Talk to your parents and elders, grandparents and their contemporaries and discuss whether modern society is really more competitive or conflict ridden than it used to be before. And if you think it is, how would you explain this sociologically ?
(2) Conflict is usually on the basis of economy and unequal control on wealth and ownership particularly based on means of production (e.g., land, capital, labour, means of transportation, means of power, means of communication, raw material etc). It means ownership of means of production creates conflict. According to Karl Marx unequal control on ownership of wealth and produce creates conflict on economic level.
As a sociologist I can explain conflict in the following way :
1. Conflict disrupts social unity. Conflict is a highly disrupting means to settle any complex problem.
2. Strikes in factories or industries or in offices and big markets of cities and towns may makes thousands of workers and employee idle. It may also prove costly in terms of machinery.
3. Martial conflicts may ruin and disintegrate several familities. It also adversly affects the security of the children.
4. Caste conflicts reduce the inter-caste relationship and unity in the village. It can check growth and development (social as well as economic) of the people. It makes them weaker in solving their common social and other deep-rooted issues and problem.
5. Religious conflicts may prevent several communities from facing their problems in a united spirit.
6. Ideological and political rivalries and conflicts can disturb academic institutions such as colleges and universities. For example several academic institutions have recently been disturbed and even shut down, sometimes, on account of conflicts basically political in nature. This has seriously disturbed research and education and ruined the careers of many scholars.
