Use Paradigms to Compare Cold War to Culture Wars Term Paper

Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is known as such because it was waged not through direct conflict, but in through military and political stand-off between nations. On an international level, the Cold War was waged through techniques such as the U.S.S.R. extending its sphere of influence into Eastern Europe and the United States' Berlin airlift. However, its effects were also felt inside the United States, with the hysteria that resulted in the form of McCarthyism and the often-obsessive fear people expressed in regards to protecting themselves from possible nuclear conflict. The hatred an American expressed for communism was used to validate his or her status as a 'real' American. This line of reasoning can be seen today in issues of discrimination against Arabs and other demonized ethnic groups, as well as upon moral issues as abortion and gay parenting. One's stance on these issues is not taken simply as a validation of what is best for a woman or a child. Rather the political position one takes on these issues becomes a 'litmus test' if one is liberal and freethinking or sexually uptight, or to take a conservative paradigmatic perspective, if one is moral or immoral.The sociological concept of structural-functional theory assumes that large social systems are characterized by a need for homeostasis. In this point-of-view, any society wishes to preserve its current state of social relationships. Issues such as gay parenting that challenge the conventional norm of what it means to be a parent. Thus gay parenting is seen to be threatening a society's inner sense of homeostasis. Immigrants who appear to be members of national or ethnic groups hostile to the United States, also become, from the point-of-view of society, al threat to U.S. societal stability. Even the Cold War becomes an expression of a kind of a societal threat, as the potential of communist intrusion into the government system threatened concepts of United States freedom. The Cold War was characterized by the idea that threats to American stability existed everywhere, from the U.S. media to the State Department. It should be noted that structural-functional….....