What comes to mind when I think of the word POWER is authority and how the person with that power can either do something uplifting for our society or something negative. Either way it can be an big impact on society. The definition of power is having the ability to bring about an intended outcome even when opposed by others. In Ch.5 "Experience Sociology", "Five Faces Of Oppression" and The Milgram Experiment they all touch base on how we examine power and its various characteristics and how power can shape our daily lives.While I do agree that the amount of power that we have can heavily influences what we accomplish in life, I do not approve of how people with power take advantage of the people under them.
In life in the United States having a lot of money leads to having a lot of power. As stated in the chapter"people with more resource typically have more power and those with power can use it to obtain more resources". Which I do believe that the more money you have the more privilege you are in life. Having money you can influences those with no money to do things for you even if it's against their morals. I'm a big fan of reality television, as I think about the power people have I thought about Kim Kardashian and if it wasn't for her father who was an famous attorney the name Kardashian would not be where it is now.She use her father resources to start her own fame which led to her sex tapes degrading herself for more money and after the sex tape her family was hitch their own reality t.v show which is now worth millions.
On the other hand I do not agree with authority taking advantage of their power. As I learned our government in my opinion been taking advantage of us since the Declaration of Independence was signed. In the article"Five Faces of Oppression" by Iris Young he notes that"no matter which definition you use, oppression is when people reduce the potential for other people to be fully human". In other words anything that's doesn't give people a choice to choose if they want to do something or not is dehumanizing them. The Constitution gave us laws we have to follow and if we didn't follow them rules we had to face certain consequences. During slavery was truly a hard time for African Americans since they were exploited by working 20hrs shifts and during that time they were rewarded with food that they barely were getting. They also was very powerlessness in that the blacks had no say so they couldn't learn to read or write.
Going back to the video The Milgram Experienment Stanley Milgram did a study on obedience to society and how under what conditions would a person obey authority when going against their conscience. In this generation we have more of choice to do what we think is right and wrong in our life. During the video it showed how the people playing the teacher continue to shock the learner because the authority being the scientist told them to. This shows that following and listening to the authority is not always the right thing to do. Stanley Milgram also said something that stood out to me which was" offer it is not so much the kind of person a man is the kind of situation determined how he would act".
Power is always something good to have. Its just what you do what that power that makes you a leader in this world. Having to much power can be very harmful if its in the wrong person hand.
In life in the United States having a lot of money leads to having a lot of power. As stated in the chapter"people with more resource typically have more power and those with power can use it to obtain more resources". Which I do believe that the more money you have the more privilege you are in life. Having money you can influences those with no money to do things for you even if it's against their morals. I'm a big fan of reality television, as I think about the power people have I thought about Kim Kardashian and if it wasn't for her father who was an famous attorney the name Kardashian would not be where it is now.She use her father resources to start her own fame which led to her sex tapes degrading herself for more money and after the sex tape her family was hitch their own reality t.v show which is now worth millions.
On the other hand I do not agree with authority taking advantage of their power. As I learned our government in my opinion been taking advantage of us since the Declaration of Independence was signed. In the article"Five Faces of Oppression" by Iris Young he notes that"no matter which definition you use, oppression is when people reduce the potential for other people to be fully human". In other words anything that's doesn't give people a choice to choose if they want to do something or not is dehumanizing them. The Constitution gave us laws we have to follow and if we didn't follow them rules we had to face certain consequences. During slavery was truly a hard time for African Americans since they were exploited by working 20hrs shifts and during that time they were rewarded with food that they barely were getting. They also was very powerlessness in that the blacks had no say so they couldn't learn to read or write.
Going back to the video The Milgram Experienment Stanley Milgram did a study on obedience to society and how under what conditions would a person obey authority when going against their conscience. In this generation we have more of choice to do what we think is right and wrong in our life. During the video it showed how the people playing the teacher continue to shock the learner because the authority being the scientist told them to. This shows that following and listening to the authority is not always the right thing to do. Stanley Milgram also said something that stood out to me which was" offer it is not so much the kind of person a man is the kind of situation determined how he would act".
Power is always something good to have. Its just what you do what that power that makes you a leader in this world. Having to much power can be very harmful if its in the wrong person hand.
Doug,
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love your blog entry. You've done a nice job with integrating the text, reading, and the chapter. Good work.