Day 137

To be honest the lateness is out of sheer laziness and a desire for sleep winning out over promptness.  So, there you go.  I intend to catch up today though and all the pictures I am about to post were taken on the correct day just not posted.

I have recently been accused of thinking too systematically (in other words too sociological).  I want to post a reply to this both in words and in a picture that hopefully explains things a little better.

This may seem like a silly example and like it is oversimplified, probably because it is, but oh well.  It's a start.  The reason that I became a sociology major in school and have chosen to continue along this thread in my education is partly because I want to change the world.  To me, yes individual stories and conquests are important, but they make no difference if the system does not change.  John Doe may have pulled himself up by his bootstraps, but that cannot be used to refute the existence of poverty or to say that those in poverty are just lazy, because taking a step back and looking at the bigger picture allows one to see that there is a cycle happening.  Beliefs, actions, values etc. have been institutionalized so that John Doe's story is not the norm.  Yes John Doe is important, and yes his story matters, and yes good for him, but if we want that story to become the norm then we have to change the system.  The same goes for racism, sexism and all the other "isms" you can think of.  Sure we might have a black president but that does not mean that we are a post-racist society.  Women are heads of companies, serving in the political arena, and sometimes in the church but that does not mean we are a post-sexist society.

The above picture is a simple example of the way I tend to think and to view the world.  It is important to understand why the M&Ms are in the groups they are in, and why they are in groups in the first place before anything can be changed.  You can only see that they are separated into groups by looking at the bigger picture, from the top if you will.  From the side you see the individual M&Ms and may not see that there is something inherently wrong with the picture.  I tend to look macroscopically.  I have friends that have taken the other road and are social workers for example.  They, and people like them, are just as important.  They help the individual and make stories like John Doe's possible.  What we need is cooperation of the two types of thinkers.  Those who want to change the people and those who want to change the system.  Ok, that sounds super preachy so I'm going to stop before my soap box becomes too big.  But that is a brief summary of me and how I think....systematically.