Lorax and the Trees

In class, we began to watch the movie The Lorax. We are watching The Lorax because there are many examples that connect to our first unit of sociology.
The Lorax is based in the place called Thneedville. In Thneedville, there are no real trees. People use "blow up" trees. They like them because they don't require any work and they can change color according to the season. These trees in my opinion are Thneedvillians social construct of reality. Social construct of reality is what people define as real because of their background assumptions and life experiences. The people of Thneedville I believe have come to think that the "trees" are "real." Obviously the people know that the trees are fake but since almost all of them have never seen a real tree, they don't know what a real "tree" is and just assume that everybody has trees like they do. Ted, the main character is determined to find a real tree because a girl named Audrey, who Ted like, wants to make her happy. Ted risks his life in order to find out how he can get a tree. He disobeys Mr. O'hares (Man with all the power in Thneedville) order which were to not leave Thneedville (Barricaded in) and goes to see the Once-ler in order to find about what happened to the trees.
When Ted goes to see the Once-ler, the Once-ler tells Ted about what happened to the trees. As he tells him, the Once-ler mentioned a guy named the Lorax. The Lorax was there to protect the land, but especially the trees. When the Once-ler mentioned that he had chopped down the first tree and the Lorax was there to tell him to stop and he needed to preserve the trees. Here, the Lorax was being sociologically mindful. Sociological Mindfulness is to see and appreciate things unique qualities. The Lorax wanted to preserve the trees and saw the uniqueness in the trees.
Like the Lorax, there has been things in which I have tried to preserve, but in the end, I couldn't. Although this is a bit more extreme than the Loraxs situation, I am a dog lover. I love dogs. It breaks my heart when I see dogs in shelters and dogs that have been abused. I wish that I could adopt every single one but I know that is impossible. It doesnt matter how many dogs i adopt, there will always be dogs that don't get adopted and end up dying because of it.
When the Once-ler was cutting down the trees, he was not using his sociological imagination. Sociological Imagination is when one sees the connection between private concerns of an individual and important social issues. The Once-ler was using the trees to create sneeds. Sneeds were these things that could act as anything. As they became more popular, more trees needed to be cut down. In the end, all the trees had been cut down and all the animals had to leave. The Once-ler failed to see what his actions were causing to the environment around them.
Structural Functionalism is the idea that society is like a complex system that works together and everything is smooth. In the Lorax, a structural functionalist would see Thneedville as almost like a Utopia. Everybody works together in achieving a peaceful place and nobody fights. Although this is a movie, I don't believe this type of society is possible because in our world people disagree with others. In Thneedville, everyone get along to create this "happy place."
Conflict theory is the idea that in society, there arises problem and it really comes down to who has the power. In the Lorax, Mr. O'Hare is the richest man in Thneedvile and he has all the power. The people of Thneedville are almost under the control of Mr. O'Hares every word. In the end when Ted goes to plant the seed and people start to agree with him then once Mr. O'Hare says no, everybody agrees with him. A conflict theorist would see that Mr. O'hare has all the power and that's what I think our world is like today.

The Power of the Chair

The conflict theory states that people in a higher social class will succeed more in life than those in lower classes than them. Karl Marx did a study in which he realized that rich people lived longer than those who were poor by 20 years. I believe that this theory also applies in the sense that people with strength or popularity will succeed more than those under than them.

This theory can be related to musical chairs. In musical chairs, everybody is fighting to get on a chair once the music stops. But in the game there are different types of people playing. There are those people who would do anything to get on a chair even if it meant pushing someone else to get on a chair. There are the people who are nice and would rather just get out if meant having to fight someone for a chair, and there are those people who just are playing because they have to but they don't want to lose.

In our class I noticed that most of the people who were left in the end were the aggressive ones and the ones who were out were the people who didn't really care if they lost. I also noticed a few people who took control of people and while nobody was moving they would push people in order to get them walking so they could get on a chair. I personally was one of the people who was there because i had to but i didn't want to lose. I would put my hand on a chair and not move until the next chair was open.

This is like the conflict theory because it shows how the more outspoken and powerful students stayed in the game. This is an example of being socially construct of reality. It is an example because the people who were aggressive and powerful was because of their past life experiences. They have had competition in their life before and they want everything in their life to be like a competition. 

Building As A Group

Sociological minfulness is understanding that our actions have many consequences whether they are good or bad and these consequences have a big part in affecting the people around us and they may affect us. This week in class we read a piece by Michael Schwalbe. In the article he wrote that sociological mindfulness "is especially important for helpins us see that the consequences of our words and deeds often escape our intentions." I think he means that we need to think wbefore we act because things that can seem funny to one person may affend somebody else. He gives an example of when somebody says a joke. The person telling the jokes thinks it's funny. But as word spreads, somebody might not like the joke because it is offensive and the joke teller would be to blame.
This has happened to me multiple times. I have told my friends jokes before and i think it's hilarious but one of my friends here and the are like whats wrong with you. But on the flipside, I've also been the one who has heard jokes and thought to myself what's wrong with people today.
I am very involve with helping people with dissabilities and am very against bullying but in particular, bullying against kids with special needs. On twitter there is a saying where if a girl retweets you, give her the D. Well one boy thought it would be funny to write "If she's a ret***, give her the D D D." Here is a perfect example of when you need to be sociologcally mindful. The boy was making fun of mentally cahllenged girls. They do not choose to be that way but anyways the boy maybe thought it was funny when he heard it (Which i dont see why its funny) but he did. The boy recieved a lot of critism for this. He was not being sociolgcally mindful. He thought it was funny but he was the only one.
This is why you need to be very careful about what you syay and think before you act.