Blog of Wade Making Connexions

ATTN: Sociologists;Don’t Box Me In

Alex Jones (as linked to via Donal) in his speech talks about becoming alive, about not being a slave to society, about creating a future worth your children living in. He wants people to not be placed into boxes. Something I agree with whole heartedly.

In Culture Matters(again), I came across a definition of what Sociologists do(my bolding).

Sociologists assume that as human beings grow and mature, they are socialized into a whole series of roles and identities-Catholic, worker, deviant, mother, bureaucrat-defined by a series of complex norms and rules. These norms bind communities together and are tightly enforced by them, sharply limiting the kinds of choices people can make about their lives.

This(bold) is exactly what Alex talks about. Society and Culture create these boxes, these conditions that we must live in, and by doing that, our experience becomes limited. We become slaves of habit, expectations about what we must do are made about and by other people, about who you are, based on what you do and where you go. Society catches you in it’s net.

Terence McKeena, in a speech has gone as far as saying “Culture is not your friend”.