Perspectives, an Awkward Epiphany, and a Brilliant Show

   I've always favored the interactionist perspective without even realizing it. It only became clearer to me as we went over it in class; it was given a name. I've never taken things for face value. When you examine anything we as people do, it will all filter down to what we understand to be acceptable to society. When a man kisses his wife it is acceptable because they are married, but if he were to kiss a person at random the behavior would be percieved as foul and unacceptable because of the symbols we understand as a society. These symbols or connotations are the building blocks of social normalities.
   The conflict perspective doesn't make as much sense as interactionism or functionalism, because the meaning and importance of power is vague, and differs throughout different societies. It makes more sense in western cultures, and political society than it does in eastern, and individual societies and cultures.
   The functionalist standpoint makes sense in many aspects of society, but not all. Some peices of society are irrational, and serve no clear manifest functions. Social classes make little functional contributions to society other than to keep the low low, and the high higher.
   As I read the article "Eating Your Friends is the Hardest" I could help not but think about the progression of society over the last century or so. The Andes Mountains survivors changed their social perceptions of what was acceptable and what was not very quickly do to the adversity of the situation. It reminded me of the way in which society changes and adapts throughout history. Every generation is afraid of the next. The previous generation thoughts on things like drinking, premarital sex, and pop culture, differ immensely from that of the current generation. The survivors altered their social construct to stay alive, which is ultimately the strongest motive in all of human nature, and allowed the alteration to take place fairly rapidly. I believe that macro-society adapts in conjunction with the resources available to that society and the way in which the political structure allocates them. It would also explain why society has changed so rapidly in the past century or so. Our manufacturing and production booms along with our innovative drives and political systems has allowed us to catch up to other much older societies in nearly the blink of the historical eye. It would also explain why social norms are considerably different in third world nations, as well as nations in other hemispheres of the world.
   On a side note I enjoyed "Freaks and Geeks" so much that I began to watch other episodes. In an awkward and almost saddening way, "Freaks and Geeks" truly embodies the difficulties that high school students face ad the society that they clumsily become a part of. Four out of five stars easily, in account of the fact that some of the dialogue is absolutely terrible. (Thought the picture embodied the highschool mentality pretty well)