Types vs Judgements

To classify social organizational types is not to judge or rank them - the purpose of classification of "types", e.g., types of social organization, is to make discussion more clear. Language conveys outright and hidden values that come from social position. This makes the job of the Sociologist a challenge. Feel free to stop "the teacher" for a correction or adjustment to language if "the teacher" appears to be in judgement rather than in analysis. It is from respectful discussion that we can put some cracks in the armour of our thinking and find a fertile ground for words that heal, maintain, and build.
Quiz: comb through the web pages and take note of the highlighted, bold, and large terms. If my notes are not clear to you, refer to the book.

Zeitgeist

The word zeitgeist describes the intellectual, cultural, ethical and political climate of an era or trend. There are 2 parts to this movie. The first is the "Zeitgeist, the movie" that you should watch first (located on the bottom of the linked page) then watch the recently released "ZEITGEIST: ADDENDUM" (located on the top of the linked page). "Zeitgeist, the movie" is in 3 parts, it starts a little slow but trust me it will all make sense after you watch the whole movie. The newly released "Zeitgeist: Addendum" is very relevant to what our economy is going through at the moment. Be ready to get blown away.


http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/main.htm

panic?

I thought Thursday night's conversation was interesting, though I had a few qualms with critiquing today's society without providing good reason and exploring all factors. First, I disagree with the idea that life was better at any point. My main argument is that we have no proof that life was better in the 50's, 1800's, pre-renaissance, you name it. A 50 year old might argue that their life was better growing up, more simple, less stressed. I would agree that at least subjectively their life felt more fulfilling at that point, but where I disagree is where you place a subjective experience as a starting point for sociological thought. Absolutely, the post-world war 2 years were great, so wholesome (sarcasm), but were people really free? What was the place of women, of African Americans, of gays and lesbians?

2nd, you could argue that life up until the industrial revolution was pretty drab for most people and you could expect to die early after working hard in the fields. Was the quality of life better? Were people happier? The only "proof" we have is the impressions of writers, artists, and other accounts, but that doesn't necessarily lead me to think that an individual was happier. 

Back to the main point, has the quality of our life lessened because of technology, globalization, and sharing this space with 6.7 billion other beings? I don't think so. Hunger, violence, war still are around, but if you crack open a history book, it's nothing new. There is more and at a bigger scale because there are more of us. Overall, though, more people can read, more people can have an education, more people have access to knowledge through the internet, fine arts and music are no longer only for the elite, and, at least developed countries, we can count on a democracy (i use that term loosely in this case...). 

so is my quality of life, is society today better, yes. More people are getting basic needs met thanks to advances in technology, transportation, etc. I'm never hungry, have (almost) equal rights, and can count on a job. That sounds good to me! But, I would agree, a downside is that we tend to overdo it and replace friends with a BlackBerry, but does everyone? Don't we still hang out with friends, go see movies, spend time with loved ones? I do... 

To summarize, society has always had its good and its bad side. I think it's fair to examine our current society from an objective, global standpoint. There are parts that are in need of major repair, but overall, I think we're better off than we were 500, 100 or 50 years ago, cell or no cell phone.

Welcome Autumn Thinkers

Welcome to the 412 blog. Note that when you post, you can click a box to get emails in your In Box when and if anyone comments on your post. Watch the debates tonight! I think it is 5PM our time.

Reporter Gets Shot While on Air in Georgia

http://www.therundown.tv/videos/wtf-files/reporter-gets-shot-while-on-air/

Offensive

This is an image of the Spain's Olympic basketball posing for an ad prior to the Olympic games. All the players are slanting their eyes. A lot of people around the world are getting upset about this picture because of what they are doing. The ad is for a Spanish courier service and it has appeared in a Spanish newspaper. Even people in the states are upset over this picture because this is suppose to be a time of unity and not racism. Should us in the states care about what the Spanish team is doing? Is this racist?

Personal Responsibility vs. Just Being Honest

Going back to the discussion that was had over whether or not one should take offense
to being called the "B" word...i overheard some things said this weekend
that made me think back to that conversation...

i'll spare you the gory details,
because, it might in fact offend some people, it certainly offended me

There seems to be a trend these days where people say whatever is on their mind
regardless of who it might offend, or who's feelings it might hurt and then
qualifiying it by saying, "i'm just being honest" as if taking the
old addage that "honesty is the best policy" and applying it to situations
where it might not be if you thought about it for a moment

I'm a lover of the constitution and a proponent of the 1st amendment...one of
my favorite quotes is "i disprove of what you say but i will defend with my
life your right to say it"-voltaire

HOWEVER, i feel that just because there are no laws against hurting someone's
feelings, that some people forget what it's like when your feelings do get hurt,
and despite the old addage about sticks and stones, names can hurt

i can think of more than a few that are hurtful to large numbers of people and we
all know what they are

so why is hurting someone's feelings so easily dismissed by calling the person
hypersensative or easily offended?

shouldn't we care about other peoples feelings?

Sure your neighbor might be fat, but is saying so to his face justified by the fact
that he is fat? What about how it makes him feel to hear it? Even if he is truly a plain ole lazy glutton...is it your our place to point out? What gives you the right to do so? The first amendment protects our right to free speach, not our right to be nasty towards one another.

When did insults become honesty?

We have the right to say WHATEVER we want to say in this country so long as it isn't
libelious...but should we?

Having a strong opinion is perfectly acceptable, but it seems now more than ever,
hitting below the belt is the go to move, rathter than coming up with an articulate,
educated argument

It's my humble belief that before we speak, we should consider the feelings
of the people that will be hearing what we say ...knowing your audience might be
benificial not just so that you don't hurt or offend, but your message might
reach more people if you take the time to express it in a way that is palatable
to the majority of the poeple that are hearing it.

Do you think honesty and freedom to say what we wants trumps peoples feelings?

Oppressive or Meaningful????

Even though , both Marx and Durkheim lived secular lives, Still They defined God from different points of views. While Marx defined God as a tool of oppression; Durkheim presented God as a meaning giver to a society's existance. I think that dependant upon perspectives, both theorists have acceptable views: Marx looks at God from a socioeconomical perspective, while Durkheim looks at God from psychosocial perspective. I think that God has different meanings for different people- I assume that Weber would agree with me on this.

Did you know?

Did you know that Karl Marx was a poet? Check out his poem. He was pretty good!!

Yearning. A Romance

"Why sighs your breast, why glows your gaze,
Why are your veins all burning,
As if Night weighs, as if Fate flays
Down into storm your yearning?"

"Show me the eyes, like ringing bells,
That glow in rainbows high,
Where brightness streams, where music swells,
Where stars go swimming by.

"I dreamed this dream, so troublesome,
Past all elucidating.
My head is void, my heart is numb,
My grave shall soon be waiting."

"What dream you here, what dream you there,
What lures to distant lands?
Here booms the Tide, here Hope rides fair,
Here's fire in True Love's bonds."

"Here naught rides fair, here is no fire,
But see what glimmers yonder,
I'm blinded, burning with desire,
And I would fain sink under."

He stares aloft, his eyes shine bright,
He shakes in every limb.
His sinews swell, his heart's alight,
His soul departs from him.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1837-pre/verse/index.htm

Restitutive Law Vs. Repressive Law

 Repressive Law: server punishment for crime committed.

 Restitutive Law: pay for the crime committed.

In my father opinion, he believes that the best way to stop graffiti on many street in Los Angeles is to have a cop waiting at a location until a tagger shows up. Upon his arrival the cop should shoot the arm or the leg. The result of this is to warn all taggers that graffiti is a crime that has consequenses. 

My fathers ideas regarding law is definitely repressive. 

Thought this would help someone remember the difference. 

God-what is the meaning of life ?

The meaning of life is within you. Life is the same as me. You gave me a name, you shaped my rules and regulations. The meaning of life exist within you; is the same as adding a meaning to a thing. Remember that the added meaning is a consensus of morals, values, believes, ideals, and rules among the group you belong to. The meaning of life is what makes you and your group stay together. It is a form of unity and moral consensus; it is the dynamic and the differentiation of the organic solidarity. Your society creates God, therefore your society creates the meaning of life.

Suicide Bombers

Hello: This is my first blog. I have been thinking about a good topic to bring up and now I have it. I wonder what type of suicide the current extremist suicide bombers fall under. Extreme Islamist who follow through on a suicide, seem to me to be isolated from the rest of the world and at the same time are oppressed but feel a great sense of community within their group. What would Durkheim have to say? What do you guys think?

How to stop Illegal Immigration!!

I THINK THIS IS SO FUNNY!! LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK!

paper on technical rules & moral rules MORE

is the technical/moral due on monday or wed? it was unclear to me. it would be a great help
Hi, Class - this is me, MT, teacher, and editor of this post: I took the *liberty* to edit this post of Ashley so you'd all look. I didn't want to bump down" that cute and brilliant video on immigration! Watch it if you have not.
Here is more on the rules paper: pick a rule, any rule. decide if it seems primarily in Durkheim's category of "technical" or primarily "moral" e.g., brush your teeth or your teeth rot seems pretty technical. Technical rule = the punishment is "built in" to the act. The technical computer rule is save a file or you lose the file. Thou shalt not kill seems pretty moral. Now, with your rule of choice and being very specific about what you mean, show how the rule you picked can also be seen as the opposite type (how is it also moral if classified as technical or how is it also technical if you pick a moral rule.) Remember, the more specific the better.

• the EASY way is to take a technical rule and say how it had morality added onto it, e.g., Momma says you're a "good boy" if you do or a "bad boy" if you do not follow.
• the HARDER but maybe more ENLIGHTENING route might be to pick a moral rule and explain how it actually is a "direction" on "how things do work" rather than all moral.

For those that were moved by Christian the lion

Here's an article link with the story:

How Christian the lion became a YouTube sensation

Spirituality

Someone in class brought up a great point about spirituality and how Marx and Durkheim would feel about its relation to religion, we discussed some ideas but I struggled to listen because one big thing stood out to me. Could the need to be spiritual stem from the need of religion? Although there is no institution, the need to relate to something is there. Is spirituality just a different way of relating to a religious group; one that does not have an established institution. Just wanted to see what you guys think...

Chicken or the egg?

Durkheim's belief is that people are a product of society.

So did society create people or did people create society?

Marx's musicians friends

This freestyle rap calls for revolution. This music expresses poverty and political issues that go hand in (or -with- I don't know idioms-but something like that) hand with Marx's revolution plan.

Immortal Technique -- The Poverty of Philosophyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7Vl0peys90&feature=related

Do you live to work or work to live?

That is my brothers e-mail signature. And that is exactly what Marx is telling us. In our society we have been condition to 'work to live.' If we don't work we are lazy, if we don't want to success in this materialistic world we are losers, hippies, un-American because we are not pursuing the American dream, but if we would have learn otherwise, then it will be easier to accept, understand, and agree with Marx's plan "be a fisherman in the morning, a carpenter in the afternoon, a poet at night."

What kind of music are we supposed to take for monday??

we are looking for artist that express their disaproval of capitalism, right?

Did anyone attend the $28,000 dinner

down at the Dorothy Chandler Hall? It was a fund raiser for Barack Obama - $28,000 a plate. He had one of these events also in Manhattan on Park Avenue. Watch for SF, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, Washington DC and Boston. In LA, he raised over $4 million in one meal. 10 cities, 10 meals - 30 million easy.

Can a candidate raise money from the bourgeoisie and then assist the proletariat? See http://theory414.blogspot.com/ from Soc 414 to see how they are using their blog.

Lost

Hi Everyone,

I cannot attend class on Wednesday night. Can anyone let me know what I miss? Is there any homework that is due by Monday. Another question I have is that I am kind of lost about the blog. What do I suppose to do when I am in a blog? Besides asking questions and having comments.

Thank You

some help.. maybe?

hi, i couldnt make it to last nights evening soc.412 class. was there any vital information that i would need to know before i come to the next class meeting? any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Confused

What determines who I am? In so many ways I feel that God predetermines who and what I am. That's what the bible says. Marx says my society is to blame. Then I feel like my surroundings play a huge part but I think about my situtation and have to wonder. I'm not like some people who grew up in my neighborhood. Why am I different? Why did my life turn out different? So confused.

We spend 90% of our time trying to be different.

When some one at school confuses me with another girl, my answer to them is, "I am unique there is no one like me." My religon taught me that people outside of my religion are worldly, therefore, we are different. I belonged to the "special group of people who will live for ever in paradise. I was different than the rest of the world." Weber explains that religion has taught their followers a status of distiction which is guarantee by conventions and laws, but specially by "religious sanctions." I don't know what he means by sanctions but I think that religion should be hold accountable for many cathastrophic political decisions that have devastated countries, that have created genosides, that have murder women and children simply because the opposite side has diffent color eyes, skin tone, different opinions, different religion!!. I seems that I am contradicting my self when I say "different religion" (is it a back fire?) But, I think that it proves that religion should be blame for making me believe that I was different than you.