Stable life requires balance between our desires and what we can get; society usually supplies norms that allow us to govern our expectations; in times of rapid change these useful bits of social regulation can lag leaving us in a state of anomy.
1.
TBA (xxx.n)
regimen (239.6)
erethism (242)
equanimity (242)
apotheosis (243.6)
sacrilege (243.6)
(purely) utilitarian (regulation) (243.7)
liberal professions (244.8)
237.1 Needs and means must balance. Frustrated needs dull and atrophy. So to the impulse to live.
237.3 Animals have a natural equilibrium of wants and needs.
237.8 Man is different because he not only wants the food, he also wants better living conditions. (Jeniferiz)
238.1 There is nothing inherent that sets limits for humans. (Jeniferiz)
238.1 Unlike animals, there are no limits on what man wants or craves. (CDunlap01)
238.4 If there are no limits, we keep trying to satisfy our needs until death, never attaining happiness. (Jeniferiz)
238.5 Having no goals or unattainable goals leads to constant unhappiness. (CDunlap01)
238.6 When we set unrealistic goals for ourselves we are setting ourselves up for misery. (Jeniferiz)
238.8 It's cyclical, the more we get the more we want. (Jeniferiz)
238.9 Regulations need to be put in place to control mans moral needs since he is unable to regulate them himself. (CDunlap01)
238.9 We need to regulate moral and physical needs. (Jeniferiz)
239.1 Since man cannot put limits on himself, we need society to act as a moral authority. This helps keep us in check. (Jeniferiz)
239.2 Society can set the moral regulations for individuals. (CDunlap01)
239.7 Ease of living is set by social class, but that is changeable depending on money and morals. (Jeniferiz)
239.9 If people respect the regulations and norms put in place by society they may be happy and will not need to ask for more. (CDunlap01)
239.9 If man accepts the morals of society he may find himself content. (Jeniferiz)
240.1 Living as other do in a society produces norms, which can be comforting. (Jeniferiz)
240.4 Man has to be happy with what he has. (Jeniferiz)
240.6 If all men were really created = and all had = economic chance it would be better. (Jeniferiz)
240.7 If we were all born with equal resources and there was perfect equality there would be no need for social restraint. (CDunlap01)
240.7 More equality would = less need for social restraint. (Jeniferiz)
240.8 We are born with varying degrees of $ and intelligence. Those with less will have to accept their status due to birth. (Jeniferiz)
240.9 People born with more $ and intelligence don't want things to be = among all. This causes stratification. (Jeniferiz)
241.2 Social order must be obeyed out of respect, not fear. (Jeniferiz)
241.2 Order must be maintained through respect, not because of fear. (CDunlap01)
241.4 When you don't know where you fit in it causes problems. (Jeniferiz)
241.5 When there is a crisis or sudden transition it is hard for society to keep its influence over individuals. (CDunlap01)
241.6 It is very difficult to lower your status in society when something like loss of income happens. (Jeniferiz)
241.7 It is the same if you become wealthy too fast. You can end up losing your social network and stability. (Jeniferiz)
241.9 No matter if rich to poor or vice versa need time to find balance, if you don't = disaster. (Jeniferiz)
242.1 We use public opinion to control us. If we don't have it we are unable to control ourselves. (Jeniferiz)
242.3 The richer we are the more we want, but this is the time we need the most control. (Jeniferiz)
242.5 When competition grows the struggle grows and leads to less desire for life. (Jeniferiz)
242.6 If we are poor, we are automatically held back by poverty and that protects us from suicide. (Jeniferiz)
242.8 Wealth deceives us, we believe it is the only thing we need. (Jeniferiz)
242.9 Trade and industry cause a chronic state of suicide. (Jeniferiz)
243.4 Development of global markets encourage limitless desire (CDunlap01)
243.7 Liberation has made desires worse. Development of industry = infinite extension of markets. This makes endless greed. (Jeniferiz)
243.9 Reality has no value and cannot compare with the imagination of wealth. (Jeniferiz)
243.9 When imagination becomes reality it loses its value and appeal. (CDunlap01)
244.2 If you are satisfied w/life and don't constantly strive for more = attachment to life. (Jeniferiz)
244.4 If you are constantly pursuing the future you have no ties to the past to rely on when times are tough. (Jeniferiz)
244.6 It is thought that man is always dissatisfied, always advancing without rest, and working towards and indefinite goal. (CDunlap01)
244.8 Industrial and commercial occupations = higher suicide rate. Liberal occupations = a lower rate of suicide. (Jeniferiz)
244.9 Those with the most suffer the most. (CDunlap01)
245.1 Those who have the most comfort suffer the most discontent. They get lost in their wealth. (Jeniferiz)
245.4 Anomic suicide is a result of individuals lacking regulation and his suffering. (CDunlap01)
245.4 If we lose regulation we are in trouble, we need society to regulate us so that we keep our attachments. (Jeniferiz)
245.8 In anomic suicide, society regulations are lacking leaving us with no reality check. (Jeniferiz)
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Q430. At 239.4 Durkheim writes, "As a matter of fact, at every moment of history there is a dim perception, in the moral consciousness of societies, of the respective value of different social services [he means jobs, occupations, etc. not social work], the relative reward due to each, and the consequent degree of comfort appropriate on the average to workers in each occupation." Translate this into everyday English.
Q431. Discuss the relationship between "desires" and "means," ambitions and expectations, contentment and aspiration that characterize the NON-anomic equilibrium that society can provide.
Q432. At 240.5 Durkheim talks about social classification (by which he means the way people are sorted into different roles/occupations/classes in society) and about what the basis of these are (and how we accept them or take them for granted - note that this is what Goffman was talking about too in "The Arrangement Between the Sexes.") Why should (or how can) people be content with their lot in life when they are aware that the lots people have are vastly unequal?
Q433. Discuss how one might be "content" with one's inequality in a society where:
- status is based on heredity
- a program is in place to give everyone an equal start (imagine whatever's needed for this)
- a strictly equal opportunity meritocratic society
- a society with every imaginable balancing of privilege
Q434. On p241 Durkheim talks about the anomy (disruption) caused by economic disaster (a person losing everything, say, or sudden drop in a set of people's economic circumstances as when a local industry closes and everyone loses jobs) OR when sudden wealth comes (again, to an individual or to a community or group). Explain what Durkheim sees happening and how it's the same process in both situations.
Q435. Discuss: Durkheim talks about how society gets us to "accept our lot"; Marx and Engels talk about false consciousness and ideology (we buy into our oppression) and religion as "opiate of the masses"; Weber gave us the notion of legitimate authority. Points of similarity and difference?
Q436. At 242.5 Durkheim writes "Poverty protects against suicide because it is a restraint in itself." What does he mean?
Q437. On p 243 we read "this liberation of desires has been made worse by the very development of industry and the almost infinite extension of the market." Consult the text (including the text before this passage) and say something about what Durkheim's take on globalization of markets and products might be.
Q438. Consult the text at 243.9ff : "Reality seems valueless by comparison with the dreams of fevered imaginations; reality is therefore abandoned, but so is possibility abandoned when it in turn becomes reality. A thirst arises for novelties…." Use Durkheim to say something about advertising - for products, for body images, etc.
Q439. Freud in "Civilization and Its Discontents" gives us a theory of how conscience arises and functions. In the selection on anomic suicide Durkheim gives an account of conscience as controlling our otherwise potentially infinite (and unsatisfiable) desires. Compare and contrast.
Q440. Define:
regimen (239.6)
erethism (242)
equanimity (242)
apotheosis (243.6)
sacrilege (243.6)
(purely) utilitarian (regulation) (243.7)
liberal professions (244.8)