"The Lottery" and "Harrison Bergeron" Questions

1. They both show us that bystanders will do only what they are told. They will do what authority tells them to do, but if the authority says nothing to them they will do nothing but stand and observe the crisis.
2. The now illegal practice of hazing, especially in college. Usually there's a leader or two that have been there for a few years and the one getting hazed. As with "The Lottery", the leader orders everyone else around like the rest of the students in college will just watch this person getting hazed.
3. Fear is the biggest factor in ruling. A ruler must ensure that the people they rule are afraid of them so they will listen. Normal everyday people will not fight back or argue against a ruler if there would be consequences they could have, leading to fear.
4. Individuals can break free from control by having intelligent plans and thoughts that are strong. Either that or they can be like Harrison and be so overwhelmingly strong or powerful that you can single-handedly break free from the control.
5. In "The Lottery", I will assume that the killing is done to ensure the people know that someone does order them around. The government or whatever controlling agency put the lottery into effect has someone stoned obviously to show that the people are not invincible and can be eliminated at any time as exhibited there.
6. Generally, right and wrong in society is decided by the people in the society, the majority. It's usually the morals that the people follow that is set as rules and laws. For example, when a government changes a law against the common norm, it is never widely followed, even years after implementation.
7. The people decide but that is more on the ruling body. The government really does have the final decision as to if you're right or wrong. However, people can be excommunicated and exiled from towns by their peers if what they did was that wrong in their eyes.

3 Questions from "The Lottery":
1. Why should we or should we not have some sort of lottery as this, which is grossly similar to The Hunger Games"?
2. Why does our government have a duty to show its force against its own citizens to promote obedience?
3. Why don't we have people carry out punishments like they did in "The Lottery" in our society?

3 Questions from "Harrison Bergeron":
1. Should the government enforce policies that hold down those that are more extraordinary than others and why or why not?
2. Should the government then punish severely those who attempt to be more extraordinary than others as an example to the other citizens and why?
3. Does every person have some way that they are more extraordinary than everyone else, and are they all able to use that talent freely to break free?

Tax Blog

     I believe that a progressive tax is better for America based on the fact of the government. In order for our government to receive the money it needs to operate on a yearly basis it must tax the rich at a higher percentage than the lower class. 47% of the government's tax money comes from income taxes. Taxing a lower class person the same percentage as an upper class will yield less money in the long run for use by the government.

     The first article says that on a flat tax plan, "people expecting a tax advantage won't get it." This is bad. They speak of a homeowner getting a tax deduction for a mortgage, which is a good thing. If a middle class family must take out a mortgage to be first-time home buyers, that is an extra huge expense that most people of the same class won't have. If this couple spends an extra 10% of their income on that, that 10% less money that they have than anyone else.

     In the second article, the debate, I noticed that most people were in favor of a flat tax. Someone said that "Even though progressive taxation helps the Federal Government allocate more revenue the flat rate taxation system is fair, logical, and can be extremely effective." This statement sums up my point most closely. The flat tax would be fairer to the people than a progressive, but there is no way our government would pass this. The only way the government could survive while still using its outrageous spending budget is to tax us in another way, namely a much, much higher sales tax.

     A flat tax may be "more fair" to the people, but is the government really going to listen to the people when their budget isn't met? In my mind, the progressive tax is the best way for our government to get the money from us that they need to attempt to satisfy their insatiable spending habits.

Lord of the Flies Blog

1    1.  Death is the physical killing of someone. It is obviously the most noticeable way of killing a man. One day they’re breathing and boom, next day they aren’t so they’re dead. But society has its special ways of killing a person so they’re still physically alive. Society knows just how to crush a man’s free spirit so that he is so broken inside and has no free thoughts, only what is pumped into him by the filtered media. As our President has even said, “fake news.” This leaves a person dead emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. People undergo this killing of the spirit and soon we have a nation full of mindless slaves.

      2.      Without doubt, our savage self will take over. Some may be able to resist it longer than others but eventually all will succumb to the savage self’s rule. The savage self has only one goal: survive. It will do whatever it needs to in order to take over and make the best out of what it has. It is the most primitive basis of our beings, as it develops earliest. The savage self of our beings is the epitome of the id in Freud’s philosophy. For these reasons it is important that we teach our children to be able to separate the two and try to repress the savage self as much as is humanly possible for them.

      3.      A civilization is created when a group of human beings figure it out and decide that they will have a greater chance at survival if they band together. The civilization is strengthened when they begin to rely on one another to fulfill tasks that meet one another’s needs. I believe that society is controlled by the people because at some point all of our rules and norms we follow today were created by the people. We wouldn’t have a law against stealing if someone never would have determined that action hurtful and worked our society’s beliefs to feel that way also. All rules, laws, amd norms that make up our society and culture were created by the people, for the people. Therefore I say the people control.

   

      4.      The Lord of the Flies is talking about a few things, mainly how the other boys think Simon is weird because he’s always off on his own and he speaks about how he is the Beast and the Beast is all around and in everyone. The Lord of the Flies is angry because Simon is trying to leave him and acts like he knows better than him. He is angry at Simon in particular because Simon is the only one who talks to him and the other boys are going to think he is weird, but none of the other boys act like Simon is. 

Refugees

1. 18-24 months typically.

2. 110,000 refugees.

3. Burma and Iraq.

4. 39,000 Muslim refugees.

5. California, Texas, and New York.

6. The first observation that caught my eye was that Europe had the most refugees in the 1990s, a lot more than anyone else and there are hardly any from there now. The second was that the amount of refugees from Africa has risen slowly but steadily over the years. The third is why did the amount of refugees go down so drastically in the late 1970s?

7. One, that there are so many Christians that seek refuge here. Two, that there are so many others.

8. Because we've become much more accepting of other cultures, and that we were in some sort of standoff or war or battle with the three others, but not Albanians.

9. It has shifted from Europe to Africa to Asia. Bhutan.

10. Ukranian refugees just popped up in the northwest heavy. Wyoming almost has no refugees most years. Most of the Midwestern states all have the same country that leads refugee counts. 

11. 50,000 refugees.

12. March was the lowest month in pretty much all the states.

13. 60 million.

14. 12.5 million.

15. Norway and Switzerland.

No, I believe that the US does not necessarily have an obligation to help other countries. It might be nice if we helped them but I feel like there is no obligation there. When we provide aid to those people and countries, we then feel obligated to continue helping them after helping once or twice, sucking us in and forcing us to be there helping forever.

Bacha Bazi

I read the article about the stolen boys, the abused boys years after they got away from their captors. I am absolutely appalled that it is customary and normal in Afghanistan for older men to kidnap and rape young boys and not get in trouble at all. Although it shouldn't, it still shocks me that after they escape, some boys will turn into kidnappers themselves. The fact that it is accepted for older men to take younger boys and force them to dress up as women and dance and then rape them make absolutely no sense to have as an accepted custom.

To exhibit sociological mindfulness and empathy, I am putting myself in the shoes of the Afghani boys who are kidnapped. If I were them, I would be so afraid every day of my kidnapped life. At any moment I could be raped or forced to dress up as a lady and dance for other men, then get raped after that. I have been stolen from my home and my family and am now being used as a sex slave, and my captor will get no punishments from this because it is legal for him to do this to me. Fear grips me every time I am forced to dance, and once I escape, I will not know how to do anything other than dance and have sex. All I have done my whole life is function as a male prostitute and be afraid. 

Barnga Blog

1. Confusion
2. I expected all the rules to be the same and everyone to get along and understand exactly what we were playing. I was expecting less confusion on the part of people coming from new tables.
3. When Mason tried signing to me that the diamond he played was trump, but it wasn't at my table.
4. I took over controlling who the cards went to since I knew what cards were best and I pushed the cards at them.
5. Made it worse since we couldn't communicate our differences in words.
6. Yes. Because communicating with people of other countries and other cultures is as difficult as that game was for us. You can't communicate verbally and so the differences get frustrating.
7. Maybe not absolutely necessary, but if we had them it would probably bring about peace, I'm almost 100% sure of it.
8. That we all have our differences in cultures and we need to understand that. Listen to others and trust them and what they try and tell us.

Sociological Mindfulness

I thought the video was eye-opening. I think that guy did a very good job trying to get everyone who watched to be even a little bit empathetic and mindful. It was very smart on his part to first make up a scenario where America is the weaker country because everyone in the crowd would know what that feels like. Then the crowd could empathize a little more closely with the Iraqi civilians. The biggest thing I picked up from this video, I realized how distorted our views of other countries probably are. I realize that we are probably being lied to, but I didn't realize how much until I saw the other point of view. You had told us that it was radical (and it was) and might make us angry, but I didn't feel that. His speaking made me think and got my mind going about a million miles an hour thinking of what I've missed or what I have thought or said of others in my life by not doing this.

As for sociological mindfulness in my own life, I can't lie and say I do it often enough and empathize with others. However, I sometimes have been able to do empathize and be sociologically mindful when someone hurts me or does something that is questionable. My hope is that if I put myself in their shoes I will understand why they hurt me or why they do the weird things that they do. I am definitely going to be more sociologically mindful and empathetic from now on. My hope is that I will get angry less at others because I will understand them better.

Finally, finishing the statement. I see myself fitting into the big picture of society as a thinker, an analyzer. Without people who analyze, our society would be much more whimsical. More people would do without thinking, the world would be run much more on a whim. It is the thinkers and analyzers that keep the happy-go-lucky people grounded more, keep the world more stable.

Blog 2: Freaks and Geeks

1. What are the groups and what functions do they serve? Are there negative influences from any of the groups (dysfunctions)? This is functional theory. It was developed by Emile Durkheim.    The freaks and the geeks. The freaks are the group that could be classified as "rebellious", and they are the bullies of the school. The geeks are the smart ones who follow all the rules and just try not to get hurt. They are the weaker group. The freaks influence many other kids to be like them and do things like cut class and smoke and bad things. 

2. Who has power in the episode? How or why do they have power? How do they use it? This is conflict theory. It was first developed by Karl Marx. One group that has power is the freaks over Lindsay. They have it because she wants to fit in with them and be "cool" so bad. They use it to get her to skip the dance and come with them. The other person with a lot of power is Alan over the geeks. They are so afraid of him beating them up that they have given him power. He uses it to constantly scare them and make them afraid of being near him.

3. What are the important symbols in the episode? Note that the symbols might be an object, but also might be an idea, an event or something else. How do the characters act based on the symbols they find important? This is symbolic interactionism. You can connect it to Max Weber. The biggest symbol is Nick's drumset in his garage that he showed to Lindsay. It represents his happy place, what he actually wants to try at. He acts so excited and happy about it because he loves drumming.

4. Can you relate any of these theories to your own life? How can the things you do be interpreted through one of these theories? For example why do you wear what you wear or why are you going to college or why do you stress yourself out to get "good" grades? Yes. I can see the conflict theory as it works through high school. Some older kids are seen as role models and I can see how younger students will try their hardest to be just like them, no matter what they do.