Essay - The Cold War Between the United States and the Soviet...

The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union is known as such because it w***** *****aged not through direct conflict, but in through military ***** political stand-off ***** nations. On an international level, the Cold War was waged ***** techniques such as the USSR extending its sphere of influence into Eastern Europe ********** the ***** 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 ********** fear people expressed in regards to protect*****g themselves from possible nuclear conflict. The hatred an American expressed for communism was used ***** validate his or her status as a 'real' American. T***** line of reasoning can be seen today in issues ***** discrimination against Arabs ***** 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 v*****lidation of what is best ***** a woman or a child. R*****ther the political position one takes on these ********** becomes a 'litmus test' if ***** is liberal and freethinking or sexually uptight, or to take a c*****servative paradigmatic perspective, if one is m*****al or immoral.

The sociological concept ***** 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 ***** relationships. Issues such as gay parenting ***** challenge the conventional norm ***** what it means to be a parent. Thus ***** *****ing is seen to be threatening a society's inner sense of homeostas*****. Immigrants who appear to be members of national or ethnic ***** hostile ***** the United States, ***** become, from ***** point of view of society, al threat to U.S. societal stability. Even the ***** War becomes an expression of a kind of ***** ***** threat, as the potential ***** communist intrusion into the government system threatened concepts of United ***** freedom. The Cold War ***** characterized by the idea that threats to Ameri***** stability existed everywhere, from ***** U.S. media ***** the State Department. It should be noted that structural-functional ***** does not validate racism, necessarily, however it does adm***** that to function, a society must preserve ***** certain pre-existing structure and thus the idea that a society would be frightened by challenges ***** its structural system should not come ***** a surprise. The supposed p*****ranoia of McCarthyism or even Arab racial profiling is thus seem as a natural social function in view of a ***** desire for things to remain ***** same.

***** contrast, the ***** conflict theory assumes that societies evolve through cr*****is, both great ***** s*****l. States of crisis are not unnatural or permanently *****, rather ***** is a n*****tural part of the way a ***** evolves *****nd functions. From ***** point of view, the Cold ***** at home was a result ***** ***** United ***** in crisis, *****djust*****g to the new balance of power that occurred in *****