After 1865, everybody surrendered to the idea that the South, rather than becoming an independent nation, was bound to merge with the rest of the country in terms of ideals. However, it seems that the South is not merging with the North, it is succumbing to Northern ideals and way of living, particularly Industrialism. Industrialism, a movement directed towards increasing production, is slowly substituting the Southern Agrarian tradition. However, the Southern traditional way of life is better than Industrialism because of various reasons. .
Industrialism, as opposed to Agrarianism, is a movement that diminishes individuality and the quality of human life. Industrialisms main goal is ultimately, to produce for the masses. Through science, it looks for methods, such as machines, that facilitate the laborers work and speed up production. Though this may sound like an advantage, this method of production is actually overlooking one important thing in the production process--humans. Humans that endure Industrialized jobs in factories work strenuous unhappy hours, giving up their "private dignity" to this "abstract social ideal (xlvi) with only the reward of production. Whereas in Agrarian tradition, people consider work a leisure that will grant them happiness in every aspect of the process. Agrarian people work in a natural environment, a perfect place to allow important things like religion and art to flourish. However, in the artificial industrialized world humans tend to forget about religion or art and instead focus on finding means of consuming all the products that are rapidly appearing in their society. .
Not only does Industrialism pose a negative threat for individuals but it also poses a problem for the whole society. It is seen as a system, worthy of comparison with the Communist or Sovietist system, that is always looking for economic progress. In the fast pursuit of progress, Industrialism raises the tempo of life to an unnatural, "accelerating (xliv)" rate.