PART TWO – SOCIETY
A BRIEF TREATISE ON SOCIETAL TRANSFORMATION
Mankind’s foremost fallacy lies in its misconception of society. Mankind consistently treats “society” as an undeniable truth—a fixture of the species—and upholds the status quo. However, as Berger and Luckmann would agree, society has never been anything more than a man-made invention—a valiant attempt to establish stability within a chaotic world. Despite man’s initial beneficent intentions, society as an ideal has been tremendously bastardized due to humanity’s divisive socio-cultural influences—i.e., the B&L-ian notion of socio-cultural variability. In fact, some followers of Jung contend that the sociology of culture acts as any given individual’s first confrontation in the world. Additionally, such divisiveness propagates arbitrary projections resulting from the isolation of socio-cultural groups. Arguably, at least initially, man somewhat succeeded in creating stability in the face of chaos, only to continue on such a trajectory as to create a new form of chaos as a result of man’s self-interest and stupidity. As mankind sought to organize society in order to combat anarchic chaos, the decay of entropy crept in, dragging society back into the abyss. Hypothetically, society can transform and once again be made anew if the individuals within it collectively accept the chaos of reality and,
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When undergoing a successful societal transformation, current institutions must be de-reified; then re-socialization can begin, and ultimately mankind can
There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
society has failed, but that it evidently has caused an extermination of the very civilization in which it
Society, however, is a state towards which humans have naturally evolved, and our continued existence without society is inconceivable. Thus, although determinism is argued successfully from a causal point of view, it is clearly flawed in a practical context as it fails these fundamental aspects of human life.
The expectations of one’s surroundings shape who he or she is. Whether it is requirements from parents, society, or oneself, these pressures determine a person’s decisions and their behaviour. The plots of Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood and The Shape of a Girl by Joan MacLeod both focus on the bullying of a girl and the effects of these actions on those involved. The victims in both pieces of literature are singled out because they do not fit into societal norms. In The Shape of a Girl and Cat’s Eye, the stress caused by attempting to conform to society’s expectations causes the characters mental distress and keeps them in a subordinate position. The negative effects on one’s psyche are caused a variety of reasons. First, the expectations placed by society are constantly changing, thus they are impossible to achieve. Next, these expectations are enforced through dehumanizing methods. Finally, victims are forced to create a persona to fit into society,
‘Society makes and remakes people, but society is also made and remade by the multiple connections and disconnections between people, and between people, places and things’ (Havard, 2014, p.67).
Order and stability are the two themes that societies or groups of people desire to achieve. No matter whether people are being hurt or certain types of people are negatively affected, society wants to keeps itself how it is. Change, whether good or bad, is a force that is dreaded by groups of people. Change destroys order and brings about new ideas and practices that a society will have to learn and adapt to. However, bringing about that change is a very difficult task. Masses of similar people, including cultures, will try their best to resist change and eliminate its source. Unconsciously, individual people will also turn away from any initial change or deviance. However, when the source of that change becomes powerful enough, nothing will
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny'” (Huxley 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.
French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, was born in 1858 and was a part of an inseparable and relatively old-fashioned Jewish family. Emile believed that science was a method that could keep the framework of humanity together. He established the enlightening idea of ‘Anomie’ or the lack of normal ethical or societal norms that might cause chaos and instability. The most important of Durkheim’s declarations is that society is intricate and a reality unique to itself. Soceity is conceived when singular consciences network and blend together to create an artificial reality that is entirely new. Durkheim believed that this reality can only be grasped in sociological expressions, and cannot be relegated to psychological or biological rationalizations.
Individuals, the parts, make up societies, the whole. Because societies tend towards larger sizes, trying to change a society is viewed as a futile exercise. Nevertheless, human nature looks around and tries to right perceived wrongs, which explains why some try to enact changes on society. However, many try and fail to change society. Perhaps this is the reason behind the vast adoration of Miguel De Cervantes’ character Don Quixote, because he demonstrates that social change is possible.
“The idea of Society is a powerful image. It is potent in its own right to control or stir men to action. This image has form; it has external boundaries, margins, and internal structure. Its outlines contain power to reward conformity and repulse attack. There is energy in its margins and unstructured areas. For symbols of society any human experience of structures, margins, or boundaries is ready to hand (Douglas 1966:113).”
The transformation of man has long since been a topic of much expanse. Today, the defining of transformation still lingers. Socialization forms the core to many transformations in a student’s life. Since John Lock posited the socialization of man in the Enlightenment period, transformation has become a direct effect often due to life altering experiences – the “liberation of the individual within a dominant, oppressive, technocratic society” (Module 4 Theory and Analysis). Paulo Freire says transformation is essential to relationship with others.
students of all ages to try to find the easiest or shortest route to the
I wrote this to try and take the reader on a journey. What you read here is a direct reflection of the current state of our society.
Society can best be described as a group of people sharing similar values within the same industrial, economic, cultural and social arena. Without society, civilizations would crumble and human progress would come to a standstill. The importance of society can never be overemphasized. In fact, the underlying goals and objectives of society condition its subsistence. One of the main purposes of a society is to ensure that its citizens achieve optimum care and enjoy the highest quality of life possible. This is guaranteed though the establishment of social networks tailored to suit the needs of all citizens. Within an ideal society, individuals work tirelessly to support each other for a common good; the outcome of such an approach is basically
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.