In the two articles, “Social Change Among the Amish” and “The McDonaldization of Society,” we can clearly understand the difference between a Gemeinschaft and a Gesellschaft. The terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft are used by Ferdinand Tönnies to analyze the two major terms in society.
A Gemeinschaft is otherwise known as an “intimate community.” It is used to describe the traditional type of society in which everyone knows everyone else. While a Gesellschaft is more common, Gemeinschafts do exist. A Gesellschaft is otherwise known as an “impersonal association.” It is what we typically live in. It is an emerging society with short-term relationships, individual accomplishments, and self-interests that crowd out personal ties, family connections, and lifelong friendships.
In the article “Social Change Among the Amish,” out of a group of selected Amish families, 130 questionnaires and/or personal interviews were obtained for the information in this article. The Gemeinschaft community is clearly understood in this article about the Amish. The Amish are a Gemeinschaft community living in a Gesellschaft society. The Amish people are polite and cordial, but they are not too intrigued by outsiders intruding on their land. The Amish lifestyle and religion promote voluntary isolation and have been a major obstacle for anyone wanting to collect data or research on the Amish community.
The lifestyle of the Amish emphasizes “the importance of humility, modesty, strong obedience to God, and social conformity; they abhor pride, social snobbery, individualism, and winning through competition. Family bonds and their faith are the cornerstones of the Amish lifestyle.” The Amish are a perfect example of a Gemeinschaft community. The Amish have a strong sense of social solidarity. Some people argue the point that the Amish practice of solidarity is a major reason that they have survived as a model of the extended family of the past.
The Amish, like many Gemeinschaft communities, feel that “social change” is evident but only if carefully controlled and monitored. “They work to preserve traditions of the past, emphasize the importance of humility and divine guidance in controlling their own destiny, and maintain a strong posture of serving God rather than the interests of humanity.” Even though the Amish live in an offset community different from the rest of the world, they do not live in a social “vacuum.” They are constantly around a modernized world, so they are constantly reminded and pressured to move toward modernization. Whether it is through planters having to borrow money for spring planting or married men having to work outside of the community to accommodate the wishes of a non-Amish boss, there is always pressure.
McDonaldization is a prime example of a Gesellschaft society because, through rationalization, you achieve McDonaldization. Rationalization is choosing the most efficient means to accomplish tasks. “The traditional ways of doing things-which may be inefficient but which are also the source of huge satisfactions-are passing. Rationalization threatens to engulf all of society, locking us all in what Weber called an iron cage of rationality.” Through rationalization, we live in a highly efficient world that goes to extreme limits to accomplish everyday tasks as quickly as possible.
“McDonaldization implies the search for maximum efficiency in increasingly numerous and diverse social settings.” McDonald’s is the best at rationalizing everyday tasks to conform to our fast-paced lives. Through McDonald’s, the everyday task of fast-food restaurants of driving to the restaurant, standing in line, ordering your food, picking the condiments that you want with your meal, eating in the uncomfortable tables and chairs, having to deal with annoying other people, and then driving back to your house. As you can see, restaurants can be just.
Diets, weight loss books, and other miscellaneous paraphernalia are just another example of McDonaldization in the nation. Even in weight loss, everyone is trying to find the most efficient way to lose weight and eat better. For those on a diet, you have various products on the market, varying from Slim-Fast that can be consumed in seconds to Weight Watchers, which is a constant tallying of points! The nation is a perfect demonstration of a Gesellschaft through the constant changing of products to make life go quickly, easily, and at a faster pace. Through a Gesellschaft, relationships are destroyed with the impersonal relations that we interface with every day at fast-food restaurants. Instead of having your dinner on a silver platter, you feel like you are eating on a conveyor belt platter with the assembly line rushing you out the door.
The best that can be said about this experience is that it is through a Gemeinschaft and a Gesellschaft you face difficulties with either lifestyle you choose, but as you can see, a majority of our nation lives in a Gesellschaft. The human craving for new and diverse experiences is being limited, if not progressively destroyed, by the national and international spread of fast-food restaurants. The craving for diversity is being supplanted by the desire for uniformity and predictability. The problem of diversity is a problem with a Gesellschaft, while conformity is a fear with a Gemeinschaft. While a Gesellschaft shows the consequences of self-serving lifestyles, transience and rootlessness of this culture, and extreme emphasis upon competition, money, and careerism to determine one’s self-worth.
While a Gemeinschaft abhors personal achievement over seeking God’s will, family bonds and faith are what holds the Gemeinschaft together. In a Gemeinschaft of an Amish community to a Gesellschaft of a nation, these articles show an exact picture image of both. As you can tell, a Gemeinschaft society is one that does not enjoy conformity, the norms, or living for personal growth and achievement. While a Gesellschaft loves conformity, trying to be efficient, and anything for one’s self-growth. The Amish are just a small Gemeinschaft in a giant Gesellschaft.
Bibliography:
- Gemeinschaft vs Gesellschaft Society * Tenth Edition DOWN TO EARTH SOCIOLOGY by James M. Henslin Copyright 1999 All rights Reserved * Essentials of Sociology by James M. Henslin Copyright 2000, 1998, 1996 Allyn and Bacon All rights reserved.
