Since anomie has been brought to the table

[Keith Davis]

Very interesting thread. Thanks Alice. Agreed, we have this violent streak.
Is it more pronounced in some, or simply less under control? Who decides
what level is socially acceptable? It's a difficult question to answer.
Democracy seemed like the best idea so far, and still does, in many ways,
but how do we make it work for everyone? Again, difficult. So many
different cultures, levels of intelligence, moral awareness, belief
systems, etc. So many different people living in increasingly compressed
spaces.

As far as suicide, we know so much about human psychology, sociology, but I
still don't think we really completely understand what drives us.

There's a lot in this thread to think about.

anomie-"an acute disjunction between the cultural norms and goals and the
socially structured capacities of the members of the group to act in accord
with them". How big is the group? Our neighborhood, state, church, school,
country? Complicated issues.


On Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 9:35 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de
> wrote:

>
> Don't know about your specific type of think tank, but of course there's
> Robert K. Merton, one of the most important sociologists of the 20th
> century, who referred to Durkheim's concept of anomie and transfered it to
> his theory of deviance (still used in today's criminology) in 1938. Merton
> defines anomie as "an acute disjunction between the cultural norms and
> goals and the socially structured capacities of the members of the group to
> act in accord with them". So there is no continuity between cultural goals
> and the required means. At least not when you stay with legitimate and
> legal means. So some - think Pacino in Scarface - become criminals to
> fulfill their American Dream --
>
>
>
> On 07.01.2012 16:35, Paul Mackin wrote:
>
>
>>>  The staff sociologist at the think tank i was at used to use the word
>> to described the psychological state of workers brought about by the
>> meaninglessness of industrial work.
>>
>> Lack of rule was extended to mean lack of meaning.
>>
>> He quoted Durkheim sometimes.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>


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