This video would probably scare me if I was able to take it more seriously. For some reason, I just feel like all of the quotes are so ridiculous and I feel like the United States is very well defended. I mean, I guess we probably aren’t as well defended as the government would like us to think but I still feel safe here. We haven’t had an actual war on our soil really ever, other than the Civil War and that was us fighting against each other. I think that other countries are scared to attack us even though they hate us. If a country tried attacking us the retaliation would definitely be awful and they are well aware of this. On the other hand, if an attack happened once (September 11), it can happen again. So at no point should we let our guard down just because we feel secure about other countries fearing us. Also, there is the possibility of suicide bombers that don’t care about their lives and are willing to die for a greater cause. I do wish that some of these people could be more empathetic and put themselves in our shoes before they go crashing planes into buildings and kill our people. On that note, we should be putting ourselves in their shoes and thinking of how people feel when we invade their land because we think we have the right to do so. We really don’t, who cares if another country is democratic? (I know that isn’t the REAL reason we go into other countries, but since it’s what they tell us it’s a good example). I think we need to start allowing other people to live their lives however they want, if the world could just cooperate and be able to deal with everyone else and live peacefully it would be such a better place. Even though that sounds really hippy-ish and extremely unrealistic I really wish it could happen. I don’t care what’s going on halfway across the world as long as I’m content with my life other people can live theirs however they want.

This article brings up many interesting points about what identifies us as people. There are many ways we can classify ourselves and one of those ways is gender. Some people feel that they should identify with a gender that is not the one they were born as. Many view this as unusual because it is uncommon. I was born a female, and I feel like a female in every way possible but I can understand that some people may feel differently. I dont think people should be discriminated against because of who they want to be. I do understand how some guys would feel uncomfortable with a female watching them pee into cups for drug testing. But if a person is technically a male and identifies with that gender then there isnt that much of a difference between that person and a man. I dont think people should be fired from their jobs if theyve been considered a male their whole life and have identified with the male gender. But on the other hand, should we really be able to choose what gender we are? If parents are not able to genetically alter their children then people shouldnt be allowed to do this to themselves. Technology has gone a little too far if it is possible to not even know what gender a person was born as. Im not trying to discriminate because I want to be understanding but it does seem a bit weird to me. I think people should try to be more accepting of who they are, I mean how can you be more you than by accepting who you were born as because that is who we really are. I guess some people would argue this by saying they feel like they are something other than what they were born as. But, as a white woman, I could say that I feel like I should be a black man and people would think I was crazy. That brings up another question, why is it ethical to change gender but not race. Like Michal Jackson got a lot of criticism for choosing to be white but we arent supposed to criticize transgender people.

Oil and gas companies are some of the richest most profitable companies in the country. They make too much money for what they actually do, especially considering they are so unethical and get so many laws bent and changed for them. In my criminology class, we watched a documentary called gaslands in which the director travelled across the country to different places affected by natural gas drilling. Every family that he spoke to was suffering from serious consequences that were directly from the drilling. For example, most of the families were able to set their tap water on fire and were told specifically not to ever drink it. He also showed the hundreds of dead birds and fish because the streams in the area were so polluted. The gas companies are protected from any kind of lawsuits so these people cannot do anything about it. The most shocking part of this to me is that the oil companies are seriously not taking any responsibility for this and they are claiming that they are not polluting anything when it is very clear that they are. I do not think they oil companies should be receiving any kind of aid from the government because they make so much money to begin with. No matter what, gas prices are on the rise, it’s not like giving oil companies money will reduce our gas prices. The CEO’s of these companies are too greedy and want to make as much money as possible even though there is no way they have a need for all of it. Honestly, if I was already a millionaire and could support myself and my family comfortably I would admit that I really don’t need more money. People today are too greedy and shouldn’t be making millions while they carelessly pollute other people’s only supply of water. They are buying out politicians so they can continue to make millions without penalty for their actions. It isn’t fair that some people can just buy their way out of anything while the average citizen has to deal with the consequences. I don’t think oil CEO’s would like it if someone put a bunch of chemicals in their drinking water.

I agree that organized religion is dying in today’s society. I have noticed that in our generation, there are a lot less people who affiliate themselves with a religion than there were in the past. I think a big part of this is simply that it has become more acceptable with the growing number of people becoming more tolerant of other religions and everything. For example, I am not religious at all, but I still respect people who are and expect them to respect me and my beliefs as well. I think that as more and more people lean towards no religion, it becomes more acceptable. This is the same concept as anything really, like the way that teenagers dance today would not be accepted at all fifty years ago, but times change and so do people. Also, I think that a big factor in people being less religious are the developments in science. As scientists do research and try to make sense of the world, religion becomes more and more obsolete. Even if people are religious I feel like they may not attend church and really be a part of an “organized” religion. In the past, the vast majority of people associated themselves with a particular religion, and now as the number of people who do not associate themselves with a religion grows, it becomes more acceptable because the number grows towards being the majority. Also, since there are now so many religions, it becomes clear that they cannot all be correct, so people will begin to question whether theirs is correct or not and decide to just not affiliate with any religion. I mean that makes a lot more sense than being involved in one of the religions that probably is not correct. The chances of any one religion being right are very slim so why even bother believing one? Organized religion probably will die off eventually because as it becomes more acceptable, more people will realize that they do not really need to affiliate themselves with any one religion. I don’t know what religion I would or could be, so I just accept the fact that I do not know and will someday find out.

I would like to say that if I was in the same position as M. when he was a boy I would have stopped the murder, but I’m not too sure about that. It sounds like there were a lot of factors that went into the decision to keep quiet. First of all, I would have been terrified because if the other boys had found out about being told on, they could possibly kill me, too. Also, being 14 means that fitting in and being cool were probably more important than standing out and doing something. He could have chosen not to go with his friends that night, but that is not the decision a lot of teenagers would have made. I mean, they weren’t supposed to get caught and he didn’t murder anyone, he just could have stopped it. I think he chose ignorance, and possibly considered doing the right thing by going downstairs to the room where the murder was taking place. I really liked how modest he was throughout the letter, it is clear that he feels a lot of pain and regret for what happened that night, as would any normal person in that same situation. It must be terrible having to be in prison possibly for the rest of your life, just sitting and thinking about what you did and that you could have prevented it all. I could not even imagine the strength it takes to not go completely insane in there day after day. I can barely stand being in my house for too long. Also, I think this story is a good one to tell, it helps to show that not all inmates are terrible people, and that they actually recognize and admit that what they did was wrong. I feel that most people in this position would say that they were innocent and didn’t do anything wrong. It takes a lot to admit that you had just as much to do with it as the boys who actually murdered the man and that you deserve to be in prison possibly for the rest of your life.

Society causes us to be scared of things even when they are really not that common. Things like kidnapping seem to be a bigger problem than they really are. With new technology and news we are able to know what is going on anywhere at any time. Few kidnappings happen but when they do the news is broadcast all around the country. People worry about this because they hear about crimes occurring daily. In reality the areas in which the crimes are committed are very big so the chances of it happening to us individually is very small. Parents today are much more cautious than they were thirty years ago, but there is still the same amount of risk of something bad happening. As we discussed in class, people become paranoid because the problem is taken as a big issue when in reality it is not. One of the main things parents and schools preach to their children is not to talk to strangers, but in reality we should not fear strangers. The chances that a stranger is going to harm a child are very low. No matter who the stranger is they will probably help out a child in need. If you teach your children not to talk to strangers could potentially be harming them. If a kid ends up alone and lost, the longer they wait without asking for help, the higher the chance that someone will come by to harm them. Parents teach their kids not to talk to strangers when really they should be telling them to talk to the first strangers they see if they need help. People need to learn to look at situations more logically and realize that the chances of anything bad happening are very low. If everyone would stop worrying about things that do not actually matter then no one would be scared about things that are not actually problems in the country. We should be worried about what we are telling out children to do because it is actually counterproductive. If everyone would stop being concerned with little things that happen then everyone would actually be safer.

The government should be there to protect citizens, not control them. If there are too many restrictions placed upon us then no one would be happy. I would certainly like the option to eat a big mac whenever I want because in moderation they really aren’t that bad for you. I eat fast food all the time and I’m still healthy because I am responsible about it. It shouldn’t be the government’s responsibility to tell us what to eat or when, we should stop being lazy and start being more responsible for ourselves and our own bodies. However, it is a good thing for the government to make food companies tell consumers what is in the products, because we have the right to know what we’re about to eat. The government also places restrictions on the companies by having labor laws which are made to protect the welfare of people working. I think labor laws are a good thing and I am glad that the government places some restrictions on companies to treat their employees fairly. Without these regulations, everything would be different and people would have to work ridiculous hours and children would be able to work at any age. Also, wages would be low if there was no government enforced minimum. The country would suffer if there were no laws, and if there would be too many. I think that the system in place now is fair and we do not need more or less regulation. It’s fine for political leaders to express their views and opinions but they should not be able to force it upon the rest of the country. If someone wants to knowingly eat Mcdonalds until they become obese and get heart disease, then that’s their problem they should have done something to prevent that. It is common knowledge that fast food isn’t good for you, we shouldn’t need to be forced to eat well. People need to be able to make most of their own decisions, even though sociologically speaking that isn’t even possible. We know what our options are so we should be able to decide for ourselves.

People will always conform to what others are doing around them, it’s human nature. If everyone else does something, we don’t want to be left out. Personally, I like to think that I would remain an individual in situations like the elevator experiment and the example we watched in class. The example we watched in class really surprised me because the other participants were obviously choosing the wrong answers, but the guy continued to blindly follow them without question. If I was in that situation, I think I would choose whatever answer I thought was correct, regardless of what the others chose. I can’t really be positive of that though because I’ve never been in a situation like that. It is interesting to watch how much people conform to everything. I see countless examples every day of people doing stupid things just because everyone else does it too.

I think a lot of people take freedom for granted. Very few people actually think about and appreciate everything that goes into Americans having all of the freedoms that we do. We as Americans have countless freedoms that most wouldn’t even think twice about. Reading this letter makes me think “what if I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do?” If I wanted to go out right now to get something to eat I could. If I wanted to go spend the day with my family I could do that. A prisoner would not have either of those options at any given time. Being a freshman in college, I feel that I’ve discovered a lot of new freedoms. I now have freedom from my parents to make whatever decisions I want to make at any time. Unless of course you look at it from a different perspective and say that none of us are free at all and our decisions are being shaped by society. In that case, I’m making the same decisions as other college freshman are making and not making independent choices at all. This is very true because I’d definitely say I fall into a lot of the “typical” college student norms. People expect us to act in certain ways, and we do. Since it is impossible to escape this, I wouldn’t say that we aren’t free because in the end everything is ultimately up to me, I can physically do anything I want to do at any time. I’m not saying that I can do anything without consequences but really when you think about it everyone does have the freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want. The reason we don’t is that there are negative consequences for most of the things that we don’t do. One exception that I can think of to this is prisoners, but if you think about it they obviously did what they wanted to do and now they are dealing with the consequences of those actions. Maybe conforming to our society’s rules and norms is a way of showing appreciation for the freedoms that we do have?

soc 001