About Me
My name is Michael, I'm 22 years old. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I spend most of my time trying to figure out who I should be, or more, how to adapt to the world without compromising too much of what I believe. I sometimes doubt the Christian moral foundation that is my life and that of our nation.
I am a sociology major. I believe that everything in society stems from three sociological concepts: functionalsm, conflict, and symbolic interaction.
I believe that everything in society has a function (even if it's one that is "morally wrong", such as war, but can be changed). Conflict among groups is responsible for other things (again including war). And through symbolic interaction with other people, social norms and a construction of reality is created.
I don't really understand anything about anything, but it's the constant struggle to understand things that drives me. I'm somewhat of a relativist, I don't believe in things being inherently evil.
However, I believe that people are inherently greedly, a product of their biological drive to thrive and mulitiply aquired from millions of years of evolution. On the other hand I believe people are born with a blank slate in which they are able to learn the social norms within the socity they are born into. and are able to check their greed in order to survive peacefully with those around them.
I believe most tension in our society is not the product of racism, but more, culturism, if that is even a word. This culture, while including race, also includes differences in class, in education, in geography, in dialect, in music, in movies, and much much more.
And after all of that I can only conclude that we can make a difference, if the problems of society are structural in nature. But before the system can change, we must change. The problem is not in some far off congressman or celebrity, but rather the social bonds that you have available to you, your friends, your family, your lover, your church, your school. Spend time helping those you can reach first, write to your congressman later. Don't throw the match from a distance, light the fire where you stand.
Or something like that.......
"It does not matter if the war is not real. For when it is, victory is not possible. The
war is not meant to be won, but it is meant to be continuous. A hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and
ignorance, this new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. the war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or east Asia but to keep the very structure of society in tact"
-1984
Life confronts human beings with problems and opportunities, and in order to solve the former and take advantage of the latter, they must give them meaning. Moreover, a creature who must find meanings in events in-order to act is, in a sense, driven to find meaning. We contsruct meaning in order to solve problems but we also sometimes look for meaning, even where it does not exist, because it is in our symbolic nature to look for it. The quest for meaning enables us to adapt, but sometimes it also makes us crazy."
- Self and Society
