Even property, often considered to be objective or material, is a normative right. The social meaning of property is as a right of control and command, and major conflict is found to occur where this right has been called into question. Criminals, delinquents, and radical groups have not been properly socialized or have lost their normative compass. Because of high family and personal mobility or rapid change in aspects of society, some individuals do not share the dominant norms, and they lack a sense of community, of belonging. Unguided by socially shared norms, they are uncertain and confused, prone to frustration and insecurity.
Social conflict is then a manifestation of unintegrated individuals, of anomie.
We commonly experience the problems of orienting ourselves when immersed in a strange culture, either by traveling to another country or by participating in a different group. Without a knowledge of or sense for the prevailing meanings, values, and norms, we are uncertain, hesitant, insecure, and plagued with misunderstandings and misperceptions. We find it difficult to satisfy our interests, and this can lead to a feeling of opposition, of being put upon unjustly or irrationally. This feeling is heightened when we are members of groups or societies whose fundamental norms and values oppose our own, as a Protestant in a dominant Catholic culture, a leftist at a business convention, or a conservative in an American political science department. Normative isolation and loss of bearing is certainly a source of conflict.