolution has brought to the world societies, many people have lived in what now we call as the 'capitalist societies,' and the backbone of most people's living and income comes from the rule of economics and providing people with the means to acquire their wants and needs. This, perhaps, is the most important characteristic that the Industrial or Capitalist society brought to human civilization, that is, the development of commodities that people need at an inexpensive cost due to availability as a result of mass production.

Although many sociologists and social philosophers like Karl Marx have cited several dysfunctions of the Industrialist society to human civilization and criticized its functions and importance in the society, such as the prolonging of the oppression of the proletariats (the worker society) by the bourgeois society (or the elitist/business owners society) and the decline of human living conditions due to increased poverty and inequality among people, the society of the 21st century remains to be the most vital of all societies that developed and emerged in the world. This is because, in the Industrialist society, people have achieved social development in terms of upward social mobility among people, better living conditions due to developments in medical, technological, economical, and even environmental sectors of the society, and the ability of the society to provide for its people's needs and wants in life.

There has been greater social mobility among people in the Industrialist society primarily because the economic barriers and constraints were broken down as the result of the encouragement of political institutions to people to decide their own economic means to earn a living, such as joining the workforce or by establishing small- or large- scale businesses. Because people are able to earn on their own means, the become empowered to pursue other achievements, such as the attainment of education, which in turn results to a better position in the society, wherein power and prestige becomes available, thereby guaranteeing an individual to move upward in the social mobility scale. Because of new opportunities presented by the Industrialist type of society in the 21st century, people are able to break out of the lower class levels in the social, political, and economic areas of society. Another benefit is the betterment of human living conditions as a result of the Industrial Revolution and development. Because of new technological innovations spurred by inventions and scientific research and development, the 21st century society has access to better medical treatment and knowledge about important information about human beings and other organisms in this world, better transportation and communications due to technological developments, and special studies that focus on the improvement of the environmental conditions of the planet Earth. Thus, because of these developments in the 21st century society, people are now able to live in both leisure and hard work, and they have the ability to answer sufficiently to their own wants and needs in life. It goes without saying that because of better living conditions, humankind in the Industrial society has achieved a prolonged life expectancy, and birth rates have so far exceeded the death rates in societies. And because of this, the essential function of humans, which is to perpetuate the human species on this planet, is achieved as a result of the benefits and vital functions that the 21st century society has brought to human civilization.