Venezuelan anomie

Anomie, is a sociological term that signifies in individuals an erosion, diminution, or absence of personal norms, standards, or values, and increased states of psychological normlessness. It also translates into a social condition in which norms are weak, conflicting, or absent. When applied to a government or society, anomie implies a social unrest.

Émile Durkheim described anomie as a state of relative normlessness or a state in which norms have been eroded. A norm is an expectation of how people will behave, and it takes the form of a rule that is socially rather than formally enforced. Thus, in structural functionalist theory, whether at a personal or societal level, the effect of normlessness is to introduce alienation, isolation, and desocialisation as norms become less binding for individuals.

In my opinion, what we are living in Venezuela is a sense of chronic anomie. With the high levels of crimes commited, it also makes no sense to report them to the police. Yesterday, Tuesday May 5, 2009 my brother got mugged at gun point at around 7pm while going in a pizza joint in front of a major hospital in Maracaibo. The burglar took his cellphone and his wallet.

It is true here in Venezuela theres always a sense of normlessness, everything from the guy that watches your car and demands his tip to the bank officer who expects his bottle of whisky if he approves your credit. The worst part is that we Venezuelans often take advantage of the chaos around us, or anomie, and often use to our own convenience.

While I remain in agreement with Ralph Dahrendorf that a legal system that prosecutes all the crimes renders it ineffective, at the same time, a system where no or little crimes are prosecuted gives a sense of unrest, where people tend to take the law into their own hands, into a violating-the-law-down-whirl-spiral, wheres theres nothing in the end. There are loads of examples in Venezuela, from local lynch mobs killing local barrio thugs to blunt fragrant violation of exchange laws by thousands of people selling their Cadivi rights to obtain foreing currency, buying pirate hollywood dvds or software in the street in broad daylight or just paying to get your legally free passport.

The sense of law is absent in Venezuela...