Durkheim/Signs Sumblog 3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Q7cP3ij5g

Signs

And the sign said, "Long-haired freaky people need not apply"

So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why

.... 

And the sign said, "Everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray"

But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all

I didn't have a penny to pay

So, I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign

I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me, I'm alive and doin' fine, woo

Five Man Electrical Band

Emile Durkheim is one of my favorite sociologists. His views on society are very applicable to my own personal opinions. Durkheim divided societies by division of labor. He defined them as either mechanical solidarity or organic solidarity. Solidarity means the cohesiveness of how a society stays and functions together. Mechanical solidarity is an example of pre modern societies such as before the Age of Enlightenment. Mechanical solidarity is a small-scale family based society where people are dependent on each other. Organic solidarity focuses more on interdependence of people and specialization, much like our current society.

Durkheim studied suicides and found that there were strong correlations between levels of integration and regulation and the suicide rates. Integration is how well people fit into a society and regulation are the rules that people are supposed to follow. When there is too low of an integration level one tends to fall into the Egoistic category of Integration. This means that they are usually an outsider and don’t fit in, this is also usually where religious affiliation comes into play. Those that aren’t affiliated with a type of religion are more likely to fall under the Egoistic category. On the opposite end of the spectrum those that have too high of levels of integration fall under the altruistic category of suicide. This means they are too involved with an affiliation and are willing to die for the cause, examples of this include soldiers at war and suicide bombers.

Regulation is the other component Durkheim found that helped to measure suicide rates. He found that those with too low of regulation fell into an anomic state and were more likely to commit suicide. This anomic state comes from not knowing one’s place in a society. On the other hand when one faces too high of levels of regulation they fall into the fatalistic category. This applies to those that are in prison, political regimes, and slavery. The lyrics above are a song that I feel helps explain Durkheim’s views on finding the balance between integration and regulation in our daily lives. Many people feel they don’t fit the “proper” mold in one way or another and have to read the signs in order to maintain themselves in the social order.

Human Potential/Species Being Sumblog 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyVJsg0XIIk

Marx talked about three main themes that he viewed were the negatives of modern society. One of these, alienation of the "species being" is a powerful thought in regards to our world today. Marx felt that species being was who we are and what we're capable of. Are we achieving in our everyday life actions, socialization, and work the most that we can? Marx felt that capitalism inhibited the species being with inequality through competition. Meaning there will always be winners and losers, and in that people will have to sacrifice their inner desires in order to win. 

There are four main reasons Marx felt that we are inhibiting our species being: 1. Alienation from productive activity 2. Alienation from the product 3. Alienation from fellow workers 4. Alienation from human potential. The song Eyes Wide Open by Goyte helps to illustrate Marx’s first reason- Alienation from productive activity.

“Some people offered up answers.

We made out like we heard, they were only words.

They didn't add up to a change in the way we were living,

And the saddest thing is all of it could have been avoided.

But it was like to stop consuming's to stop being human,

And why would I make a change if you won't?

We're all in the same boat, staying afloat for the moment.

                                   We walk the plank with our eyes wide open”

Many people in today’s society work full time to pay the job- generally speaking a 9-5 where you go in do your work, and get the hell out. There isn’t very much depth to the job besides a pay-check so the bills can get taken care of.  In the process of alienation from productive activity there is no room for creativity.

An example I like to think of is the movie Rudy. His dad worked at the local mill all of his life and Rudy was going to do the same, but all along he had a dream to play football at Notre Dame. Rudy followed in the path of his family and worked in the mill, until there was an accident and one of his dear friends died. In the end he applied for school and got to participate in the football program. Rudy was on the same track as his family, but decided to take a risk in order to achieve his dreams. I personally feel that Marx’s ideas on alienation of the species being are present today more than ever. Many people compromise their desires and personal talents in order to earn a pay-check. 

Blog 1 Tocqueville-Materialism

Tocqueville traveled to the United States to study democracy. He chose this location because the country was relatively new and their wasn’t any political history at this time that could hinder his studies. While in America Tocqueville studied six main concepts: mores, social class, individualism, civil associations, materialism, and social change.  Tocqueville had some insight as to the negative aspects that materialism could bring to a society.
He said that materialism could be all consuming in that people become caught up with unnecessary objects, which can lead them to stop focusing on societal responsibilities. This can become a problem in many ways because those who buy more goods create more waste- thus contributing to the many environmental issues that are going on in our world at this time, an example being, global warming.
In the time of Tocqueville, he felt that materialism made the weak weaker and the strong stronger meaning, those that worked as laborers would continue to be at the hands of their employers and lose their ability to think for themselves. He said that materialism was progressively weakening the worker and strengthening the master.
Tocqueville felt that materialism was a negative aspect of democracy, when really it was due to the capitalist economic structure of America.  Granted, the concept of capitalism didn’t exist yet in Tocquville’s time. He did place the blame of materialism on democracy though and this was and still is an incorrect idea.
To describe Tocqueville’s ideas of materialism I found a commercial on Youtube that shows how someone can get caught up on objects as pleasure so much to the point that she refuses to eat to save money. This is a comedic approach as to the idea of materialism, but in the end is still advertising another way you can spend your money. I feel that Tocqueville’s concepts of materialism are still relevant today in the fact people are aware of it, but yet it is still a driving force of many people’s internal desires.

Commercial about materialism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AvkgrXb-dU