Greetings, TBPers… I ran across something I wrote about 10 years ago and a friend suggested I post it here. There are many on this site that throw shade at the discipline of Sociology and me for varying reasons. I believe some of it is justified while some of it might come from misrepresentations of the field in general. I understand that most assume the only job someone with a degree in sociology does is act as a social worker , reinforcing the establishment and government over the people; the antithesis to much of what we discuss on this site about government corruption, graft and hierarchies of power.
My studies in Sociology led me to the political left with readings of Marx and Engels but sociological theorists like Max Weber provided a more politically neutral theory , grounded in a common sense and brought me back to a more conservative analysis of Society and the man made social structures we have today with answers to the questions of their origin.
At any rate, I hope someone finds it interesting . I hope ALL have a wonderful weekend!
Peace and God Bless.
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Alice had to fall down a rabbit hole before she could see it. Neo had to be unplugged from the “matrix” before he could truly understand it; and, before Toto found himself in the position to pull back the infamous curtain, a tornado was needed to whisk Dorothy from it. Realities abound; thanks, in large part to human consciousness, which just so happens to separate us, from every other animal on the planet. Sorry, Toto.
The human mind allows for a kaleidoscope of interpretations, analyses, and recountings of life-experiences, shared (culture, media, family, religion, state) passed down or otherwise(individual) learned through experiential interactions .
Along with this massive spectrum of possibilities comes the task to discern the “why” or the “how” of a situation and yourself, in relation, to the social environment you happen to be in at that specific time. In trying to make sense of these interactions between competing actors and socially constructed factors the discipline of sociology earns its place of importance in human society.
One does not have to go to school and major in sociology to “learn” how to understand one’s self and the world one lives in. I believe the sociological imagination is inherent among all natural persons. Schooling does, however, provide the means to develop and hone one’s sociological imagination. Everyone has had that moment in their life when something did not add up and for a moment questioned something: a rule, a law, an official story, and so on and so on. In the most basic of senses this “questioning of something” is the foundation that the discipline of sociology has been built upon.
I believe an individual with a sharp sociological imagination asks the question, “why?” and is always considering latent functions, or unintended consequences, of his/her findings while still trying to separate personal biases from their research.
I believe asking “why” is fundamental and essential for any society or individual to grow. A good sociologist should become more politically or socially active just like Marx suggested when using the term praxis. However, I believe they should show restraint and thoroughly research the issues they are “for” or “against” before they socially act. I also think that an individual using his/her sociological imagination must remain grounded and humbled. To paraphrase a former sociology professor from my local community college I attended, “I’ll be a student all my life.” This, coming from a woman who has been on this planet for over seventy years, should humble even the most prideful individual. This way of looking at life, that there is something you can always get better at or learn more about, is the backbone of my philosophy for life. It reminds me of something the existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once stated in The Dawn, “A snake that cannot shed its skin perishes; so do the spirits that are prevented from changing their opinions, they cease to be spirit.” In preventing yourself from changing your opinion you very well can be considered one of the mindless walking-dead aimlessly traversing the planet in search of your next meal and not much else. However, we must not go to the extreme in the opposite direction and not “believe in something” as the old saying warns “Those who believe in nothing, fall for anything.”
In many ways, reality can be stranger than fiction. The role of sociology is simple, separating the fiction from reality. By illuminating the dark areas of the man-made social structures to determine their effectiveness and efficiency in doing what they were designed to do, sociologists can contribute positive change for the individuals, families, and other socially-formed groups in the world. We should remember that everyone is a “sociologist” whether they realize it or not. Some have a better knack for it than others; but, by unplugging others from the matrix of deceit and denial, by “throwing back” the proverbial curtain and exposing the “fraud” of Oz, all, can know what it means to be a sociologist. The world could be a much better place if people were encouraged to simply ask “Why?”
Sounds like a plan, looking at things from an academic perspective rather than the tired American History X where everything bad is due to a certain group and everything good is due to another group and shit in between is due to folks who came here in chains or uninvited.
Me thinks Plato that your perception of a sociologist and the real world is two different animals. Colleges have turned out grads with degrees in that field for many decades by the truckloads. Why would we be so screwed up if all of you sociologists were (freeing) the minds of Americans ? I think a lot of you and you are very bright but alas, why would we ever need sociologists? I don’t find much need for social workers either, I’m old school and believe you hold people responsible for their lives and actions. That goes double if children are involved.
I didn’t need a degree in sociology to sniff out the false world and who runs it, saved a lot of money too. 🙂
See my reply to fleabags…
I think my upbringing had alot to do with my choices for better or for worse.
I agree and even mentioned in the piece that one doesn’t have to go to school to develop a more accurate understanding of the world.
I mention the sociological imagination and my belief it is inherent in all, this curiosity to understand our surroundings, maybe we have never heard of it referred to as this before but I credit my current worldview with the development of it as well as the flamefests here on the Burning Platform.
Plato..
Just suck it up and take your licks. We are judged by the company we keep and get tarred with the same brush.
You are the one who made a point of being a Sociology Major.
I never completed the ninth grade but still was able to figure out who owns us.
Today I realize I saved myself a lot of mal education by quitting and becoming a gangbanger.
Flea,
I’ll take my licks just like the next guy. My intro to the 10 year old piece wasn’t me whining, just explaining why I decided to put it out here.
You said,
I address those of us like yourself when I wrote this,
I think the knowledge gained in my academic endeavors only confirmed and focused my inherent curiosity.
I’d love to hear about your time as a gangbanger, do tell!
Yeah Flea, that would be a good one to share.
Plato, I’m not trying to be a hardass but I haven’t seen any real world application of sociology from anyone that gave the impression that it is of big benefit to society in Merica. Can you relate examples of sociologists that have made a dent in the matrix led population? Maybe I/we have been uninformed in the past and you could enlighten us. People tend to read what I write as crusty and biting, hope you won’t take it that way.
I can give you a few sociologists and social psychologists who i feel have contributed greatly to my understanding, from an academic perspective.
In 1956, C. Wright Mills, published his masterful work dubbed “The Power Elite” which I believe was one of the first sociologists to illuminate academically what Eisenhower 5 years later, in 1961 referred to as the military industrial complex.
German Sociologist Max Weber is another who has contributed immensely to my understanding of power structures and superordinate and subordinate man made social constructs. His common sense analysis of Bureaucracies and coining of the term “iron cage” is a bit depressing but shows how the power is retained by the status quo.
Then there is Symbolic Interactionism Theory which I am rather fond of and taken in conjunction with social psychology experts like Stanley Milgram and Phillip Zimbardo helped me understand myself and human nature more clearly.
Sut Jhally’s mind and work on advertising really got my mind racing, although I do not always agree with his conclusions.
There are many more, like CE Lindblom, in 1982 who wrote a in-depth piece entitled “The market as a prison” that really helped me understand how the bureaucracies incentivize and trigger certain mechanisms within our society to get groups to do or not do specific acts.
Plato- You prove our point, C. Wright Mills was an admitted Marxist and Max Weber and Karl Marx were credited with founding sociology, but of course you knew that. That is one of the BIG REASONS I don’t believe we in any way need sociology.
Had to look up CE Lindbolm, it states that American conservatives considered him a closet commie and a “creeping socialist”. ( eyebrow raised )
Plato, Bl…
It wasn’t glamorous and gangs where everywhere in the 50’s and 60’s. Iv’e said on here before that I didn’t have to go to Nam to go crazy. I grew up full of anger and deep seated hatred and my father died before I could kill him. We left the farm and moved to the city just before I turned 13. Dad died suddenly right before school started and I had to get me and my 2 beautiful redheaded sisters to school. We had to walk 1/4 mile through a park with the ghetto blasters on one side and white trash on the other. I carried one of my dads carpenter awls inside my belt and the very first day had to stab a big spliv in the leg. Next day it was whiteys turn. Not having any parenting other than being told to hoe crops etc. I didn’t know how to handle the sudden status I got from it. before long I had a gang of young scared confused kids just like me and with no parental supervision we roamed around from the time scholl got out till 12 or 1 am looking for things to steal or getting in gang fights. We made our own 22 zip guns and I discover the thrill of being shot at. We weren’t trying to kill anyone, just scare them off. I already had a serious drinking problem before dad died but now there was no one to keep me in check. Dope wasn’t commonly available the except for Heroin in the Ghetto. After being arrested a few times and put on probation I joined the service to outrun the judge. That was pretty normal then. I went completely nuts in Nam and when I finally got home after 4 years overseas I found myself in a strange country so I drifted back into what I knew. The entire eastern seaboard from D.C to boston was nothing but a big crime scene so I fit right in. By the age of 30 I was completely burned out from booze and drugs and had become a Phsychopathic killer. At 34 I just couldn’t go another day. My mind was gone my body was gone and and I couldn’t sleep. Just pass out and come to. Every minute of my life was nothing but misery and despair beyond anything I could describe. I wound up in detox on the inebriat ward. Everything evil I had ever done was done to me in my dreams and even while awake. Someone cared enough to tell me I should get on my knees and ask whatever power that might be out there to please help me. I did and the rest is history. I took 5 years of intense physical therapy to get my memory and motoring ability back and 20 to learn how to be a responsible adult. I don’t know if you guys were being smart or sincere when you asked but there it is.
Flea
That is a hell of a story, and I was sincere that I would be interested in your life in a gang. We have all fallen short of grace Flea, thank God you were saved. Have you had happiness in your life, it would be too tragic that you had not?
Thanks for taking the time to share your story.
BL.
Yes I’ve been blessed beyond anything I could have imagined but those 20 years were spent doing the pennance necessary to get free of my karma. I lived in poverty like St. Francis and just tried to love the bums and bag ladies I met along the way. Never took a dime of crazy money or any other free money. Also was not allowed to tell anyone but Mom. My mentor said vanity is repulsive to God.
I was being sincere. Wow! Amazing tales! If it means anything, I am glad someone told you to get on your hands and knees and pray otherwise TBP and the world wouldn’t be hearing this story right now!
God does truly work in mysterious ways.
Plato..
Amazing grace and I saw the light are still my favorite songs.
I knew I liked the Fleabo from the start.
I don’t know exactly why, but as I was reading this I began thinking of the part in “Atlas Shrugged” where Dagny Taggart asked a fruit vendor why she didn’t move her offerings out of the sun and into the shade; and the lady replied: “Because it’s always been this way”.
Indeed, “why” is where the rubber meets the road, and, as Robert Gore has advised: “Never underestimate the power of a question“.
Many years ago, I was fortunate enough to have breakfast with the author Ken Blanchard (One Minute Manager, Gung Ho) and I admired the way he sought to challenge corporate orthodoxies.
I am also reminded of authors like Jim Collins (Built to Last, Good to Great) and others who questioned “why”.
Then, after answers are realized, it becomes a question of identifying certain changes and “why not?”.
But it all begins by first paying attention, no?
The Socratic method of asking questions to spur thought and discussion is at the very root of my core.
To me, the right question makes all the difference!
I use Isaac Asimov’s iRobot, particularly the film created from his work to illustrate this.
1 minute clip
So many Sociologist because America has so many Socially Sick people. That many experts must have made a lot of Social discoveries. PS: Social “Science” was my worst subject: the SOB Commie FSU professor kicked me out of class during the third meeting and gave me an “F” for the semester. But that brief encounter taught me that FSU Social Science is Communist Indoctrination, that Communist are Tyrants, and their Progressive is Repressive.
As I progressed through my schooling and was exposed to differing sociological theories I began to write from a more conservative approach which most of my professors noticed and critiqued and graded much more harsh than when I was simply towing the line with cultural Marxism.
I can relate to your experience in your class. Haha.
Thanks for sharing.
Instead of saying that the US is the land of the free, why not just cut the bullshit and put every American in prison when they’re born?
And you think they are not? Please define a prison. More and more the united States is becoming a place that the TPTB are moving to shut down leaving the country. Already, if you have a tax bill over a certain amount your passport is now invalid.
You know I do find it kind of interesting that the populist in the country are calling for a wall to be build. You know that walls serve two functions right? They can keep people in as well as out…..
Why. I just asked the question today on my blog. Why is the left called liberal when liberals by definition expand the size and scope of the federal government. But today’s left doesnt do that. They support massive SJW corporations like facebook and apple, which by banning free speech, actually diminish the scope of the federal government through their means of circumventing the 1st amendment. Why are they even called “leftists”? The left wants free healtchcare. In doing so, they have driven up the cost of healthcare to such extreme and absurd levels that the federal government has essentially zero power over that industry. The health care racket is completely out of control. Again, how is that liberal? Go on down the list of all things left and you see the same thing. The left has actually been completely destroyed and replaced by what is best described as pure corporatism with a thin veneer of SJW cultural marxism. Why? And why cant they see it when it is so obvious?
That’s a very good point. I think the political spectrum in the way it is taught in schools actually debilitates the average American’s understanding of the concepts of liberal and conservative.
Excellent distinctions you point out in your comments and a very good “why” question you ask.
Plato- Every time I draw out the political spectrum on paper for someone who is left leaning, they sit with a dumbfounded look on their face that , “how can that be true” moment hits them.
Did that one day for this really liberal joo who was a political science major and at that time was about 65 years old. Same reaction…….then to save face he said ,”well you can’t look at things in general terms.” I told him it is what it is, like being pregnant, she either is or she isn’t and he pretended to discount the facts laid out in moving farther left of center.
BL,
I had this old text book from one of my poli sci classes in college and I lent it out to a student and never for it back. But, it had an amazing way of putting together the political spectrum and the varying types of too down control aka governments and their modes of production. I have scoured the internet looking for something that closely resembles it but to no avail.
Have you come across an image or diagram that you could share?
Maybe this should be a Question of the Day from Stucky?!
I bet there would be a bunch if cognitive dissonance experienced on that thread if he asked TBPers to explain their understanding of the political spectrum.
Stucky posted one a few years ago, he might still have it but I think that one just hit the basics. My drawing is just in my head and I talk out the degrees in part of it to complete the lesson (saves on writing ). If I find something I will post it. Now if you sociologists would become a army of teachers to teach the real political spectrum, what chance would the left have of survival? I agree with RHS that the vast majority of sociology students are indoctrinated to the leftist idiology and so I won’t be holding my breath for a army of sociology truthers.
BL
To borrow the Army’s recruiting slogan….
Can “An Army of One” sociology truther make any significant difference?
Time will tell.
I beg to differ, the SJW corps like fartbook, twatter, and snapple augment the federal government. They do not hinder or restrict anything the fed gov does. Additionally, fartbook, twatter, and such were built on fed gov handouts along with Microdot. That being the only explanation for the quick acceptance of a fallacious operating system called Windows. I do note, however, DOS was stolen from Digital Research. That much was proven by using Microsoft own machine language editor and compiler. I de-compiled MS DOS 2.11 and found the original code for CPM Written by Digital Research still in place.
I now find it funny that MS, a company built on fraud, now wants to prosecute people that bootleg their OS. ROFLMAO!!!!
I have NOT read all the discussion and will be held responsible for that error. I did skim a lot of it, however. I would like to support many of the “nay sayers” in so far as what we need to revitalize in the educational system is the 1) Taking of Responsibility for ones own actions. 2) The ability to “Critically Think”. Indoctrination would not succeed if this approach were used to a greater extent. I am of the mind that “The Majority, if not all (always and never are two things I prefer to always never say), fall under a Gausian Distribution (the Bell shaped curve) if the sample is sufficiently large enough. This supports the fact that there will be outliers. But the basic issue of teaching critical thinking and taking responsibility are key, in my opinion.