Karl Marx

1. What theory do you go with functionalist or conflict
2. Comment on Karl Marx - likes dislikes
3. Answer questions from Marx video in class.


I believe in the functionalist theory more than the conflict theory. I believe that the more skill a job takes that the people should be paid higher. I agree with Marx's oppressed or oppressor theory. I do believe in his social classes. I don't believe that the world will end up classless. The video said, "that a man creates his own luck." The more I thought about this I do believe that a man does create some of his own luck. I believe that if you do something good you will get something better in return. That is when I think some people's luck comes into play.

Movie

The movie we watched for sociology was very scary and really a wakeup call.  In the beginning I didn’t think that the boys’ mom would end up mixing pills. I thought she would try and stop her son and help him out, not where she couldn’t help herself anymore.  The only thing that made me think that the mom would help him was because she would let him take her TV and then she would go get it back.  

In the beginning the young adults were making a lot of money from the drug market.  My prediction was that they would blow it. I was right they did end up low on their drugs and out of money. Then they end up having to go do other illegal things just to make money to get the drugs they needed. It is really sad that people are so addicted that they would do anything just to make money to buy the drugs they need.  They had the chance to make even more money but that chance didn’t happen because the one guy was shot. Therefore the money was spent and then they had no way of getting their drugs. Also the drugs were becoming more hard to find.

With no money or drugs they began to get dope sick. I thought  they were all going to die from the lack of drugs and money. The mother was getting sick from the pills she was taking and was very sick looking by the end it was hard to even look at her. To try and get more drugs Harry had his friend went out to find more drugs. Harry had a really bad infection from shooting a needle in his arm, so he went  to a hospital. Harry went to jail and so did his friend. Harry did receive medical treatment but lost is arm due to the horrible infection. Then the girl was left at the house. She was so sick she ended up prostituting herself just to get money for her drugs. This movie was really just messed up and shows what the horrible effects of drugs can do to a person.

Drugs

Our sociology class just got done watching a video informing us on heroin. Heroin is a very dangerous drug, it is just plain horrible. Once people are addicted to heroin it takes control of their lives. Heroin is injected into a vein. People that are addicted have to inject so many times a day or else they get very sick, and could potentially kill a person.  The video also talked about how if you don’t use clean needles the people that use heroin could get an HIV and other diseases.  There are places set up that heroin users can go into and get clean needles and safely inject the heroin. At first I thought that wasn’t right, but the more I thought about it the more I thought it was ok. I thought it was ok because it is better to be safe then to have a bunch of different diseases spread and get everyone sick. The video also showed us on how the whole process of getting heroin. First it comes from a poppy plant in Afghanistan. It is how a lot of the middle eastern people make their money to support their families. Then it gets shipped to the U.S. and then goes through a whole other process. The video interviewed a lot of the different people that the process goes through. It is hard to catch the people supplying heroin.  

Trashed Tuesday Blog

 The article Trashed is about a young teenage boy who is found dead in an alley. A man found him there so he called the police, the man that found him said that the police took a long time to look over the scene. They finally announced that the young boys name was Michael York, he was 17 years old. The authorities said that he had died from a heroin overdose. Michael did not die though in the alley where he was found, he was dropped off there by his three friends. Michael was at a party where he was using the drug. St. Charles East where Michael was from, that school had mostly just marijuana and alcohol but no heroin. More and more kids from the school were becoming addicted to the drug. It was a norm for teenagers to use heroin. The school was known to be a good school that was safe. The community was known to be popular with tourist, so it was odd that one drug could be tearing the community apart. Drugs are something that needs to be taken more seriously it causes many deaths. Just like the many cases in the article Trashed, there was more than just Michael. Another thing is people stereotype people by using drugs, and most don’t think they are white, but the community that the article is talking about is a white community. People should not stereotype by just the color of their skin  because there are a lot of whites that use drugs.

Monday Blog

 

After reading the article, “Are the Xbox and unleaded gas helping keep you safe from violent crime?” I never really thought that playing video games, lead, and housing would lower the crime rate. In the Xbox explanation experts claim that criminals are too busy playing their violent video games that they don’t think about going out and doing violent crimes. Not just Xboxes have led to the decrease of crimes; gadgets and technology also have had an impact on the crime rate. Research claims that Street corners and drug dens are no longer as dangerous as they once were, because cellphones and the Internet have largely taken their place as marketplaces for illicit goods.

The housing effect shows that when you replace better housing in large cities the crime rate decreases.  After the housing project residents moved to other neighborhoods they brought crime with them, but the remaining effect for the city overall was still a lower crime rate.

One thing I found very interesting was the research on lead. Exposure to lead among children has been shown that their IQs are low. The impact that the lead has on the brain also has been connected to the sorts of aggressive behaviors that support violent crime. In the late 1970s, lead was removed from gasoline and paint, resulting in the lead levels in people. Ever since they took lead out of gas and paint there has been and decrease in violent behavior. Health Professor Jessica Wolpaw Reyes thinks that this will continue and violence will keep decreasing.

People think that crime goes down when the economy goes up, that is not the case. Police and social scientists were watching for an increase in violent crime during the Great Recession that began in 2008, but it never occurred. That’s somewhat because more people were staying home because they lacked work.