This group of paragraphs should tell what I have learned about the Schwalbe and Darden sociology textbooks as well as what I have learned about sociology this last semester. Many things discussed in class and in the texts are things I have given thought to before. There are a few things I never thought about before, and I found these most intriguing; they fostered my interest in sociology as a region of study. Most of the things I had thought about before were held up under a different light. I see connections now that were not obvious before, but I don’t know how I missed them. All you have to do is think about something and POOF there is something new you didn’t realize before. There are many things that cause our world’s social patterns and change them. Sociological mindfulness leads us to think deeper about why things happen the way they happen and why things are the way they are. Sociology is not something that is learned once and then utilized throughout the rest of your life. It is a lifelong learning process where you find out more as you go along. I’m not sure but I don’t think humans can know everything. Just like you said you cannot know all your options, but my point was try to know as many as possible to facilitate the best outcome, if you want the best outcome. There isn’t really a way to know all about sociology, except to know how to think about how as a social world we are all connected. Connections, how the rest of the world affects us, and knowing we are different are vital keys to understanding sociology. Enjoy!

Sociology is the study of the effects of society on individuals. For example people from different backgrounds might look at things differently: a white upper class male would not look at white/black racism the same as a black lower class male. This is because both men would have had different experiences with racism of this type and would have differing views on the subject because they would have different information regarding it. We also see ourselves differently than others see us. It’s not so much that they know more about us; they just think different things about us than we usually think about ourselves. Our culture tries to teach us that we are individuals, which we are, but no one really points out that our individuality or our personality is actually a result of our past experiences. It’s not so much that we are each unique, but that we have had different pasts. The individuality is a sort of side effect.


Another thing is to not think the information about something is absolutely all there is to know about it. You might know quite a bit about a certain subject, but there is always someone with different information than you. For example a few people I know don’t have the same outlook towards certain substances as I do. That doesn’t mean I’m right or they’re wrong; it just means were different. And knowing we are all different is a way to have more power in the social world. If you know how you are different from someone you can use that to play on him or her and get what you want. Like if you are very greedy and someone you know is very charitable, you can use their good will and charity to get money or stuff from them. You could lie and say something bad has happened to you and you need their help, or say you are collecting for a charity. Another way to use the things that make people different to gain power is to make them believe your product will solve their problems. You don’t even have to be dishonest to do this! If you have a weight loss product, you use little advertising tricks to get their money. You can show the number where your product is available on a TV commercial, and show pictures of skinny or beautiful people. To top it off say something like “are you tired of diets that take too long? Don’t have time to exercise?” and things like that to convince people to hand over their money. I’m not too keen on manipulating people like that, but hey some people might be, so who am I to say they are wrong? That is just one way to have power over someone. Chapter 10 in the Schwalbe book talks about how Power has more to do with having good information on something, your emotions towards that something, and ideas of how to use that something to get what you want. Guns and money don’t really bring power. You can have a million bucks and a box of guns, but if you don’t understand the concept of trading, even paper money for items, or how a gun is operated, you can’t really do anything.

Also knowing we are different can help to cause less conflict between people. Instead of saying, “our way is the right way and you shouldn’t do things your way because they don’t agree with us,” we could say, “hey, our ways are different, but maybe we can ignore or work with each other on this.” Sort of like how the white man came onto this continent and killed off its native inhabitants, the Indians. The Native Americans for the most part were willing to share the land and work with the white man and his ways, but we would have none of it. Instead we imposed our ways on those who were different from us, except for those who were too scared to fight back or those who decided it wasn’t really worth fighting over. Heck, we could have even played them on their beliefs for a while before they caught on and scalped us ;) .

Sociology shows how the actions of a group or individual affect another group of people. When dealing with social classes there are a few small groups with a lot of power, and they are the ones that affect the large groups. What I mean is the larger the group, the less power it has. There are many, many people in the lower classes, and as you move progressively upward through the classes, there are fewer people in each class. This also has to do with the smallest percent of the population having the largest percent of the money. A place where this is the opposite is with activist groups as pointed out by my good friend. Usually more members are better if you want to get power, i.e. power is getting what you want.

“Sociological mindfulness” also helps you to notice social ‘injustices’ and to see why these problems keep propagating instead of being solved. Differences and inequalities are different things. Differences are things we might find nice if celebrating diversity. Some differences, either by their own devices or by the social situation they are involved in, cause inequalities. Some inequalities remain functional due to ignoring them. Like if we say it doesn’t matter where you come from ethnically, we are all the same. It might very well be true we are all the same inside, physically, in how our bodies and minds work. But we are not treated as equals by everyone, and probably not by anyone. Some differences, like taste in clothing, music, and food can be good. On the other hand religious beliefs, politics, and sexual preference can be disruptive. When I first read this type of statement in the Schwalbe book I was confused. How can someone’s sexual preferences be disruptive to others?  Then I realized those things don’t necessarily disrupt others; it may be that others disrupt people because of their sexual preference. Or if someone follows a religion where it is good for you to run around tripping people, that could be very disruptive.  It can be anything from keeping minimum wage low so the president and stockholders of a company can keep their pockets warm with green, or holding someone’s power down so you can be prejudiced. A company can hire lobbyists to try to get bills passed that will keep the national minimum wage low so they have more profit. This isn’t really wrong or immoral; they’re just using their information, feelings, and ideas to get what they want. Don’t be mad just because they thought and worked harder to get what they want that you have. If you’re going to be mad, be mad that society might have given them a better chance for success, or that certain differences between you make it harder for you, or maybe just easier for them.
I could ramble about things for a long time because the more obvious things I think about, the more connections I find. I’ve probably left something very important out of this, but that’s because I didn’t put forth effort towards this class at the appropriate time. What really sucks is right after I figured out what applying myself to school was all about I got Academic Suspension.  I really enjoyed your class, and hope to hang with you, within or without of a class again.