Social Movements Today

Social change is in the air and more people today are becoming politically active than have in the last forty years.  As our environment begins to feel the effects of a hundred years worth of industrialization and trillions of tons of greenhouse gasses, people are beginning to speak out against the current situation and are demanding change.   The collective action of hundreds of people are being to see true results as individuals, companies, and even nations are being to change the way they think and act.  People have began to think of the effects their actions will have on the environment, so people have began to recycle more, automobile companies have began producing more efficient vehicles, and nations have began placing sanctions and restrictions on practices that are going to have harmful consequences on the environment.   This social movement is one that started small with little backing sixty years ago, but after enough persistence people have begun to listen and the movement has grow to one of worldly proportions and many nations around the world have joined in the effort to  preserve our world in its current state for has many years as possible.   Along with this environmental movement there has been another movement growing in recent years that has been steadily gaining strength in the late 1950s.  A sexual revolution has been sweeping America, with the theme of sexual freedom taking a strong root.  This sexual liberation movement has led to education to children who prior had been deprived of the truth, being showed an abstinence only path.  When I speak of sexual freedom, I not only am speaking of a cultural relaxation on the idea of having sex, but having sex with the partner of whoever’s choosing.  The gay and lesbian community has seen great leaps forward in being accepted, more so than any other time before in America.  While this aspect of the sexual liberation movement is still in the beginning stages, gays and lesbians are being to hold political office passions and are being seen as equals in the eyes of many.  These movements are only a few of many social movements taking place in America and compared to the rest of the world, America is place of stability and stainless.  Other nations are currently in the mist of civil wars, which are the most extreme social movements that can take place.  These nations are the ones who will see the most change of the next ten, twenty, and fifty years.   Their cultural may change in unexpectable amount and might have to resemblance of any former culture.   In this way it is important to understand the social change in a necessary factor to human society as it constantly pushes forward the idea of what is normal and what is acceptable.   

Population, The Environment, and Social Change

Indian Census: Population About 1.2 Billion

By AP / MUNEEZA NAQVI Thursday, Mar. 31, 2011

(NEW DELHI) — India is now home to 17 percent of all people in the world as its population climbed to 1.21 billion in 2011, though growth actually slowed for the first time in 90 years, census officials said Thursday.

The South Asian nation still saw a double digit jump in people, adding 181 million in the past 10 years, said C. Chandramouli, the census commissioner. The 17.6 percent increase was down from 21.5 in the 2001 count.

The last time India showed slowing in population growth was in the 1921 census. (See if the world is ready for 7 billion people.)

United Nations projections still show that India could overtake China and its 1.34 billion people as the world's most populous nation by 2030, though Chandramouli said a more rigorous analysis of data would be needed before India made its own projections.

The numbers released Thursday were preliminary and official figures and analysis weren't expected to be released until next year.

The census, India's 15th such exercise since 1872, was a mammoth effort spread out over one year. It involved 2.7 million census-takers who surveyed some 300 million households, noting for the first time whether people live in basic huts or concrete structures, have electricity and access to toilets and if they have spent any time in schools.

The questions will help administrators develop policies and set budgets for a nation where 800 million people live in poverty.

Almost all residents, regardless of nationality, are included in the count, even those imprisoned like Pakistani Ajmal Kasab, who is on death row for his role in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Millions of homeless were also counted.

The initial numbers show a decline in the number of children under the age of 6, down 5 million since 2001 to 158.8 million. They also indicate a continuing preference for male children over females in a country where female infanticide is still common and the government has banned doctors from revealing the sex of unborn children. (See the myths of the only child.)

A gender breakdown among children showed fewer girls than boys are being born or surviving, with 914 girls for every 1,000 boys under the age of 6, compared to 927 for every 1,000 in the last census.

"This is a matter of grave concern," Chandramouli said.

Indians continue to favor sons over daughters mostly because of the enormous expenses involved in marrying them. Even the poorest families are often likely to go into debt arranging marriages and paying elaborate dowries to their daughter's new family. Hindu custom also dictates that only sons can light funeral pyres.

"Whatever measures that have been put in over the last 40 years has not had any impact on child sex ratio and therefore that requires a complete review," India's Home Secretary G.K. Pillai said.

The overall sex-ratio showed a marginal improvement, with 940 women counted for every 1,000 men compared to 933 in the last census.

The census also showed that the literacy rate went up to 74 percent nationwide for people aged 7 and older, from about 65 percent in the last count.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2062360,00.html#ixzz1IWYNreG1

 This video is titled "The Greenhouse Effect"

 The following are links for further research:

http://www.sociosite.net/topics/activism.php

- This website titled "Activism, Collective Action, and Social Movements" and it is a list of a number of major social movements in the making around the world.  It is a great link for those looking to get more involved and participate a collective behavior social movement that can have a positive impact on the culture and society.

http://www.cgdev.org/section/initiatives/_archive/populationanddevelopment

- This is a link to a website called "Center from Global Development" and it has information on the population dynamics of different nations around the world.  It has links to other news stories and blogs about the development of multiple nations, as well as other social issues taking place.


Cesar Chavez was speaking out about about  social change, saying "Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed.  You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read.  You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride.  You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore.  We have seen the future, and the future is outs."


 The chapter Population, The Environment, and Social Change is an important one because of the the effects that each of these three factors has on a society.  Not only that but these factors are also interconnected within themselves.  Population density effects the environment and how quickly we use its resources and if people see changes within the environmental behavior than social change is bound to follow.  This is true today for the Green movement after people began to see the effects that industrialization has had on our environment over the last hundred years.  This is why I used the video titled "The Greenhouse Effect" as it steams from this movement and also shows the effects that our industrious population has had on our environment.
As we modernize and mobilize we are in turn urbanizing and this is the reason for the picture of the urban setting above.  Cities like this are become more and more frequent and small towns begin to grown and people migrate towards the cities in hopes of economic prosperity and a better life.  The reason for this recent urbanization has come from the influx of population growth as exemplified by the article "Indian Census: Population About 1.2 Billion." This population growth has lead to a change in the way societies have to operate to be sustainable.  People behaviors are also being to change as this is why I add the two link for further research.  While the first link is to a website that headlines social movements happening throughout the world, the second shows how nations throughout the world are developing and from there one can infer the way people in that society might behave.  Lastly, I used the quote from Cesar Chavez for obvious reasons since a major theme within the chapter was social movements and the ways society can gain from them.

G C N D E M O G R A P H Y F I V R R S B 
G R E O B I H G F I Z C A C K E E N O D 
G T E N I W B V K F L H D T T F B O C B 
K T G E S T F C T O V A T K O V S I I B 
O F A Y N U A U F K T Q G R R A W T A L 
O F V D B H S Z I C X N M Y L O L A L M 
E T E T J J O Y I S T M P J M P Y Z M W 
N X T O J W T U J L O D O X E S N I O Y 
U S X A Q D C I S V A F D Y O O S N V K 
G P T A N S W L E E F B A D I M R R E B 
B T A Y T A P M K E E H O T F K A E M T 
E P I D E O E Y G N U F A L O U U D E F 
Q Q M A D N V Z I T L Z F T G F H O N A 
M A Y Y T I G G E J I U R E B M P M T I 
D K M S X B V W D N P B A F C U K M S T 
G N I M R A W L A B O L G Q M T N W T C 
G K J Z P N R B E U R H L Z N A X B H W 
Z Y L K U U R K B H V R E I C F T F Q Y 
W I X N G U G K O U Q M Y W B S H J I X 
C O L L E C T I V E B E H A V I O R V I 

CENSUS - a count of the entire population of a country
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR - behavior that occurs when the usual conventions are 

suspended and people collectively establish new norms of 

behavior in response to an emerging situation
DEMOGRAPHY - the scientific study of population
GLOBALIZATION - increased economic, political, and social interconnectedness

and interdependence among societies in the world
GLOBAL WARMING - the systematic increase in worldwide surface temperature 
GREENHOUSE EFFECT - a rise in the earth's surface temperature caused by heat

trapped by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
MODERNIZATION - a process of social and cultural change that is initiated by 

industrialization and followed by increased social 

differentiation and division of labor
REFORM MOVEMENTS - social movements that seek change through legal or other

mainstream political means, by working within existing 

institutions 
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS - a group that acts with some continuity and organization 

to promote or resist social change in society 
URBANIZATION - the process by which a community acquires the characteristics of 

city life

Sexuality

Behavior: The Porn Factor
By Pamela Paul Monday, Jan. 19, 2004

In a Friends episode titled "The One with Free Porn," Chandler and Joey discover to their delight a free pornography TV channel, which they leave on and watch endlessly for fear it will go away. Later, a startled Chandler reports to Joey, "I was just at the bank, and there was this really hot teller, and she didn't ask me to go do it in the vault." Joey describes a similar cold shoulder from the pizza-delivery woman. "You know what?" Chandler concludes. "We have to turn off the porn."

Chandler may be on to something. Call it the porn factor. Whereas pornography was once furtively glimpsed at dimly lighted newsstands or seedy adult theaters, today it is everywhere. It pours in over the Internet, sometimes uninvited, sometimes via eagerly forwarded links (Paris Hilton, anyone?). It titillates 24/7 on steamy adult cable channels and on-demand services (the pay-per-view reality show Can You Be a Porn Star? made its debut this month). It has infiltrated mainstream cable with HBO's forthcoming documentary series Pornucopia: Going Down in the Valley. And in ways that have only begun to be measured, it is coloring relationships, both long-and short-term, reshaping expectations about sex and body image and, most worrisome of all, threatening to alter how young people learn about sex.

In recent years, a number of psychologists and sociologists have joined the chorus of religious and political opponents in warning about the impact of pervasive pornography. They argue that porn is transforming sexuality and relationships--for the worse. Experts say men who frequently view porn may develop unrealistic expectations of women's appearance and behavior, have difficulty forming and sustaining relationships and feeling sexually satisfied. Fueled by a combination of access, anonymity and affordability, online porn has catapulted overall pornography consumption--bringing in new viewers, encouraging more use from existing fans and escalating consumers from soft-core to harder-core material. Cyberporn is even giving rise to a new form of sexual compulsiveness. According to Alvin Cooper, who conducts seminars on cybersex addiction, 15% of online-porn habitues develop sexual behavior that disrupts their lives. "The Internet is the crack cocaine of sexual addiction," says Jennifer Schneider, co-author of Cybersex Exposed: Simple Fantasy or Obsession?

Yet most users say sex online is nothing more than good (if not quite clean) fun. According to a 2001 online survey of 7,037 adults, two-thirds of those who visit websites with sexual content say their Internet activities haven't affected their level of sexual activity with their partners, though three-quarters report masturbating while online. The vast majority of respondents--85% to 90%--according to Cooper, who heads the San Jose Marital and Sexuality Center, which conducted the study, are what he calls "recreational users," people who view pornography as a curiosity or diversion.

The question is, Can even recreational use be unhealthy? A 2003 online study by Texas Christian University found that the more pornography men watch, the more likely they are to describe women in sexualized terms and categorize women in traditional gender roles. Mark Schwartz, director of the Masters and Johnson clinic in St. Louis, Mo., says porn not only causes men to objectify women--seeing them as an assemblage of breasts, legs and buttocks--but also leads to a dependency on visual imagery for arousal. "Men become like computers, unable to be stimulated by the human beings beside them," he says. "The image of a lonely, isolated man masturbating to his computer is the Willy Loman metaphor of our decade."

Other psychologists are more tolerant. Most men use pornography in secret, and as long as it doesn't affect their relationships, some say that's O.K. "If a client is enjoying a healthy use of pornography without his wife's knowledge, I would counsel him not to tell her," says psychiatrist Scott Haltzman, who studies men and relationships. Yet many therapists say such behavior creates a breach of trust. Spouses often view porn as a betrayal or even as adultery. The typical reaction when a woman discovers her husband's habit is shock and "How dare he?" According to therapist Lonnie Barbach, based in Mill Valley, Calif., many such women "feel like they're not good enough. Otherwise, why would their mates be seeking this?"

Sometimes pornography tears couples apart. At the 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, two-thirds of the 350 divorce lawyers who attended said the Internet played a significant role in divorces in the past year, with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half of such cases. "This is clearly related to the Internet," says Richard Barry, president of the association. "Pornography had an almost nonexistent role in divorce just seven or eight years ago."

Still, couples therapists sometimes suggest pornography as a way to refresh relationships or spark desire. Increasingly, women are game. Sociologist Michael Kimmel has found that each year more of his female college students approve of porn, which may reflect women's increased sexual empowerment. Nonetheless, he says, "their attitude is surprising to those of us who think it an impoverished view of liberation to construct your sex life the way men do." The key, therapists say, is for mutual consumption to be seductive to both partners and for material to be "erotic" rather than "pornographic." Most describe the difference this way: porn is objectifying and derogatory while erotica depicts mutually satisfying sex between equal partners. Others say it's a matter of taste.

Trouble is, often the taste is not shared. Jessica (not her real name), 28, a product manager in New York City, tolerates her boyfriend's pornography habit, but his admiration for bodies like that of porn queen Jenna Jameson has made her insecure, so she plans to get breast implants. "My boyfriend told me lots of his friends' girlfriends have done it," she says. "He said to me, 'Imagine what an awesome body you'll have!' I can't blame him for his preferences." But Jessica isn't sure that surgery will improve their sex life. "He tends to be selfish sexually," she says. "I think pornography has a lot to do with it. For him, porn is easy."

Jessica's experience is pretty typical, says Aline Zoldbrod, a sex therapist in Lexington, Mass. She says men's use of porn for undemanding relief often distracts them from the task of trying to please their real-life partners.

Porn doesn't just give men bad ideas; it can give kids the wrong idea at a formative age. Whereas children used to supplement sex education by tearing through National Geographic in search of naked aboriginals and leafing through the occasional Penthouse they stumbled across in the garage, today many are confronted by pornographic images on a daily basis. In a 2001 poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 70% of 15-to 17-year-olds said they had accidentally come across pornography online. Older teens may be aware of the effects of such images: 59% of 15-to-24-year-olds told the pollsters they believe seeing porn on the Internet encourages young people to have sex before they are ready; 49% said it promotes bad attitudes toward women and encourages viewers to think unprotected sex is O.K. "Pornography is affecting people at an increasingly young age," says sociologist Diana Russell, who has written several books on the subject. "And unfortunately for many kids growing up today, pornography is the only sex education they'll get."

Because children learn sexual cues early, boys may train themselves to respond only to images shaped by porn stars, while girls may learn that submission and Brazilian bikini waxes are the keys to pleasing men. Recent studies show a correlation between increased aggressiveness in boys and exposure to pornography, and a link between childhood use of porn and sexually abusive behavior in adulthood. "It's not easy to shock me," says Judith Coche, a therapist in Philadelphia who has been in practice for 25 years. "But one 11-year-old girl's parents discovered their daughter creating her own pornographic website because it's 'cool' among her friends." As such incidents multiply, more Americans--parents especially--may come to Chandler's conclusion: We have to turn off the porn.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993158-3,00.html#ixzz1IVXBTb6T

 The video is called Sex Trafficking in Cambodia

 The following are resources for further research:

 http://www.now.org/issues/lgbi/stats.html

- This website has some interesting information about homophobia with many statistics about gay and lesbian culture.  Homophobia is an unfortunate aspect of many cultures often steaming from a societies ignorance  and uncomfortableness with the gay and lesbian culture.  

http://www.hi-ho.ne.jp/taku77/refer/sexnorm.htm

-  This website has some general information about sex norms and where America stands compared to the rest of the world.  It is interesting because it shows how different nations view different sexual acts.  Somethings that are perfectly acceptable in one nation might be a serious taboo in another.



Woody Allen Once said, "Love is the answer, but while you are waiting for the answer sex raises some pretty good questions."  I thought this was great because it is so universal.  Everyone, despite what society or sexual orientation is looking for love.  This drive for love, or even sex, can drive someone's sexuality and often makes up someones sexual orientation and identity.

 I chose the chapter on sexuality because of much of a role it plays on society.  Sexuality is connected within all societies and is interconnected with many social issues.  I find it interesting how different societies feel about sex and how different the handle individual sexuality.  Some nations within the Netherlands are extremely open when it comes to ones sexuality and some even openly exploit sex to tourists and see it as a business. South eastern India has a long history of freedom of sexuality and many temples were decorated and adorned with  figured depicted different sexual positions.  This is actually where the picture used above was from.  The figurines are only a few of the many depicted upon the building engaged in sexual acts. This use of pornography continues today but instead of being decoration on temple buildings and painted on the walls of Greek and Roman bath houses, it has mainly moved toward the internet.  The article titled "Behavior: the porn factor" discuses this at length showing both positive and negative factors to pornography being so accessible today.  I liked the article because of its slight bias against porn.  It shows the opposing side to the argument that porn can be seen as the ultimate expression of freedom and sexuality.
Unfortunately, there is a negative side to an open expression of sexuality.  People can exploit the system and take advantage of peoples wants and desires.  This is why I posted the video "Sex Trafficking in Cambodia."  Greedy people take women hostage and exploit mans desire for sex by selling these women against there will.  The research links are also tied in to this idea of people abusing others sexuality. Homophobia is often caused by someone ignorance and inabilities to except others happiness because it is different than their own and so they do not understand it. The second link shows that their is always a gray area to sexual right and wrong.  What might be seen as a sexual taboo in one nation, might be perfectly acceptable in another. Finally the quote by Woody Allen is great because it can encompass so much. Love is a beautiful end to a long story, but sex makes up the chapters that fill the book. 

N X Q Y Z S B J P Q W C U E N Y S I O P S E M V Q 
P U H J T J C F Q U E E R T H E O R Y M C O W X Q 
S W Y P V I W V P J V L H V X E L L C J I G I T R 
R B S M R K T D G I O M O U N E N I I Q T O D P Y 
R B H X W N B N C J S D A U C S Z T C O I D L S U 
M O C V H Q Q O E I E L Q T E D C K H X L U Q U T 
M H O S N Z M S X D O E M D G X J K Y T O N H N K 
L U O K T I Q E A R I S C I N E G U E Q P U O D V 
R W S M N T S D I A A L X U Y U J L C D L Z Q T X 
K M X G O O L E M Y T O A O W U I W I H A F B I Y 
P D O L R P N M O A Y R Z U X B O D E H U X D M O 
T U Y E D T H V R K N P Q S X C L S C K X O Q P H 
T A T W A F T O Y R L L Y Q T E Z A L O E G S M R 
J E V T G C Z J B E R R U R G X S I Q Z S H E Z P 
H M I V L C P C X I N X R L X U D Y H F I O X E R 
A O I N W X N R R V A Z A W C X Z R L S Q C T R X 
N U C G T X Z D Z T A Q U R O D C O R T Q E O Q Z 
V Y O T F B M H A S L R Z P B P I O C X J V U N C 
R F P O J L N D E Y E Y X A O J E O C P F N R F J 
P R Y X I R S P C A F V R T Q W X B T L O G I C E 
Q W E I V F J F L E M B F X H A T H M Y E S S L S 
H G L D N O I T U L O V E R L A U X E S A F M M Q 
S U U M C G A P Z K N N E A B T V D R G S S O C M 
N R H D O T P S R F B E Y O M K W G K G Y P C Z J 
P H X J P R F J D X F M M V R P Z Z K F Y D H W L 

COMING OUT - the process of defining oneself as gay or lesbian
EUGENICS - a social movement in the early twentieth sentur that south to apple

scientific principles of genetic selection to "improve" the 

offspring of the human race
HETEROSEXISM - the institutionalization of heterosexuality as the only socially

legitimate sexual orientation 
HOMOPHOBIA - the fear and hatred of homosexuals
QUEER THEORY - a theoretical perspective that recognizes the social constructed

nature of sexual identity
SEX TOURISM - practice wherebypeople travel to particular parts of the world 

specifically to engage in commercial sexual activities
SEXUAL IDENTITY - the definition of oneself that is formed around one's sexual

relationships 
SEXUAL ORIENTATION - the attraction that people feel for people of the same or

different sex
SEXUAL POLITICS - the link feminists argue exists between sexuality and power and 

between sexuality and race, class, and gender oppression
SEXUAL REVOLUTION - a drastic relaxation in general standard of sexual behavior

Culture and the Media

Woodstock - The Message of History's Biggest Happening
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901295,00.html#ixzz1IF69gk9b

The baffling history of mankind is full of obvious turning points and significant events: battles won, treaties signed, rulers elected or deposed, and now, seemingly, planets conquered. Equally important are the great groundswells of popular movements that affect the minds and values of a generation or more, not all of which can be neatly tied to a time and place. Looking back upon the America of the '60s, future historians may well search for the meaning of one such movement. It drew the public's notice on the days and nights of Aug. 15 through 17, 1969, on the 600-acre farm of Max Yasgur in Bethel, N.Y.

What took place at Bethel, ostensibly, was the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, which was billed by its youthful Manhattan promoters as "An Aquarian Exposition" of music and peace. It was that and more—much more. The festival turned out to be history's largest happening. As the moment when the special culture of U.S. youth of the '60s openly displayed its strength, appeal and power, it may well rank as one of the significant political and sociological events of the age.

By a conservative estimate, more than 400,000 people —the vast majority of them between the ages of 16 and 30 —showed up for the Woodstock festival. Thousands more would have come if police had not blocked off access roads, which had become ribbonlike parking lots choked with stalled cars. Had the festival lasted much longer, as many as one million youths might have made the pilgrimage to Bethel. The lure of the festival was an all-star cast of top rock artists, including Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and the Jefferson Airplane. But the good vibrations of good groups turned out to be the least of it. What the youth of America—and their observing elders—saw at Bethel was the potential power of a generation that in countless disturbing ways has rejected the traditional values and goals of the U.S. Thousands of young people, who had previously thought of themselves as part of an isolated minority, experienced the euphoric sense of discovering that they are, as the saying goes, what's happening. Adults were made more aware than ever before that the children of the welfare state and the atom bomb do indeed march to the beat of a different drummer, as well as to the tune of an electric guitarist. The spontaneous community of youth that was created at Bethel was the stuff of which legends are made; the substance of the event contains both a revelation and a sobering lesson.

From a strictly rational viewpoint, which may be a dangerous and misleading way of looking at it, Bethel was a neatly symbolic choice for the festival—the Biblical town of that name was a center of idolatry denounced by the prophets Amos and Hosea. To many adults, the festival was a squalid freakout, a monstrous Dionysian revel, where a mob of crazies gathered to drop acid and groove to hours of amplified cacophony. In a classic example of its good gray mannerisms, the New York Times in an editorial compared the Bethel pilgrimage to a march of lemmings toward the sea and rhetorically asked: "What kind of culture is it that can produce so colossal a mess?" But even the Times can change its tune. Next day, it ran a more sympathetic editorial that spoke kindly of the festival as "essentially a phenomenon of innocence."

There were, of course, certain things to deplore about Bethel. Three people died—one from an overdose of drugs, and hundreds of youths were freaked out on bad trips caused by low-grade LSD, which was being openly peddled at $6 per capsule. On the other hand, there were no rapes, no assaults, no robberies and, as far as anyone can recall, not one single fight, which is more than can be said for most sporting events held in New York City.

The real significance of Woodstock can hardly be overestimated. Despite the piles of litter and garbage, the hopelessly inadequate sanitation, the lack of food and the two nights of rain that turned Yasgur's farm into a sea of mud, the young people found it all "beautiful." One long-haired teen-ager summed up the significance of Woodstock quite simply: "People," he said, "are finally getting together." The undeniable fact that "people"—meaning in this case the youth of America—got together has consequences that go well beyond the festival itself.

For one thing, the Bethel scene demonstrated more clearly than ever before the pervasiveness of a national subculture of drugs. At least 90% of those present at the festival were smoking marijuana. In addition, narcotics of any and all description, from hash to acid to speed to horse, were freely available. Perhaps out of fear of rousing the crowd to hostility, police made fewer than 100 arrests on narcotics charges. By and large, the U.S. has accepted the oversimplification that all narcotics are dangerous and thus should be outlawed. The all but universal acceptance of marijuana, at least among the young, raises the question of how long the nation's present laws against its use can remain in force without seeming as absurd and hypocritical as Prohibition.

More important, Bethel demonstrated the unique sense of community that seems to exist among the young, their mystical feeling for themselves as a special group, an "us" in contrast to a "them." The festival was widely advertised, but the unexpectedly large crowd it attracted suggests that the potential significance of the event was spread by a kind of underground network. "If you were part of this culture," said one pilgrim back from Bethel, "you had to be there." In spite of the grownup suspicions and fears about the event. Bethel produced a feeling of friendship, camaraderie and —an overused phrase—a sense of love among those present. This yearning for togetherness was demonstrated in countless major and minor ways: the agape-like sharing of food and shelter by total strangers: the lack of overt hostility despite conditions that were ripe for panic and chaos; the altruistic ministrations of the Hog Farm, a New Mexico hippie commune who took care of kids on bad trips. If Bethel was youth on a holiday, it was also a demonstration to the adult world that young people could create a kind of peace in a situation where none should have existed, and that they followed a mysterious inner code of law and order infinitely different from the kind envisioned by Chicago's Mayor Daley. In the end, even the police were impressed. Said Sullivan County Sheriff Louis Ratner: "This was the nicest bunch of kids I've ever dealt with."

Hippiedom Lives

Youth's sense of community is an ad hoc thing: it is suspicious of institutions and wary of organization, prizing freedom above system. In this, as in many other ways, the youth of Bethel displayed adherence to the prevailing spirit of the hippie movement. It is true enough that the manifestation of flower power in Haight-Ashbury and the East Village became a bad scene of gang rapes, deaths from malnutrition and too much speed. It is equally true that most of those at Bethel were not hippies in the commonly accepted sense: a good half of them, at least, were high school or college students from middle-class homes. But at Bethel thev exhibited to the world many of the hippie values and life styles, from psychedelic clothing to spontaneous, unashamed nudity to open and casual sex. Youthful imaginations were captured, most obviously, by the hippie sound: the driving, deafening hard beat of rock, music that is not just a particular form of pop but the anthem of revolution. The Jefferson Airplane, one of the first and best of the San Francisco groups, sang out the message at Bethel in words of startling explicitness:

Look what's happening out in the streets

Got a revolution, got to revolution

Hey, I'm dancing down the streets

Got a revolution, got to revolution.

In its energy, its lyrics, its advocacy of frustrated joys, rock is one long symphony of protest. Although many adults generally find it hard to believe, the revolution it preaches, implicitly or explicitly, is basically moral; it is the proclamation of a new set of values as much as it is the rejection of an old system. The values, moreover, are not merely confined to the pleasures of tumescence. The same kind of people who basked in the spirit of Bethel also stormed the deans' offices at Harvard and Columbia and shed tears or blood at Chicago last summer—all in the name of a new morality.

To Historian Theodore Roszak, the militancy of the student New Left and the dropped-out pacifism of the turned-on types are two sides of what he calls a "counterculture" by which almost everyone under 30 has been affected. Like the poor urban black, this counter-culture is an alienated minority within the Affluent Society, even though it is made up primarily of the sons and daughters of the middle class. They have seen suburbia, found it wanting, and have uttered "the absolute refusal," as New Left Guru Herbert Marcuse calls it, to modern urban technology and the civilization it has produced. With surpassing ease and a cool sense of authority, the children of plenty have voiced an intention to live by a different ethical standard than their parents accepted. The pleasure principle has been elevated over the Puritan ethic of work. To do one's own thing is a greater duty than to be a useful citizen. Personal freedom in the midst of squalor is more liberating than social conformity with the trappings of wealth. Now that youth takes abundance for granted, it can afford to reject materialism.

It is easy enough for adults to reject the irrationality and hedonism of this ethic. But the young are quick to point out that the most rational and technically accomplished society known to man has led only to racism, repression and a meaningless war in the jungles of Southeast Asia. If that is oversimplification, it is the kind around which ringing slogans are made.

Youth has always been rebellious. What makes the generation of the '60s different, is that it is largely inner-directed and uncontrolled by adult doyens. The rock festival, an art form and social structure unique to the time, is a good example. "They are not mimicking something done in its purest form by adults," says one prominent U.S. sociologist. "They are doing their own thing. All this shows that there is a breakdown in the capacity of adult leaders to capture the young." Some other observers agree that the youth movement is a politics without a statesman, a religion without a messiah. "We don't need a leader," insists Janis Joplin. "We have each other. All we need is to keep our heads straight and in ten years this country may be a decent place to live in."

At least two national figures have been able briefly to capitalize politically on the idealism of the young. The knight-errant campaign of Eugene McCarthy was, his enemies said, something of a Children's Crusade. Bobby Kennedy, like his brother Jack, was also able to speak to the Now Generation in language that it heard and heeded. Clearly, the passions of the Bethel people are there to be exploited, for good or ill. It is an open question whether some as yet unknown politician could exploit the deep emotions of today's youth to build a politics of ecstasy.

The rock festival has become, in a way, the equivalent of a political forum for the young. The politics involved is not the expression of opinion or ideas but the spirit of community created—the good vibrations or the bad ones, the young in touch with themselves and aware. If Bethel is any proof, this kind of expressive happening will become even more important. "This was only the beginning," warns Jimi Hendrix. "The only way for kids to make the older generation understand is through mass gatherings like Bethel. And the kids are not going to be in the mud all the time. From here they will start to build and change things. The whole world needs a big wash, a big scrub-down."

The Hunger of Youth

Psychoanalyst Rollo May describes Bethel as "a symptomatic event of our time that showed the tremendous hunger, need and yearning for community on the part of youth." He compares its friendly spirit favorably with the alcoholic mischief ever present at a Shriners' convention but wonders how long the era of good feeling will last. Other observers wonder about future superfestivals, if they become tourist spectaculars for adult hangers-on. The Hashbury began to die when the bus-driven voyeurs came by and the hard-drug addicts took over.

It is beyond argument that the generation attuned to rock, pot and sex will drastically change the world it grew up in. The question is: How and to what purpose? Columbia Sociologist Amitai Etzioni applauds the idealism of the young but argues that "they need more time and energy for reflection" as well as more opportunities for authentic service. Ultimately, the great danger of the counter-culture is its self-proclaimed flight from reason, its exaltation of self over society, its Dionysian anarchism. Historian Roszak points out that the rock revolutionaries bear a certain resemblance to the early Christians, who, in a religious cause, rejected the glory that was Greece and the grandeur of Rome. Ultimately, they brought down a decaying pagan empire and built another in its place. But the Second Comings of history carry with them no guarantees of success, and a revolution based on unreason may just as easily bring a New Barbarism rather than the New Jerusalem. As Yeats so pointedly asked:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,

Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

The video is called The VICE Guide to Travel - Liberia

The following are resources for further research:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/1999/sep1999/nazi-s23.shtml

-  This is a article on the World Socialist Website titled 'Nazism and the myth of the master race' and is a great example of ethnocentrism. The Nazis believed and where striving for a 'pure race' whereas they were superior to all others who were not within this group.

http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-24429.html

- This website is titled "What Are The Taboos in your culture?" and is an open list of people from around the world who list different cultural taboos with their society.  It is interesting because it shows that taboos are totally dependent upon the cultural and society.  Some actions that are considered taboos in one countries are culturally excepted in others. 


Andre Malraux once said, "Culture is the sum of all the forms of art, of love, and of thought, which, in the course of centuries have enabled man to be less enslaved."  What a powerful statement because culture is developed through free will and should be ever changing and never stagnant.  When cultures begin to become stagnant it is usually met with a decline within the society.  


      Culture is such an interesting topic because it is so complex and varies from nation to nation. Even nations vary within their own regions.  For example San Fransisco's culture is going to be much different than Nashville's and Nashville's culture is going to be different from New York City's.  And yet despite the regional differences there are still qualities of culture that is encompassing and unequally American.  This in not just true within America, but is true for the whole world, for every society on every continent.  From major nations, to the smallest tribe, each has defining cultural characteristics which set it apart.  Yet even though not every nation has the same kinds of media available, media plays a huge rule on a nations culture.  Radio, television, movies, all of these have a huge influence on culture.  Media has led to the globalization of cultures and why today many nations have a mix-match of different cultures.
      This is actually part of the reason why I chose the article, "Woodstock, The Message of Histories Biggest Happening." This punk rock sound and counterculture movement caused monumental change in cultures throughout the world. This sound actually began in Britain and moved west toward the America's where is took root within the nation and shifted the culture towards times of change.  As the United States culture began to prosper, it began to spread throughout the world and this is why I chose the picture.  In a comedic way the picture shows the power of the globalization of America's culture.  Things that are thought of as being distinctly American like Nike, Disney, and McDonalds, are popular throughout the world and have become a part of other nations culture.  I chose the video because I wanted to show a side of 'culture shock.' A group of men went into Liberia and were blown away by the culture and how different it was from what they had experienced and known.  The websites listed are much like the article, picture, and video as they are part of the centralized theme of culture and media's affect on it. One link showed the side of Nazi ethnocentric views and how they used media propaganda to perpetuate the idea that their culture was superior to all others.  The other link shows how different aspects of culture can vary.  Taboos are great because behaviors that are seen are unexceptionable are as defining as behaviors that are excepted.  Finally, the quote by Andre Malraux summarizes this idea of culture and I used it because of the way he tied art, love and thought as being distinctive qualities of culture.  I thought this was interesting because these are also the same aspects that the media perpetuates over and over.

C H K G K I Z O K A T N R D H S Y T R S 
M U N C A O V X I V M I W S Q O Q A Z O 
T O L O O M E D C U L T U R E C S B N D 
Z N T T R H E A B G V C G S Q I E O M S 
T L I M U M S N C W Q G T N E A R O Z M 
R X Y S S R S E C R O D H U C L U N R O 
U J Y S P E E V R R F C Z O U S T K D G 
C O A S U C Z R J U F B U T O A L K H P 
P M U W F X L H E W T N J B R N U B B R 
B M G V X N O V B L T L N L T C C T R Y 
X V Z K G O Q B S E A H U K D T B T P K 
T K N F U H H A R D Z T B C H I U D X X 
I H U K N D H C X J Q Y I Q E O S K E P 
U P X W N R U X L O V A R V I N G X T H 
Z W R E R L C C W B Y Z F D I S P U S Z 
M S I R T N E C O N H T E A T S N V A L 
R B R U Q Q T B J C L X I Z Y G M R S M 
Z O R D H K T J L V F E V N W F T O H N 
Q E Z G B S Z B V I N K A H G G J O N L 
C A S Q O R U S T B D H M X S I G A H I 

COUNTERCULTURE - subculture created as a reaction against the values of the 

dominant culture
CULTURE - the complex system of meaning and behavior that defines the way of life 

for a given group or soicety
CULTURE RELATIVISM - the idea that something can be understood and judged only in 

relationship to the cultural context in which it appears
CULTURE SHOCK - the feeling of disorientaiton that can come when one encounters a

new or rapidly change cultureal situation
ETHNOCENTRISM - the beliefe that one's in-group is superior to all out-groups
MASS MEDIA - channels of communicaiton that are available to very wide segments 

of populaiton 
NORMS - the specific cultural expectations for how to act in a given situation
SOCIAL SANCTIONS - mechanisms of social control that enforce norms
SUBCULTURE - the culture of groups whose values and norms of behavior are somewhat

different from those of the dominant culture
TABOO - those behaviors that bring the most serious sanctoins

Social Class and Social Stratificaiton

Is The Middle Class Shrinking?

By Stephen Koepp;Gisela Bolte/Washington and Jon D. Hull/Los Angeles Monday, Nov. 03, 1986

When the drift was first spotted in the early 1980s, it stirred only academic interest. But this year, as more economists and politicians began to take note of it, the seemingly slight squiggle on the demographic chart has sparked a fervent debate. The great American middle class, the provocateurs contend, is no longer so great. It is shrinking steadily, goes the theory, and shedding its members into the economic extremes of wealth and poverty. "There has been a thinning of the middle class," says David Bloom, an associate professor of economics at Harvard. "As society becomes more polarized, it has more 'haves' and 'have-nots,' with fewer in between."

The economists who highlight this phenomenon tend to be liberals; many of them blame the Reagan Administration for failing to help Middle Americans adapt to the postindustrial age. Millions of citizens, they contend, have lost their middle-class jobs in aging industries like autos and steel and have plunged into the minimum-wage realm of floor mopping and hamburger flipping. By failing to halt the middle-class shrinkage, the argument goes, the U.S. could allow itself to become a two-tiered society of rich and poor. Declares M.I.T. Economics Professor Lester Thurow: "Wherever one looks, one now finds rising inequality."

At least one set of statistics appears to confirm an erosion of the middle class, though hardly an upheaval. While the middle class has never officially been defined, the group could reasonably be described as those families with incomes between the Census Bureau brackets of $15,000 and $49,999. According to the census, the proportion of U.S. families in that category, after adjustment for inflation, shrank from 65.1% in 1970 to 58.2% in 1985 (see chart). The trend is far from being a completely odious phenomenon, though. The statistics show that more families departing the middle class have moved up than down. Families with incomes of $50,000 or more -- considered the gateway to the upper class -- increased from 13% of the population to 18.3% during the 1970-85 period. At the same time, the proportion of families below $15,000 grew from 21.9% to 23.5%.

The shrinkage theory is debated by scholars who choose to measure the middle class in different terms, whether by changing the income brackets or focusing on job categories. While some researchers see a smaller shrinkage, or barely any at all, many are convinced that the change is real. "No matter what definition you use, you come up with the phenomenon," says James Smith, a senior economist for the Rand Corp.

Any scientific measure of the middle class, however, entails drawing arbitrary brackets, both economic and psychological, around the group. At least one economist thinks this is folly and that Middle America is essentially a state of mind. Says Lawrence Lindsey, assistant professor of economics at Harvard: "A middle-class person is someone who expects to be self-reliant, unlike the upper class with its unearned wealth or the lower class with its dependency on society. Far from declining, the middle class is bigger than ever, and its ethic is alive and well."

The most important factor affecting family incomes has been the entry of more and more women into the work force. Following the rampant inflation of the 1970s, having two incomes was the only way many households could maintain their standard of living. For some families, however, two salaries have been enough to lift them out of the middle class. Neither Biologist Cam Patterson nor his wife Dorothy, a library assistant, both 37, has a particularly high- paying job. But their combined salary of $58,000 is enough for them to afford the $300,000 house they are building in Normal Heights, Calif. Even though the Pattersons hardly feel like the upper crust, they realize they are no longer typically middle class either. Says he: "I think of the middle class as Archie Bunker, the guy who makes $35,000 while his wife stays home and cooks macaroni."

By doubling up their substantial incomes, some young couples swell the ranks of the well-to-do by creating one upper-class family instead of two middle-class ones. Says Harvard's Bloom: "A pairing-off based on economics is occurring. Higher-income men and higher-income women are tending to find each other." Manhattanites Anthony Chase, 31, and his wife Debra, 30, who are both from solidly middle-class backgrounds, are likely to exceed by far the financial dreams of their parents. The Chases started dating at Harvard, where Debra earned a law degree and Anthony picked up a combined law degree and M.B.A. Married five years, they have a joint income of more than $150,000 from Anthony's investment-banking position and Debra's corporate law post.

It is the flip side of the middle-class exodus that has many liberal scholars in an uproar. Economist Barry Bluestone of the University of Massachusetts believes the shift in the U.S. economy from unionized, factory work to service-industry professions has brought a substantial loss of jobs with middle-class pay. The blue-collar jobs tended to be unionized, goes the argument, while the new service industries typically offer no such wage and , job protection. Says Michael Boskin, a professor of economics at Stanford: "Some sectors of the middle class that had implicit security in their jobs have been rudely awakened."

Keith Grant knows that from painful experience. A Chicago steelworker, Grant was laid off from his $30,000-a-year job two years ago, on the day before he and his wife planned to close the purchase of their first house. That dream is postponed now. Grant, 28, earns only $13,000 as a maintenance worker at a Holiday Inn; his wife Pamela stays home and cares for their three children and stuffs envelopes to earn household money. But Grant is looking for a higher-paying job as an electrician. Says he: "I've been brought up in the middle class. I'll be damned if someone's going to take that away from me."

Many workers fall victim to business cycles that sharply cut the going rate for their skills. Patrick Walter was comfortably supporting his wife and their two children on his $35,000 pay as a welder on an oil rig off the Louisiana coast when the petroleum price slump hit and cost him his job. Says he: "It doesn't take long for everything to go to hell. I might never make what I used to." Walter and his family packed up and migrated to Oregon, where they moved in with his wife's parents, and he took a $20,000 welding job.

Another group that is swelling the ranks of the low-income class is single parents, according to M.I.T.'s Thurow. Unwed mothers and divorcees from middle-income families often slide into the lower class when they try to get by on their own. Reason: they may have the double burden of child custody and a lack of marketable job skills. Carol Kuypers, 32, of Harper Woods in suburban Detroit, earns $13,500 as an accounting clerk, or about 61 cents a week over the limit for getting federal food assistance. The unmarried mother of a 15-month-old son, she has to spend $200 a month for day care, which eats up about one-quarter of her take-home pay. For help with room and board, she has taken in her brother John, a factory worker, as a roommate.

Not all trend watchers, however, believe the middle class is being seriously eroded. Neal Rosenthal, an economist for the Government's Bureau of Labor Statistics, sees no real polarization in wages, for example. He found increases between 1973 and 1982 in the number of workers in middle- and upper- salary positions and a decrease in the low-income category. In this view, the middle-class shrinkage seen by other economists may be caused by the impossibility of matching some displaced workers to the new middle-class jobs that are being created. Observes Robert Lawrence, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution: "If a job in the automobile industry in Detroit is replaced by an insurance job in San Francisco that pays the same salary, the distribution of income will not change. However, the autoworker's life will."

Other dissenters acknowledge that the size of middle-class income might have been squeezed a bit but chalk up the problem to temporary factors. Gordon Green, assistant chief of the population division at the Census Bureau, believes the flood of young baby boomers into the job market is responsible for a dip in middle-class wages. Says Green: "Since so many of the baby boomers were in entry-level jobs, they pulled down the overall average. As they get more experienced, productivity should go up and their income as well."

Nonetheless, even Middle Americans whose salaries put them squarely in the middle class feel they are slipping below a comfortable standard of living. The material rewards that Middle Americans had begun to take for granted -- a house, vacations, college for the children -- have become more difficult to obtain. The heyday of the U.S. middle class, and its high expectations, came in the 1950s and 1960s, when the median U.S. family income -- adjusted to today's price levels -- leaped from $14,832 in 1950 to $27,338 in 1970 (see chart). But the prosperity spiral was halted by the inflation of the 1970s, which carried prices aloft more rapidly than wages and thus caused real income levels to stagnate for more than a decade. Last year's median was only $27,735, barely an improvement from 1970.

The trend has produced what might be called the middle-class blues, in which today's young middle-class families live under the threat of downward mobility, fearful that they will be unable to meet the standard set by the previous generation. Says David Jacobsohn, 31, a computer systems analyst in Boston: "I'm not doing as well as my father at this point, but I think in ten years or so I'll be able to." Many people who went into middle-class careers are now bitterly disappointed. Ella Parham, 39, of Boston, earns $31,400 as a third-grade teacher in the city schools but feels she has slipped into the lower class. A single parent, she supports two daughters, ages 16 and 19, and a 3-year-old grandchild. "I surely don't feel like I'm middle class," she , says. "I feel like we're at the bottom of the ladder."

Any substantial decline of the middle class -- even if it is partly psychological -- would be ominous for the U.S. as a whole. It is the middle class whose values and ambitions set the tone for the country. Without it, the U.S. could become a house divided in which Middle Americans would no longer serve as a powerful voice for political compromise.

Scholars who worry about the polarization of U.S. society believe they already see evidence of it in the business world. The retailing industry, for one, is clearly aiming at two markets: upscale (Saks Fifth Avenue) and downscale (K mart). Contends Barbara Ehrenreich, a fellow at the Washington- based Institute for Policy Studies: "Whether one looks at food, clothing or furnishings, two cultures are emerging: natural fiber vs. synthetic blends; hand-crafted wood cabinets vs. mass-produced maple; David's Cookies vs. Mister Donut." The result of such polarization of society, she warns, could be a warping of the country's identity.

What can be done, if indeed something should, to safeguard the center? M.I.T.'s Thurow believes the Government should take a stronger hand in helping industries improve the country's global competitiveness and halt the outflow of well-paying jobs. The Brookings Institution's Lawrence disagrees, recommending instead that the Government should make more of an effort to retrain and relocate workers whose skills have become unwanted.

It is only because the middle class is so sacred in the U.S. that even its potential shrinkage is so controversial. Virtually everyone agrees that America needs to maintain its middle class. While the split-level home and station wagon are modern inventions, the stabilizing influence of a large middle class has been highly valued for quite a bit longer. "Of the three classes," observed Euripides, "it is the middle that saves the country."

This video give some quick facts about the distribution of wealth within the United States

 

The following links are great resources for continued research:

http://reason.com/archives/2006/03/01/why-poor-countries-are-poor

- This article is a little lengthy but includes some incite as to why poor countries are poor.  This goes further into detail than what is usually said, that poor countries are poor because they do not invest into technology, infrastructure, and education.

http://www.hotathrandom.com/IndianCaste.htm

- This website looks at the Indian Caste system, which in itself is a class structure within the society.  It shows that social classes exists in many forms, some more extreme than others.




Friedrich Engels once said, "All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at various stages of social development."  This is also very similar to the beliefs of Karl Marx who believed that class structure was the driving force to society.


     In summery I chose this chapter on social classes and stratification because I have always thought it was so interesting the way social classes are broken down.  Social classes define who we are, who we usually get to associate with, and what life usually entails.  This is not unique and every nation in the world, whether a prosperous and developed nation or isolated trip, they all have a social structure were the upper classes are separated from the lower.
     Furthermore, social class not only define who we are, but are a necessary function to society, at least in a capitalist society.  This is a main reason why I added the article "Is The Middle Class Shrinking?"

by Steven Koepp and Gisela Bolte.  This is something that has become a serious problem after the economic crises that took place in America in 2006 and that article was written twenty years ago.  America used to have the most prosperous middle class in the world and defined the nation, now it is of little resemblance of its former self. This also ties into the picture above. Even though it a meant to describe the different first, second, third, and fourth world nations I thought it was a good statement and a semi-comical way or breaking down the social structure.  The video again his ties to social structure, but it is more of a statement about the distribution of wealth in America which in itself ties into the article about the shirking middle class. And lastly the two links are independent of themselves, but tie into the overall them of social structure as well. One was a great look into why poor nations are poor, getting away from the typical cliche response.  And the other link was a breakdown of the social structure within India, showing that a nation which has tremendous history and varries greatly from America, yet still has a similar social structure.  

 A little game for fun

Social Class and Social Stratification

N M S X W Z R S W I Z F L N S D H C E M V I B H M 
S O D N T G S N S R S X G P T L A A S V K Q I O T 
R A T B C E O Q S R E F H J U N L S U D C L D N R 
D O E I P M N R E E M P X R Z A C T W K C G E N F 
R T K P A M Q D N L O G P N Q R X E Q V X M T K M 
C A I X O C V R S U C S J V I A M S M W N K Q M T 
E A V V Z S I B U U N Q S P A C C Y G I L W C U J 
Z S N H S O Y F O O I K D A T D G S A D H I O V N 
U Q T J U H R G I S K Y O M L B F T E M T J P Z G 
E K C A R R S E C T S H E E V C T E R W P H C O U 
I V V I T A D Y S C A S O C I A L M O B I L I T Y 
O B P B X E L Q N X Z R Z C S K Z A P S A O Y S L 
J O A N K Y S M O K G F T U L H J U I S F T D H O 
O H J X W J F Y C K R Q T S X I G B S C F W I T Q 
E Y N Q J B Q F S A B A Z Q L A R S G I O K G L N 
X B B O J B C H A T T T N K X A Y T I U H S Z Q W 
L U S L G V L X L S E I N T E S I J G M L J B P T 
R O H H N B T G C Q X M Y T T J G C O I P U M C Q 
Z L Y I L O B R Q T S J O E U H Z E O A M V P G X 
S S P U N H C Z E W B H M V H Z A H I S S N W N Q 
N D K G B G U E J J M A H L E W N X M R T G O J H 
F M R R N G M X X A P N I I L E H V A L R E M U S 
D O V B A K X I I S S T M A O F G G J L Y Q J H Z 
R U S C P E N I L Y T R E V O P V N B T C P M S X 
M D B E Y A W M Z L I E A L L Z J I F U Y S W Q F 

CASTE SYSTEM - a system of stratification in which one's place in the 

stratification system is determined by birth
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS - the awareness that a class structure exists and the 

feeling of shared identification with others in ones class 

with whom one perceives common life chances 
CLASS SYSTEM - a goruping of peopel with similar values, interests, incomes, 

education, and occupations
ESTATE SYSTEM - a system of stratification in which the ownership of property 

and the exercise of power is monopolized by an elite or noble 

class, that has total control over societal resources. 
INCOME - the amount of money brought into a household from various sources during 

a given year. 
POVERTY LINE - the figure established by the government to indicate the amount of 

money needed to support the basic needs of a household
SOCIAL CLASS - the social structural hierarchical position groups hold relative to

the economic, social, and historical context.
SOCIAL MOBILITY - a person's movement over time from one class to another.
SOCIAL STRATIFICATION - a relativly fixed hierarchical arrangement in society by 

groups have different access to resources, power, and perceived 

social worth
STATUS ATTAINMENT - the process by which people end up in a given position in the 

stratification system. 

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Sociology is such and interesting and complex subject. Its complexity comes from its broad field that is studies, human society.  I have always wondered why people act as they do, and why societies are the way they are.  Sociology is great because it attempts answer these kind of question, yet again the complexity come from the varying theories that come from scholars like Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, Pierre Bourdieu, August Comte, and Ernest Gellner but that is just to name a few.  When studying a society, there is not always one encompassing answer.  One theory may answer one aspect of society, yet another conflicting theory may logically answer the same thing but have a different conclusion.  This is what I love most about sociology, the fact that there is no right answer forces you to continually educate yourself and not settle for what a single person says.  In this way everyone has to come up with their own theories, pulling from may different aspects of the science and many different theorists.  Challenge yourself to wrap your mind around a science that is not simply based on black and white answers.

 "It is always the same: Once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are."

A quote from Jean Baudrillard speaks volumes about the power of sociology.  Once you reason as to why society acts as it does, you are forced to look upon yourself and ask the same question.