QUOTES FROM

STUDENT JOURNALS




I can see why sociology is dangerous.  It seems that I leave the class angry more often than not, and I have observed that others do as well.  To feel so strongly in one area, and realize that more people disagree with you than agree, is disheartening and frustrating.  Sociology is so relative, it’s so personal.  What is important to one person is meaningless to another.  What one person desires to change, another desires to maintain.  What benefits one group of people, hurts another.  Can these conflicts ever be resolved?  Can harmony ever be fully achieved?  At this point in time, it does not seem very likely.
 

I am assuming that social theory is like all other theories, they try to define the indefinable.  This is why theories are so hard to understand.  Can you really believe what is expressed to you?  Or are you forced to believe it simply because it is the only explanation available?
 

In discussing the lecture with a friend, we talked about the issue of alienation being present in our class.  There are so many individuals, so many different people all with different beliefs and varying levels of understanding.  I feel that when discussing sociological theories and politics that I am alienated from the class because I do not understand or follow what is being discussed around me.  I feel alienated for not understanding and maybe for not participating.  Alienation is a hard problem to resolve.  Once you feel alienated from a situation you are less comfortable and less confident in your abilities.  For this reason you do not speak up and so things carry on around you without a change.
 

I think that it is unfortunate that certain people are famous for their ideas about sociology because everyone has an opinion.  So why is it important to learn about Comte, Marx, or any other former ideas that are irrelevant?
 

Review day, so many new faces that have come out of hibernation…and that will disappear after the test during our next class date.  It’s funny sometimes how that works…laziness.  Laziness could also be related to our class in a way because perhaps one could ponder if laziness is a by-product of today’s society…at least in the United States.  I feel it is, it seems a lot of people don’t like to try hard anymore.  They seem satisfied with just the bare minimal of things.  It’s disgusting actually…
 

A philosopher said, “Does the world really need sociologists?”  I really thought that sociology was just for an easy Bachelors degree that had no substance.
 

Society can never respect difference because it advocates replicating others.  Why else do we have role models?  Society wants us to have role models not for inspiration but rather to replicate them.  How can we be different when we struggle to be the same?
 

I have always been pro-life, but not fully, because I also am a little pro-choice.  I have a moral dilemma.  I believe it is wrong to kill a living human being but I also believe that God gave us freedom of choice.  I think it is wrong to make decisions for someone because you do not know that person or how it effects them.
 

Is the drug addict to blame for his addiction?  Does he have free will?  I believe he had free choice when he first choose to take heroine.  Yet, only after taking heroine only a few times the person really can’t live without it.  At that point is he to blame?  I am not really sure I know that answer to that.
 

[On Pairwise Ranking] By the end of class, I raised my hand to vote for so many problems—that we were putting on the class matrix--that my hand began to hurt.  But I was so glad and happy for the opportunity to vote.  It was wonderful.
 

Positivism—a rejection of theology.  How depressing!
 

I used to try so hard to gain acceptance.  I used to care so much what other people thought about me.  I don’t care anymore, but I can’t show that I don’t care.
 

Karl Marx and Bill Gates would have been best friends.
 

I fear all the misconceptions placed on my race.  Everyday of my life I fear being judged.  Maybe I shouldn’t care about judgment, but judgment sure hurts!
 

I can’t seem to find my future.  I dream of it, but will I ever reach it?  Why do dreams matter anyway?
 

I’ve found if you treat people with consideration, they almost always mirror it back to you.  It’s like making faces at a baby!  There are those exceptions…but that’s where the concept of voodoo comes in (hee hee)!!!!!

I want to argue that we are not all complete products of social conditioning (of course, I am a sociological genius and I know everything!!!).  I think we are all born with a sense of right and wrong that is not ingrained in us by the society we’re raised.
 

Do we really put that much importance on theories unless we are sociologists?  I would have to say no as people go from day to day they are really not thinking about and wondering if there is a theory at explains their actions.  Sure these theories have been thought up and related back to peoples everyday life but are they really all that important for us to know about.  Sociology is confusing because why do we have it when no one really thinks about it?
 

It appears that sociology is the kind of science that manifests itself in pen and paper, not hammer and nail.
 

I firmly believe that awareness alone is not enough to bring about change.  Action is required.
 

Who has the right to say that nobody is ever and will never be happy?  The way he [Durkheim] states that we are “condemned to live in suffering”—what is that supposed to mean?  Does it mean that every time I thought I was happy, I was truly miserable?  I know what I am feeling.  I don’t need someone telling me I’m not happy.  If it is not possible to be happy, then the word happy would never have existed.
 

“The end is found within the process itself.”  I’ve always liked this idea because it is so important that its one of the best known ideas on earth.
 

When thinking about post-modernist theory—and the idea that we should all just accept the reality of the culture—for example, I find that I can’t.  I can’t accept the culture of the Taliban.  I disagree with it—to me it is wrong and inhuman.
 

I understand the concept of top-down and see how—in theory—it would work.  But the basic foundation is too weak.  We, as a society, are made up of individuals who have individual thoughts and beliefs.  And it is here, at the core of the individual that change has to occur.
 

I will agree that we have come a long way with civil equality, but the native African culture was a huge casualty of the process.  The only way to deal with your past is to never forget it.
 

I do feel as though I have become more aware of sociological problems and more analytical in the way that I analyze these problems.  However, I still have the problem of bias.  I will work on honing my skills and removing the biases that I hold.
 

I think this sociologist has an inflated ego.  It’s a little presumptuous to claim that you know that the entire universe is a “noble lie” with no significance.  It may make him feel better about himself to think there is no more to the universe than what people create to comfort themselves.  That may comfort him, he may find it terrifying to know there is something beyond and bigger than humanity and society.  I think both sides of the spectrum are scared.  In the end, does it really matter?
 

Is it even possible to look at society on a collective level when each person is generally so absorbed in his or her own reality and is incapable of viewing the world through another person’s eyes, let alone the “collective?”
 

I see the true value of sociology as me learning why I have been set in a rut, why I chose to climb out, and figuring out how I can lend a hand to help others climb out.
 

We waste valuable time conforming to a system that kills the human spirit.  I know this is so because I dedicate my life to reclaiming it.  Sociology—how can we all reclaim our human spirits.