Week 16: My Reaction to "Shift Happens" Video

Near the end of the video, a statement caught my eye. It said that it is nearly impossible to make predictions about technology more than 15 years in advance. I immediately thought of an article I read a few weeks ago. The article was about how Steve Jobs had predicted WiFi and the iPad. At the bottom of the article, it had a link to a long speech he made in 1983. I actually listened to the entire speech and was enthralled. Here is the article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/03/steve-jobs-1983-speech_n_1935815.html

What I think is amazing about this article and the attached soundbyte is that people are calling him this amazing “fortune teller” who could predict the future when, in actuality, he was just outlining a roadmap for what he was going to do. He made the iPad happen. He didn’t foresee it - he thought of it, then proceeded to spend the next 30 years doing it.

That’s what’s so phenomenal about the age we live in. You can “dream” and, in your lifetime, make that dream come true. Because things are moving so fast, and people are living longer, you can see the fruits of your labor actually materialize. Steve Jobs was able to enjoy the iPad before he died and he was able to see his dreams come true.

I went to an engineering college in the early 1990s and have many friends who are software engineers. I remember my C++ grad assistant, Das (yes, that is his name, though maybe I’m the only one who gets the joke now) telling me that, in India, many of his friends had their own cell phones. This was in 1994. He said someday, we would all get a phone number when we got our first cell phones and we would have that phone number for the rest of our lives. That was silly to think of because, as a college student, you moved at least once a year and were constantly changing your darn phone number. I told Das that that would be pretty cool. I now have a phone number, that I got back in 1999 in San Francisco, and I do believe I will have this 415 phone number until the day I die.

I think it’s wonderful what we’re accomplishing in the world today, in biotechnology, astrophysics, chemistry, and computers, and I have no doubt that further generations will solve the seemingly baffling or irreversible problems ours and previous generations have caused. I believe the problems will be solved because human beings are a truly remarkable species. I grew up seeing streets and beaches littered with trash and recyclables and, just 30 years later, I see an exponential change in people’s awareness about our Earth and what we’ve done to it and what we need to do to fix it. Even my parents, born in the 1940s, recycle and seem very conscious of their effect on the environment.

Yes, I believe we will persevere, and we humans will be around a long time because, like Steve Jobs, you don’t have to sit back and make predictions, you can actually make things, great things, big things, happen and live to see the difference firsthand.

Week 15: Urban/Suburban/Rural Life

This week, we are supposed to reflect on the changes we have seen in urban, suburban, or rural life in recent years. I have had the privilege of living in all types of environments, so I will comment on them all.

When I was ten years old, my father retired from the military and we moved to rural New Hampshire where my dad became the general manager for a second-home resort community.  We lived in the middle of the woods, no neighbors, no mailman, no garbage man, no house numbers, no cable. We heated our house using a woodstove. Many of the kids on my bus lived in tar-paper shacks with no running water. Some had to take showers in the nurse’s office at school. There were very few jobs to be found. Many were seasonal, so my friends’ dads would cut and sell wood in the summer and plow driveways in the winter. My high school was 40 minutes away on the highway and all some of my friends were long-distance on the telephone. We eventually did get a number on our house (we picked “10”) so that we could get 911 service. And I hear they opened a new store in the town I grew up in. But I think it’s generally the same. They closed the beloved ski area we used to go to with school on Fridays. I think the weather has warmed up enough that some of the little ski areas just don’t get enough snow to stay in business. I couldn’t wait to flee that rural area and many of my friends did the same – we left for the big city, never to return. I do have some friends who stayed though, and, with the Internet I don’t think they feel nearly as isolated as we did as when we were young.

In 1999, my husband and I headed West and lived in the city of San Francisco, where we lived for five years. There, we found an apartment in the Marina district, with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from our third-floor window. The Marina was close to the water, surrounded by Russian Hill, Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Presidio. It was an all-white neighborhood with lots of little restaurants and shops. This was in 1999, so the gentrification of San Francisco was in full-swing. We had friends who were ready to gut or renovate $800,000 fixer-uppers in “up-and-coming” neighborhoods, just so they could own a piece of the city. We couldn’t fathom paying that much money for an old dilapidated flat in a bad neighborhood, so we headed East. We do have friends who stuck it out, saved their money, mortgaged themselves to the hilt, and settled down and started a family in San Francisco. It has gotten out of hand as far as price, but some of the neighborhoods that we would never have considered living in 10 years ago (like Potrero Hill) are now nice enough that we might consider it if we moved back.

In Charlotte, NC, we were able to witness full-fledged suburbia, and I fell in love. It was a place I’d always dreamed of living when I was a kid. We lived in a 90-home planned community, where everyone had the same exact 1980s brick colonial, with huge lots and tons of families, events, and gatherings to keep you busy. Now, in Charlotte, as opposed to San Francisco, parking was a dream. We couldn’t believe how much space there was. But you had to get into your car every time you left the house. There were no sidewalks, and everything was so far away (not to mention the darn heat), that you wouldn’t want to walk anyway. During the time we lived there, we saw a housing boom, then a big bust. We were able to make a profit on our house before moving to Northern VA, but we were lucky. When we visited Charlotte last summer, it was like a ghost town. Many new housing developments were just sitting there, half-finished and vacant. And a lot of the businesses we had frequented were boarded up, out of business. This was due to the bank crash and the fact that Wachovia and Bank of America are the main employers in Charlotte and they were hit hard by the financial crisis of 2008.

I have lived in all three types of environments and they all have their advantages and disadvantages. I now live in Suburbia and am happy. In all three areas, population is growing, though much slower in the rural areas, where jobs are scarce. Gentrification is a thing we are seeing wherever we go - out with the old, and in with the new. In Vienna, even today, old houses are being torn down daily to build new "mcmansions".

 

Week 14: Who Has the Power?

During our reading this week, we were asked to discuss which theory of democracy, described in Chapter 14, rings truest today: Democratic Elitism, Pluralist Theories, or The Power Elite.

Democratic Elitism sounds about right, because it is hard for decision-making to occur in such a large society, with each citizen weighing in on each law. So, it just makes sense that we hire or vote for people we trust or believe in to make the day-to-day decisions, and step in occasionally to make the big ones – like who our leaders should be. However, when I was growing up, I always heard of our society referred to as a “Republic” in this context and I find it interesting that I have yet to read that word in this chapter. The two-party system is concerning, because I do believe that there is strong support for Independent and Green party candidates, but “strong” support is just not enough. It needs to be overwhelming enough to enter into a race against the two other parties.

Pluralist theories can also explain our government. Lobbyists represent interest groups and spend their days on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers to make sure their groups’ opinions are heard. My brother-in-law is actually a lobbyist in the health care field and he makes lobbying seem like a very noble profession. He lobbies for Physical Therapists (PTs) and Certified Nurse Midwives (CNWs). He makes sure that PTs and CNWs have the same rights and benefits that other, more established health care professionals have. I do believe that the pluralist theory fits, but I don’t think it is the whole picture.

I actually really like how the theory of The Power Elite is described in our text. It just seemed “right”. I think a lot of how I feel stems from being married to an Ivy League graduate with an MBA who now runs a bank. But it is so true. The only way he got his job is from the contacts he has met along the way. It’s all in the networking. That’s the only way to get a job at the highest levels these days. No filling out employment applications and going in on blind interviews. At the top, people know each other or know about each other. Yes, sometimes in America, if you know the right people, you can end up in highly powerful positions.

In conclusion, I do think that The Power Elite fits the bill as far as this assignment goes, but I also think there are hints of Democratic Elitism and Pluralism tossed in.

Week 13: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

This question is tough because I think, after watching the Frontline piece, that Wal-Mart is good and bad for America. It’s basically an unanswerable question. If I were one of those exuberant participants at that large shareholder meeting, I might say that of course Wal-Mart is good for America – it’s good for me! If I were one of the workers who had lost their jobs at US manufacturing plants because Wal-Mart decided to go with a Chinese supplier instead, I’d say, heck no, Wal-Mart is hurting America.

It really depends on what side you’re on. America is a big country, full of many different people. I would like to believe that those factory workers could get a job at Wal-Mart and be fine and move on with their lives. You could argue that when you step back and look at this situation from a global, macro scale, China should make the goods and we should purchase them, and that’s just how it’s going to parse out. Maybe Americans just weren’t meant to be manufacturing anything. Maybe we’re supposed to be the sellers, the consumers, the idea-generators, the educators, and the bankers, but assembly-line production of goods is not what we’re good at as a people.

This could be a normal progression of how things are eventually going to shake out globally. The Wal-Mart executives don’t think they’re doing anything wrong and, on the contrary, they think they’re doing everything RIGHT. I do believe in “buying American” and I do believe in supporting your local businesses, but I have to admit, when I need a pair of socks, I’m off to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is good for my wallet. I know its trading policies with China and its shrewd way of pitting suppliers against one another to get to the lowest price, just so that they can have a higher markup, is rough to see. But that’s the way businesses work. They’re innovating and they’re leading the way to a new standard of practice for retailers.

There’s nothing we can do but try to do what the small manufacturer in Ohio did – go to Congress and try to get China to change their prices. Our government needs to take a stronger stance against China and their low wages and terrible working conditions. Make them pay more to their employees and treat them better, which would drive up the prices of the goods they churn out. If their prices were brought up a little higher, there may be some American manufacturers that could start competing again.

Week 12: The Second Shift Checklist

This topic is actually very much top-of-mind in my family right now. I decided to take this sociology course and other prerequisites as a step toward maybe going back to work one day soon. Since I’m a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), it really doesn’t bother me that the majority of the checkmarks on the sheet were in my own column. However, my husband and I talk about this all the time: How do we shift those checkmarks into his column once I do start working? Actually, now that I’m taking two courses this semester and performing all these duties, I’m really starting to feel what it might be like when I actually do take that step. Sometimes, when it’s Sunday afternoon and I have two papers to write before midnight (ahem) and the house is a disaster and I have no idea what I’m making for dinner, I think I’m making the wrong decision to go back to work. Sometimes my kids tell me they want me to stop working on my papers or reading my textbooks and “pay attention” to them. My oldest has even flat-out told me that she doesn’t want me to go back to work.

As far as the checklist goes, my husband does unload the dishwasher occasionally, and he can somewhat be counted on to mow the lawn. He and I share a lot of things, like shoveling snow and mowing the lawn. He gets the kids up but I get them dressed. He makes the oldest ones breakfast and takes them to school and I make the youngest one breakfast and take him to school. I pay the bills, but he worries about them. He likes me to drive when we go on family outings or vacations because he just doesn’t like to drive. And he’s completely inept when it comes to home repairs or electronics, so those are in my column too. So, there were not a lot of checkmarks in his column at all, but again, I’m home for a reason - so I can be here 100% for my kids and husband, so I shouldn’t complain too much (but I do!).

My husband actually works long hours at a bank and comes home tired and stressed out. I, on the other hand, go to the gym, read my textbooks, write papers, take tests, get coffee with friends, drive my kids to their activities, make dinner, and put everyone to bed. Is it unfair? Well, yes, most days I can’t believe that I graduated from college and worked for many years at a high-paying job, only to be relegated to dishwasher-loader and pajama-folder. I have many friends who are in the same situation as me, and we all kind of feel like we’re missing out on something. Yet we all admit that we are very fortunate to have the ability to stay home. We all believe we are doing what is best for our children. When I told my other SAHM friends that I wanted to go back to school and become a nurse, they all told me it was going to be a challenge and that they don’t see how they could ever attempt such an endeavor (“But good for you!”).

 

So, for now, I'm okay having a "second shift" because it allows me time during the day with my kids - volunteering at their schools, being there for them when they are sick, etc. And at night, that's when the laundry and homework gets done. My husband provides the paycheck so we can go on nice vacations and live in a nice neighborhood. The checklist is going to have to change when I start working again and that is my major source of concern. Because of his job, I will be the one picking the kids up from school when they are sick and I will be the one taking a day off from work to attend the parent teacher conference and Thanksgiving parents program. How that is all going to work is still very much a mystery to me.

Week 11: Is Society Secularizing?

I do not think that our society and/or the world is currently secularizing. As our textbook stated, more and more people are being drawn to religion because of uncertainties in their own lives. People need something to hold onto to give them hope in these troubling times. It may seem that, in many ways, religion is taking a back seat to other institutions in our society, such as education and technology, but more and more, people are looking for meaning through spirituality.

I, personally, have always considered myself removed completely from religion. I have a Catholic mother and Methodist father who decided to raise their children, as I like to call it, “Commercial Christians.” In other words, we worshipped the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but never stepped foot in a church. But here’s the funny thing: my brother, sister, and I all married Catholics and all three of us send our children to Catholic schools. So, I, in a sense, embody the idea that we are not secularizing, but instead are becoming more religious. Will I convert and become a Catholic? Maybe. My children hate the idea of me someday burning in Hell while they sit up in Heaven.

My problem with embracing religion of any kind is that, as an adult, it’s so hard to suddenly decide to believe that there are one or many all-powerful beings that created the universe and are shaping your life in any way. It seems kind of silly to me. I truly believe that if I had been brought up as a child to believe in Jesus, I would not have a problem. But at this point, I really can’t see it happening any time soon. 

I have discussed this topic with a few of my friends who live in the South and are extremely religious and I’ve explained to them how I feel. What they all agree is that I probably just haven’t had a reason yet to grasp onto religion. Each of my devoutly Christian friends has said that there has been some sort of traumatic event in their lives that has driven them to find meaning or a purpose in life. They’ve turned to religion when they needed something to hold onto. I, on the other hand, have never had a close relative die, I’ve never been in a near-death situation, and I’ve lived a pretty nice life so far, not really wanting for anything. I don’t feel the need to have religion at this point.

But, going back to the purpose of this blog entry, I do believe there are many people right now fighting poverty, economic distress, and different crises in their lives that almost certainly are looking for something to give it all meaning. And that’s why I believe religion is continuing to grow throughout the world and we are not secularizing.

Week 10: Reflections on the Densho Website

I spent quite a bit of time exploring the Densho website. I was interested because the information was almost all new to me. I cannot remember, as a child in the 80s and 90s, ever learning about these camps throughout my elementary, middle, or high school years. I remember having in-depth units on the Holocaust and other aspects of World War II, but never do I remember hearing about this aspect of the War.

I also found this topic interesting because I actually lived in San Francisco for 5 years (1999-2004), so I have visual imagery in my head as I think about where the Chinese immigrants and Japanese immigrants lived. In San Francisco, there is Japantown, which is west of the financial district, and Chinatown, which is just north and adjacent to the financial district. I used to take the #19 bus everyday to work and it went straight through Chinatown. There is a definite distinction between Chinatown and the rest of the city - it is even marked with golden lions and a gate at the entrance of the neighborhood.

I always thought Japantown was just kind of symbolic though. There is a little archway that tells you it is there, and a couple shops, but no real housing that seems segregated, the way it is in Chinatown. This may be indicative of the fact that the Japanese were forced out of their homes and put in the internment camps and were just never able to reclaim that neighborhood when they got out.

I liked reading that Ronald Reagan was the one who finally made the formal apology and reparations to the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans who were put in those camps. At least there was closure, and the Densho website is doing an amazing job of keeping the story alive so we can all remember what can happen during times of war hysteria.

Week 9: The Social Construction of Gender

The first few pages of the assigned chapter on gender inequality explains how to distinguish between a person's "sex" and a person's "gender." While a person is born with certain physical characteristics that determine his or her sex, gender is a label society puts on each one of us. The idea is that the two genders are not as different biologically as we may have been led to believe. While reading the whole biological versus sociological debate, I was immediately reminded of an article I had read earlier this year.

The article (http://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/christina-parentingcom/gender-neutral-parenting) talks about a couple who were able to keep their child's gender a secret for 5 years. They finally had to reveal the child's gender when they enrolled "it" in school. The school would not let them leave the gender box blank on the admissions forms.

While I was searching for the exact article that I remember reading, I actually came across a couple of other recent cases just like this one. It seems like there are some parents out there willing to take the risk and see what the outcome of such an "experiment" would be.

I say, why not? No harm done, right? I mean, if or until that child is bullied in school, I think it's a really cool idea and I applaud those daring parents. I don't know if I'm progressive enough to try it, though!

Week 8: Why Should We Care about Global Inequality?

The podcast we were asked to listen to outlined a few reasons why we should care about global inequality. One of them was that the price of goods we buy here in America is affected by global events and economies.

I have an example of how the prices of goods from around the world have affected me personally. When I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, my mother used to sew my siblings and me clothes. Every Halloween, while the other children got to go to the store to buy masks and plastic-y costumes, my mom insisted on hand-sewing each one of her children a costume. When I became a mom, I decided I would do the same thing. Before my daughter's first Halloween, I headed out to the fabric store, picked out a little devil costume pattern, and bought the materials for the costume. I had to purchase a couple yards of red felt, Velcro, thread, needles, bobbins, stuffing, ribbon, and elastic. I brought the goodies home and got to work at my sewing machine. Nearly 3 labor-intensive weeks and $40 later, I had an adorable little red devil. Shortly after I finished my masterpeice (pictured below) I happened to be in a store and spot a nearly identical costume (I'm sure there were differences in quality) for only $15! I couldn't believe it. I've never made another Halloween costume to this day.

My personal experiences as a consumer in America is that things have changed drastically since I was a kid and it is mostly based on the global economy. Goods can be made cheaper in China and other developing nations. It's that simple. There are obviously positives and negatives to this fact. When my daughter was about 3 years old, there were reports that many toys that were manufactured in China had been painted with lead-based paint. I immediately went online and found a lead-testing kit and sat down one night and tested each and every one of my daughters' toys. Luckily, we weren't affected, but I do know parents who, to this day, will only buy toys made solely in the USA.

Week 7: How Much Does Class Matter?

I think class matters a lot in the U.S. today. We all probably have stories similar to the ones posted on the “People Like Us” website. I particularly identified with the girl who was an “Army Brat” and moved all around, only to end up in an affluent area where her Dad was not as elite as he was in her other neighborhoods.

But I’ve got a great example of how class can have an impact on your life – it’s actually my husband’s story. My husband grew up on Staten Island in New York City. He did not live on Todt Hill (as the fiancée in the clip on the “People Like Us” website), but he lived in a single-family home in a nice neighborhood. His father was an elementary school principal in Chinatown in Manhattan. His mother was a high school Spanish teacher. You could call his upbringing middle-middle-class. When my husband was in 8^th grade, his parents had him take a test and apply to a high school in Manhattan called Regis. Regis is an all-boys Catholic high school that is free to those who are accepted, based on their test scores. My husband got in and started taking the ferry and subway to school every day. During his senior year, he applied to some colleges and, while he was disappointed that he didn’t get into his first choice, Princeton, as many of his friends did, he ended up deciding to go to his safety school – another Ivy League college. After college, he moved around a bit, attended business school, and after many years of working in large banks around the country, he was finally named CEO of a bank.

What does this story tell us about class? Well, my husband will be the first to tell you that education is everything. And I’m not talking about the quality of the education. I’m talking LOCATION. Believe it or not, when interviewing for jobs recently, my husband was often asked about the high school he attended. The high school, people. Because the high school he attended had a good reputation, he was able to attend an Ivy League college where he met and befriended people from all over the world, from all income levels. He has maintained those friendships and, in this day and age, networking for jobs could not be more important. Having connections in high places has had a huge impact on his (and my!) life.

A couple years ago, I was talking with a former employer of mine and he told me proudly that his daughter had aced her SATs and had been accepted to the University of Maryland on a full scholarship and also to Brown (no scholarship). When I told my husband that my boss’s daughter had chosen a full ride at Maryland over paying for Brown, he couldn’t believe it. He didn’t see why anyone would value saving a buck now over the experience of attending the country’s most elite college. He just didn’t get it. His “pedigree,” if you will, has gotten him pretty far. You see, in his eyes, if you attend Brown, you get to build relationships with all sorts of amazing, smart, rich, powerful, and creative people. Throughout the rest of your life, you’ll have a connection with these people who could potentially one day help you in any number of situations.

I went to a regular, non-Ivy-League college, so I don’t have the perspective that my husband has. I think I did alright without it. But this is just one example of a guy who was born into a middle working class family and, through luck or intelligence or who-knows-what was able to rise up to the next level.

Week 6: Technological Isolation?

I think people are less isolated today due to technology. I’m speaking in a purely social and emotional context here, and not physical. I think that, yes, physically, we see people less face-to-face. We talk in person to people less, but overall, I think communication has greatly improved our social connections.

The summers when I was 12, 13, and 14 years old, I went to a YMCA sleep-away camp. I made a great friend there, Mindy, and we became pen pals. As the years passed and we both went off to college, we pretty much lost touch. That was until Facebook was invented. When I signed up for my Facebook account in 2008, the first thing I did was look up Mindy. She has three boys and lives in Chicago. Yet here we are, friends again. We know what each other looks like, we are able to see pictures of each other’s kids, and we share funny anecdotes about being moms. I was able to support her during a recent battle and victory over cancer, and we even plan on meeting  up again someday soon. I believe that, without Facebook, and thus the Internet, I would have probably lost my friendship with Mindy altogether.

So, yes, physically, we are becoming more isolated as a society. But on an emotional and friendship level, I think we are only making tighter, longer-lasting bonds.

Week 5: The Criminal Justice System

When reading the final pages of our assigned chapter on criminals and our criminal justice system, I found myself coming back to the idea of “shaming.” I think it’s intriguing. It works in other cultures, like Japan, where people are less individualistic than in the U.S.; where more emphasis is put on our individual accomplishments than those successes attained as a group. But I think it could work. In fact, over the past few months in the news, I have read of a couple examples of shaming in the U.S. Parents are sending their children out with sandwich boards alerting the public on the streets that they are failing classes (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/12/bad-grades-sandwich-board_n_1338938.html) and women are announcing their husbands’ indiscretions on front-yard signs (http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/woman-calls-out-cheating-ex-husband-homes-sale-sign-141973).

Would this work in the legal world? As a punishment handed over by a judge in court? I would like to think that it would. I especially believe that shaming would work in the U.S. for smaller crimes, like shoplifting, simple assault, etc. Maybe today’s youth should be the target.  Teenagers are more susceptible to peer-pressure. Feeling shameful about something in front of their peers may be just enough to never commit that crime again. As we’ve learned in our text, the majority of the crimes committed in the U.S. are not homicide or rape, but rather smaller crimes that people may be compelled to repeat over and over.

In some communities, it may not be shameful to commit a crime, and some people don’t have a strong enough familial support system to make shame even relevant. But if cleaning up one small crime at a time can lead to a better environment altogether, as we learned while reading about the broken-window theory, then shaming could be a real answer.

One little wrinkle in my little theory about shaming that has been nagging me is the labeling theory. I wonder if shaming a teenager about shoplifting would compel that person, and those around him/her, to automatically think of that person as a criminal for the rest of his/her life. Because of this, I think the proposed shaming punishment should be imposed only after the first known criminal offense, thus hopefully deterring the possibility of a secondary deviation.

Week Four: Nature vs. Nurture

The nature versus nurture argument is one that will probably never be settled. Some people say our personalities are a product of genetics. Some people say our personalities are made up of our life experiences, or our environment. I, as a mother, like to think that it’s a combination of both. My oldest daughter is very kind, quiet, studious, and intellectually curious. My middle daughter is stubborn, argumentative, and a perfectionist. I’d like to think that my older daughter is the way she is because I spent so many hours with her alone when she was a baby - reading to her, doing puzzles, singing and dancing. But I don’t like to think that my middle daughter is the way she is because I lost my patience with her too many times or I didn’t have the time to sit down and read and sing with her as much as I did my oldest. I refuse to believe that they both turned out with opposite personalities because I, their mother, treated them differently. If I believed this, the guilt would be unbearable.

My husband tells me that he used to sit on his bed and read all day, just as my oldest daughter does now. And I distinctly remember defying and arguing with my parents on many occasions, just because I didn’t want to give in. If I had spent more time reading to my middle daughter and less time trying to divide my time and love between two little girls, maybe she would have had a different personality altogether. However, this cannot be proven, so I’m leaning toward the “nature” argument versus “nurture” just for my own sanity, but it’s clearly both.

My middle daughter was recently diagnosed with sensory processing disorder (SPD). She has sensory defensiveness. In other words, she needs her personal space and doesn’t like when people invade it. She also has problems with clothing, like getting her socks on just the right way or avoiding collars and belts. She is very sensitive. Until I figured out what was wrong with her, my husband and I tried yelling and time-outs to no avail. If it took her 30 minutes to get that one sock on just the right way, nothing we could say would change it. Now that we know she is this way because of something physiological, and she’s not just on a quest for attention, we have changed how we react to her. We know it’s not something she can control, that it’s probably something she was born with, so we are more patient with her and react in a totally different way than before her diagnosis. She is starting to change too, as a result of our new attitude toward her.

Week Three: Thoughts on Hugh Laurie's "America" Sketch

This week, we were asked to watch a clip of actor Hugh Laurie singing on a British sketch comedy show.

The bit consisted of Hugh sitting at a baby grand piano, playing and singing. He was wearing a plaid shirt and what appeared to be a wig with a mullet. The song he sang was "America" and consisted of three words: "America," sung almost the entire length of the song, and "the States," which he switched to about three quarters of the way through the "song".

While Mr. Laurie sang the "song," the studio audience laughed in unison during moments when Laurie displayed intensity or rapture on his face. When he switched from the word "America" to "the States", the audience thought that was pretty hilarious.

At the end of the bit, a man dressed in a suit came on stage and punched Laurie in the stomach, ending the song and the skit altogether.

So, the question I'm supposed to answer is: What do each of these things tell you about how American culture looks from the point of view of a British audience?

So let's break it down:

1) Laurie chose to wear an outfit to appear as what someone in America might label a "redneck" or "hillbilly". So, we could make the assumption that British people think the majority of Americans wear this type of clothing and fashion their hair into mullets.

2) Laurie's song consisted of the sole word "America" initially, which the Brits thought was a hoot. Probably because Americans are known for being ego-centric and self-loving. The Brits were laughing because of the truth in the notion that we think only of ourselves and we think we are the best. No other words are required for such a ballad.

3) When Laurie switched over to use the words "the States," big laughs were had by all in the studio audience. I guess when Americans travel to England, we refer to our home as "The States" often? I'm not really sure. I personally never use this term to describe where I live, however the last time I went to Europe was in 2003.

4) When the man in the suit came onstage and punched Laurie, thus ending the dreadful song, the audience went wild with guffaws. So, I guess they, like me, were happy the "song" was over. But I guess it also indicates that the Brits were happy that their chosen symbol for "America" (a hillbilly singing about his beloved country) was beaten, if only to shut him up.

Okay, so we already knew how Brits felt about us. This sketch was not a shock. Insulting, yes. Shocking, heck no. They and the citizens of many other countries like to laugh at our expense. I think Will Ferrell could come up with an equally witty, if not more wordy bit for how Americans feel about Brits. I might guffaw at that.

Yes, stereotypes persist throughout the globe. They last many years, decades, even centuries. Labels are hard to shake. We will probably be "ugly Americans" for the next 500 years on this planet. I think the intelligent, thoughtful citizens of our world know enough to ignore stereotypes and judge people based on their individual qualities. Well, we could hope anyway...

Stanford Prison Experiment

For my Sociology class, I've been asked to answer the following questions after viewing a couple of short videos provided by my professor:

"Do you think the Stanford Prison Experiment was ethical? Why or why not?"

First of all, though one of the links to the videos did not work, I got the gist of what what happening and thought I'd write a blog post about how the experiment was intially ethical because the scientists had no idea how out-of-hand things were going to get. Then, a classmate, Valerie, posted a link to a thorough and in-depth slideshow presentation about the experiment (www.Prisonexp.org/ ). I was blown away.

At first, I didn't think that the experiment was unethical at all, because I didn't understand how Dr. Zimbardo was involved in the experiment when it was underway, if at all. After watching the first video (that worked), with the clips from the experiment and the interviews with Zimbardo, I had the impression that he was just an observer - that the guards did everything on their own and he was just as amazed as everyone else as to what happened.

After I  went through the prisonexp.org document (thanks again, Valerie!), I was shocked to learn that Zimbardo was extremely involved in the experiment as a participant. He basically told the first prisoner that broke down that he couldn't leave. And he tried to change the course of the entire situation by attempting to foil a prison escape, for goodness sake! He admits that he became wrapped up in the whole thing and, without knowing it, changed from being a simple psychologist conducting an experiment to a "prison superintendent" intent on keeping the "prisoners" in their places.

Of course this experiment was unethical. To the nth degree. There has to be a better way.... How about ethnography? A researcher could pose as a prisoner and  experience what it's like to be a prisoner first-hand. Or a survey? A researcher could ask prisoners questions about how they are treated or how things work within the prison. Or, finally, what about life histories? Why not have prisoners write up their autobiographies and compile the information that way? Experiments should not be conducted on humans if there will be physical or psychological side-effects.

The problem is, Dr. Zimbardo has gotten a lot of fame, attention, and notoriety for conducting this experiment. And we've actually been able to learn a lot about why people do bad things and whether evil is inherent or not. Zimbardo has written about these topics for years. But was that what Zimbardo set out to learn about? I think he set out to learn about prison life. And he learned that environment has an effect on how people behave (which has thus shed light on what happened at Abu Ghraib), but at what cost?

Week One Blog Entry: Introductions

Hello,
I am a mom with three small children, so I will be working on the assignments for this course in the evenings after I've put them all to bed.
I have a B.S. in Communications from Florida Institute of Technology and have worked in the defense industry as a Technical Writer and also in the Internet sector as a Project Manager, but I've always wanted to be a nurse. This course, Sociology 200, is a prerequisite for admission to Marymount's Accelerated Bachelor's in Nursing program.
This will be my fourth ELI course through NOVA. I am also concurrently taking Statistics this semester.
I look forward to learning the foundations of Sociology and to reading all of my classmates' blogs and comments.
I wish you all good luck this semester!
- Virginia