Durkheim

Well it looks like I'm a little behind, so I've got some catching up to do. To start off, I'm going to list everything I know about Durkheim generically. I'll elaborate further on the outline I've created soon. I find topic of suicide particularly interesting.

Emile Durkheim

Durkheim was a capitalist who observed religion in society. He believed that “Religion is the glue that holds society together. He is known as the father of Sociology and he had some big shoes to fill being the first man to attempt to explain the entire world.

His Beliefs

• Sui Generis – an anticipated consequence of human agency; society has properties that an individual does not have.

• Mechanical Solidarity – Social structure is based on the individuals’ similarities and is dependent on rituals and traditions (Old school society before any type of industrial revolution).

• Organic Solidarity – is based on the interdependence of individuals in industrialized societies. People rely on one another to survive like a symbiotic organism.

• This largely depends on the complex division of labor, which stemmed from the industrial revolution. Everyone has a place in society. There will always be janitors and low men on the totem pole.

• Social Facts – are pre-existing conditions of human agency that exist outside individuals. They are constraints of individual behaviors as they are the ways of acting and thinking (ex. The Bible).

• Division of Labor – the separation and specialization of society.
• Societal means of coping with extensive social transformations.

• Integration – Society’s ability to make its members into its functional parts through making the system of norms, values, and beliefs known and unified to all.
• A basic common way of thinking bonds people and gives them a place in society.

• Religion – The means for providing the meaning of life, unity, structure and control.

• Anomie – A condition where social and/or moral norms are confused, unclear, or simply not present.
• A lack of norms leads to deviant behaviors.
• Durkheim believed industrialization promoted anomie.

• Anomie is some serious stuff. It can lead to suicide because people need to feel integrated.

• Suicide – can result from too much integration or anomie.

• Types of Suicide:

• Egoistic Suicide – comes from too little integration.

• Altruistic Suicide – comes from too much integration (Ex. suicide bombers).

• Anomic Suicide – comes from the breaking down of norms (loosing in faith in what you believe).

Reaction to the Communist Manifesto

"The proletarian movement is the self-conscious, independent movement of the immense majority, in the interests of the immense majority."

In our capitalistic society the 'immense majority' stands by as the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

"The essential condition for the existence, and for the sway of the bourgeois class, is the formation and augmentation of capital; the condition for capital is wage-labour. Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between labourers."

The proletariat fight for jobs and commodities that the bourgeoisie allocate. Are resources really scarce in the United States/the world or are they just unequally distributed?

"At this stage, therefore, the proletarians do not fight their enemies, but the enemies of their enemies, the remnants of absolute monarchy, the landowners, the non-industrial bourgeois, the petty bourgeoisie. Thus the whole historical movement is concentrated in the hands of the bourgeoisie; every victory so obtained is a victory for the bourgeoisie."

Brand name rivals come to mind and the car industry. People on assembly lines work harder to out produce, out sell, and out rank their rivals. In the long run, who really benefits? Who is exploited. Stock piles of cars currently sit wasting away because they will not sell.






What I find most interesting about the document is not the advice given, but the well thought out responses to criticism. As soon as anyone mentions Marx in the public sphere unruly communism seems to be a common association.

He addresses concerns that communism will eliminate religion, morality, laws, bourgeois marriage, bourgeois family, etc. I laughed at the idea that: "But you Communists would introduce community of women, screams the whole bourgeoisie in chorus." This is an argument against communism I've never heard before, but obviously Marx had a counter to it.

I'll expand on this more later. It's hard to know where to start with so many ideas.

Social Power?

"What is the nature of social power? It would help if you consider this by considering your own definition of social power and why you either do or do not want more."

To break this question down, I think one needs first to define power.

"At the most general level, power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes one wants."

The amount of power a person has can be determined in many ways, but in a capitalistic society monetary worth seems to be the most prevalent measure. For Marx, the ability to own land and private property helps determine the distribution of power. Power is passed down from generation to generation, giving people that have never worked a day in their lives authority they cannot even begin to comprehend.

Of course I'm completely ignoring the power of influence, but for the most part money drives our society. For example, without extraordinary amounts of money would American companies have such a profound impact on globalization?

Are McDonald's and Disney innately popular, or is it more reasonable to guess that their advertising ploys and ruthless marketing have made the companies multinational conquerors?

Social power is the ability to manipulate society and the people within it without rebellion. Disney does a great job of making their products "magical" or "good" to the point that no one questions the motives of the company. Disney doesn't care about children or their livelihoods, or accurate representations of race, etc. Disney cares about profit. In spite of this, Disney movies and products are primary socializing agents for thousands of children.

On the other hand, social power can influence and change the structure of society. Influence allows a person to gain power and achieve their goals. In this sense, I would love to have more social power. Leaders like Martin Luther King used their social power to change how society functions for the better. With an actual agenda, social power can be used to help better people’s lives. In the hands of an emotionless psychotic organization hell bent on profit, social power can ruin people, cultures, and general well being. Would you like fries with that?

I'll post more later.