All Entries in the "Lead" Category
Socialization
We, especially those of us who live in North America, like to think we are stout individuals. We set our own course, navigate the waves, and actualize our potential. Like Bill Gates we are self made individuals, heroes or losers in our own stories and in the end we’ve got only ourselves to congratulate or blame. But honestly, that’s a Hollywood story. As any Sociologist will tell you we are not the masters of our own fate but are in fact embedded in social networks were Agents of Socialization train us, tune us, and turn us out like so many cogs on an assembly line. Are you born into the working class, well your socialization will NOT prepare you for higher education. Are you born in the upper classes. Your education and training will be different. Different attitudes, different values, and even the presence of paid tutors will increase your odds of educational success. Sucks, but its true. It’s not a level playing field and whether you like it or not, you are the products of the agents who trained you.
Facebook is a Spy Machine
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Facebook ain’t your friend. From the facile and shallow way it connects people to the awesome power it gives authorities to monitor and surveille, Facebook is a technology born not in the hallways of emancipation and freedom but in the byways of power and control. Or at least, that’s what Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks thinks and frankly, I tend to agree. Never before in this history of this planet have so many been monitored by so few with so little responsible oversight.
Osama is Dead, but What Have We Learned?
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my years of watching the U.S. is that government always precedes some big, mind numbing global intervention (war, invasion, occupation, nuclear bomb, etc. etc.) with some sort of diversion. Like any magician knows, you can do a lot by diverting someone’s attention. And so here we have the latest diversion, a magical invocation guaranteed to catch consciousness and steer it away from whatever is coming next. Keep an eye out. Something wicked this way comes. Ed.
If Society is the Disease, is Cannabis the Cure?
Cannabis gets a lot of bad press, but perhaps it is undeserved. While alcohol, cocaine, heroin, and even tobacco are known to be highly addictive and damaging to the physical body and brain, there’s not a lot of negative research on cannabis. In fact, quite the opposite. More and more research is finding medicinal properties. From anti-depressent and anti-anxiety effects to its ability to help generate new pathways in the brain, is cannabis and its effects on psychology, health, and our social fabric worth having a closer look at?
The Morphing of Obama
If you think there’s a difference between Republican and Democrat, if you think the choice is real, think again. Barack Obama won the presidency and the hearts of billions around the world by pledging to bring peace. His humanitarian rhetoric promised a new era in American foreign policy, away from armed confrontation and towards cooperation. But since taking office he has increased combat forces in Afghanistan, expanded our air strikes in Pakistan, shifted the fighting in Iraq onto hired mercenaries and local soldiers, and pledged his “full support” to the “heroic” CIA. Ah the huddles masses, hooped again. When will we learn?
Wealth and Inequality in America
Sociology looks at income and wealth and one of the repetitive insights of sociology is that wealth in unequally distributed, more so today than perhaps ever before. In these modern times we generate more wealth than at any time in history, yet we concentrate that into fewer and fewer hands. A few people live high, high, high on the hog while the vast majority suffer and struggle to even buy food. I suppose the growing number of poor people on the planet could always eat cake…
Miracles in the Making: Information Technology and Middle East Populism
As Bob Dylan once sang, times they are changing. Finally it does appear to be that way. The Middle East has boiled over with grass roots, ground up revolution! It’s too soon to tell what’s going to happen, and the installation of a military dictatorship in Egypt doesn’t bode well for democracy, but things are certainly on the move. What will the powers that be do to contain the nascent democratic leanings. Only time will tell.
What’s on your mind? Facebook, voluntary surveillance, and the global panopticon
As a sociologist I’ve always been interested in surveillance. Jeremy Bentham, Foucault, Orwell. Like it or not surveillance is an aspect of the industrial and post-industrial world. It’s been talked about for centuries and dystopian authors like Orwell, sociologists like Foucault, and others have worried about the future directions and the implications of total surveillance and control. Well, almost 30 years after 1984 is the Ministry of Truth finally here and right under our noses? Don’t be shy. Show us your face and tell us “what’s on your mind” today.
Conscious Peace: World Peace Depends upon Our Collective Consciousness
We live in a materialist universe, or do we? Scientists chant a materialist mantra but gravity, a concept present at the very birth of Science, is an invisible force that nobody has ever seen–in other words, immaterial. As sociologists our ontology (what we believe to be the nature of existence) is important. Do we limit ourselves when we buy into a scientific materialism? Is there something more we should be considering? Inquiring minds want to know.
The Game of Survival – Inequality Equations and Miss-Calculations
Iisms and Schisms and postmodern standpoints. We live in spineless world were we all “go along” just to get along and where “playing the game” (i.e. complying with social conventions, avoiding confrontation, and letting the status quo exist unchallenged) is seen as a sign of virtue rather than a character weakness. We bend over for The System, but is the plum we get for being the good boy or girl really worth it. In a world characterized by the destructive excesses of our consumer capitalist society, perhaps its time to re-evaluate our perspectives and begin living according to principles, values, and core Truths once again.
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