Sociology.  ---  .This section is about various other thoughts on sociology.  Topics include: ( ) Behavior.  ( ) Change.  Social change.  ( ) Ethics and sociology.  ( ) Fame.  ( ) Holidays.  ( ) Ideal.  ( ) Manners.  ( ) Massage.  ( ) Problems.  ( ) Social skills.  ( ) Techniques.  ---  1/24/2006

Sociology.  ---  "Sir" and "Ma'am" are baloney.  People who demand excessive social respect by demanding to be called "Sir" or "Ma'am" are people with power hoarding issues.  "Sir" and "Ma'am" are not common courtesy.  "Sir and Ma'am" are bogus.  Better to call people "Citizen" or "Comrade" than to call people "Sir" and "Ma'am".  Better to call people "Dude" than to call people "Sir" or "Ma'am".  ---  6/5/2004

Sociology.  ---  (1) Ideal: fair, friendly.  (2) Problems: bullies, cheaters, liars, unfriendly.  ---  4/20/2001

Sociology.  ---  (1) Loyalty: the notion of loyalty at all costs, loyalty above all else, is bullshit.  (2) Honor: the notion of honor at all costs, honor above all else, is bullshit.  (3) People who promote loyalty and honor at all costs, loyalty and honor above all else, often engage in criminal activities.  ---  11/11/2005

Sociology.  ---  (1) Minimal social interaction.  Two people see each other.  Two people nod or wave to each other.  (2) Maximal social interaction.  Two people spend hours discussing every topic under the sun.  A mind meld.  Two people work together for long hours.  Two people have sex.  ---  8/31/2005

Sociology.  ---  (1) Patterns of diversity, dissent, non-conformity and eccentricity.  These are good.  (2) Patterns of pressures of social conformity and repression:  Ignore; ostracism; cold shoulder; exclusion; shun; verbal attack; physical violence.  These are bad.  ---  5/1/2000

Sociology.  ---  (1) People can have a negative effect on a person.  People can hold back a person's development.  (2) People can have a positive effect on a  person.  People can advance a person's development.  ---  10/17/2005

Sociology.  ---  (1) Retreat; Withdraw; Disengage; Isolate; Ignore; Hide; Silence; Shy away.  Versus.  (2) Engage; Confront; Discuss; Look at; Face up to.  ---  8/19/2004

Sociology.  ---  (1) Role theory.  (2) Acting theory.  (3) Exchange theory.  Taking vs. being taken.  Getting, receiving vs. giving.  Stealing.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  (1) Signs of a healthy society or social life.  Freedom, justice, openness (Popper), human rights protected, minority rights protected.  Much, deep communication about important subjects.  Find the cool, avoid the assholes.  (2) Signs of an unhealthy society or social life.  Little communication, shallow communication.  Mixed up with schmucks.  Abusing or being abused.  Practices used by cults to brainwash and control minds.  ---  04/24/1997

Sociology.  ---  (1) Social philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics.  (2) Social Sciences: Sociology (macro, micro, historical, comparative).  Cultural anthropology.  Economics.  Political science.  Sociological jurisprudence.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  (1) Social structures: categories, aggregates, groups, institutions, organizations, socio-cultural systems (scs).  (2) Social mechanisms.  Interaction methods: exchange, scripts, masks, roles.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  (1) Social thought.  (A) Social folk wisdom.  (B) Social philosophy.  (C) Social science.  (2) Social practice, action and behavior.  ---  5/1/2002

Sociology.  ---  (1) Society's norms of social interaction influence the individual's norms, attitudes, and behaviors of social interaction.  (2) Variables.  (A) Talkitiveness, closeness, touching, gestures, eye contact.  (B) Frequency and length of interaction.  (C) Familiarity vs. privacy.  (D) Friendliness vs. cold.  (E) Emotional expression (true vs. faked).  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  (1) The most common form of social interaction is the dyad.  Because it is the most common form of human social interaction, we can suppose that humans are most skilled at handling dyad interactions.  (2) Perhaps the next most common form of social interaction is the "one to many" interaction.  (Ex. boss to workers)  (3) Least common is the "many to many" form of social interaction, but it is the most important and the most difficult.  We need to develop in people better skills to deal with "many to many" social interactions (ex. group to group).  ---  6/25/2001

Sociology.  ---  (1) The primary factor in social organization, a just society, and a progressing society, is communication technology and information management technology (like language, writing, printing and computers).  (2) When people can not talk they fight.  When minorities can not speak up they get trampled.  (3) Education occurs via communication.  (4) Economics is not the primary factor like Marx thought.  Technology in general is not the primary factor.  (5) Any technology that increases a society's communication capabilities and information management capabilities will likely advance the society.  ---  4/4/1999

Sociology.  ---  (1) The study of social attitudes.  (2) The study of social interactions.  ---  10/10/2004

Sociology.  ---  (1) Trait (A) Pro: smooth, diplomat, negotiator.  Contra: phony, two faced, mealy mouthed, spineless, gutless, manipulator, operator, slick, fair weather friend, can't or won't take a stand.  (2) Trait (B) Pro: take a stand, courage of convictions.  Contra: pig headed, stubborn.  ---  09/10/1994

Sociology.  ---  (1) When person A feels an act (by person A toward person B) is less bad than it is, but B feels the act more bad than it is.  Then B responds, and A feels B's reaction is unprovoked and unwarranted.  (2) When B reacts as if A acted intentionally, vs. when A knows it was an accident.  (3) All this aside from purely arbitrary psychological or sociological standards/values/customs, i.e. cases of misunderstanding.  We are talking above about moral situations.  Is there such a thing as a purely moral situation (i.e. perfect understanding on both parts)?  ---  10/20/1993

Sociology.  ---  A formal analysis of a problem in sociology (and yet this is not a problem about people going to a formal, or to a social, or to analysis).     SECTION ONE.  Stating the situation.  (1) There are people.  There are issues.  There are views.  Each person has a view about each issue.  (2) In one version of the problem, (A) None of the people are the same.  No person has the exact same views on all the issues as any other person.    That is, no two people have the same views on all issues.    (B) None of the people are completely different.  That is, every person on each issue has a view in common with at least one other person.  (C) So, as a result, every person, on every issue, has agreements and disagreements with every other person.  That is, each person shares similar views and has dissimilar views with every other person.     SECTION TWO.  Posing the problems and questions.  (1) For any given number of people, issues and views, describe the complete system of all possible shifting social alliances and social conflicts described by the above parameters.  (2) For any given number of people, issues and views:  How many coalitions will form?  How many people will be in each coalition?   (3) For any number of people, issues and views, what is the mathematical formula that describes the situation?  What is the mathematical function that shows all the possible combinations of results?  What is the mathematical model that shows the most likely outcome?  (4) Lets define a coalition as a group of people with same view on a specific issue.  As a result, we can say that the number of coalitions per issue depends on the number of people and depends the number of views per issue.  What determines the exact number of people in a coalition?  (5) In what cases is this problem interesting?  In what cases is this problem not interesting?     SECTION THREE.  Examining the problem.    PART ONE.  Preliminaries.  (1) Let P stand for people.  Let I stand for issues.  Let V stand for views.  PART TWO. Describe all the possibilities of the problem from the simplest situations to the most complex situations.  First, formally define "simple" and "complex".  (1)(A) In a simple situation each issue has the same number of views as every other issue.  (B) In a complex situation there are a different number of views for every issue.  (C) In this paper I am investigating simple situations where every issue has the same number of views.  PART TWO.  (2)(A) A very simple situation has only two views per issue.  For example, one can only vote yes or no in a two view situation.  (B) A complex issue has more than two views per issue.  (3) In this paper I am investigating situations that have more than two views per issue.     SECTION FOUR.  Explore possibilities for one person, two persons and three persons.  PART ONE.  One person situations.  (1) One person holding one view.  1P, 1I, 1V.  (2) One person holding two views.  IP, 1I, 2V.  (3) Versions of the problem involving one person make no sense, unless you say that one person holding multiple views on an issue can be used to describe states of uncertainty, indecision or mental debate.  (4) By the way, in this paper, P, I and V equal a whole number greater than zero.  Neither P, I nor V equal zero, a fraction or a negative number.  PART TWO.  Two person situations.  (1) Two persons, one view.  2P, 1I, 1V.  This version has two people holding the same view on an issue.  Not very interesting.   (2) Two persons, two views.  2P, 1I, 2V.  In this version, there are two people and two possible views.  There are four possible voting outcomes are:  P1-V1, P2-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2.  The two people can agree by holding the same view on the issue, in two ways.  The two people can disagree by holding opposing views on the issue, in two ways.   (3) Two persons, three views.  2P, 1I, 3V.  There are nine possible voting outcomes are: P1-V1, P2-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2.  P1-V1, P2-V3.  P1-V2, P2-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V3.  P1-V3, P2-V1.  P1-V3, P2-V2.  P1-V3, P2-V3.  Two people discussing one issue that has three viewpoints can either agree in three ways, or they can disagree in six ways.     PART THREE.  Three person situations.  (1) Three people and one view.  3P, 1I, 1V. They must all agree.  Not very interesting.   (2) Three people and two views.  3P, 1I, 2V.  There are nine possible outcomes.  P1-V1, P2-V1, P3-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V1, P3-V2.  P1-V1, P2-V2, P3-V1.  P1-V1, P2-V2, P3-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V1, P3-V1.  P1-V2, P1-V1, P1-V2.  P1-V2, P2-V2, P3-V1.  P1-V2, P2-V2, P3-V2.   (3) Three people and three views.  3P, 1I, 3V.  There are 27 possible outcomes.      SECTION FIVE.  Lets summarize the above combinations.  (1) 2P x 1I x 2V = 4 possible outcomes.   (2) 2P x 1I x 3V = 9 possible outcomes.  (3) 3P x 1I x 2V = 8 possible outcomes.  (4) 3P, 1I, 3V = 27 possible outcomes.  (5) What is the pattern?  The pattern is: raise the number of views to the power of the number of people.  For example, in the preceding situations:  2 to the second power is 4.  3 to the second power is 9.  2 to the third power is 8.  3 to the third power 27.  SECTION SIX.  Conclusions.  The main conclusion is that: to determine the total number of possible outcomes take the number of views and raise it to the power of the number of people.     PART ONE.  Consider the following six possible cases.  When I is greater than P.   When P is greater than I.  When V is greater than P.  When P is greater than V.  When V is greater than I.  When I is greater than V.     PART TWO.  Consider the number of issues, views and people.   (1) Number of people.  Number of people, in and of itself, is inconsequential as long as it is two or more, because if the number of people is less than 2 then it is not a social situation.  The situation of one person having multiple views can be viewed as a situation of uncertainty, indecision or internal debate.  (2) Number of issues.  The number of issues, in and of itself, is inconsequential as long as it is 1 or more.  It does not matter how many issues there are.  There are an infinite number of issues in the universe.  Each issue is taken one at a time.  Therefore, the number of issues in this problem does not really correlate to anything.  So one might as well explore situations of one issue.  (3) Views.  If the number of views is 1 then everyone agrees.  If the number of views is two or more then coalitions can form.  If number of views that people can hold is greater than the number of people then it is possible that no majority may form because each person can hold a different view.    PART THREE.  (1) The number of ways to agree.  The number of views is the number of ways everyone can agree unanimously, because everyone can vote for any particular view.  (2) The number of ways to disagree.  If the number of views is equal or greater than the number of voters, and if everyone votes differently, then there can be as many different votes as there are people.  (3) If the number of views is less than the number of people then coalitions (i.e., groups of more than one person) must form.  (A) Number of coalitions depends on the number of views.  When will two coalitions form?  When there are two views.  When will three coalitions form?  When there are at least three views and three people.  When will four coalitions form?  When there are at least four views and at least four people.  (B) Number of people in each coalition depends on the number of people.  When will coalitions of two people form?  When will coalitions of at least three people form?  When must coalitions of at least four people form?  PART FOUR.  The question of number of coalitions is a question of number of combinations.  If you have four people, A B C and D,  the number of coalitions is the mathematical combinations of people.  One can have combinations of groups of one, two, three, four and five people.  Though, coalitions, by semantic definition, have more than one person and less than a unanimity, so some combinations are ruled out.  PART FIVE.  To determine the total number of possible outcomes take the number of views and raise it to the power of the number of people.    

SECTION SEVEN.  Applications of the problem.  PART ONE. One way to look at this scenario is as a voting scenario.  In a two party system, a person can vote for one of two parties, so that is like having V equal two.  In a multiparty system one can vote for one of many parties, so that is like having V greater than two.  PART TWO. Another example of the problem. There is a series of protest marches for each issue, one march for each view on each issue, with view holders marching and with alternate view holders counter-protesting on the side lines.  For each issue, some people will hold the same view as you and will be your allies and fellow protest marcher, while other people will hold other views and will be your opponents and counter protester.  Thus, through the course of the series of protest marches, at some point each and every person will be your ally and fellow protester, and at some point each and every person will be your opponent and counter protester.  ---  11/23/2004

Sociology.  ---  A huge part of sociology is politics and economics.  So, if you study sociology you should also study politics and economics.  See also, Politics.  See also, Economics.  ---  5/3/2007

Sociology.  ---  Acting.  Social acting.  Two people meet for the first time.  Each person wants to please the other person, but each person does not know "how the other person likes it".  Each person likes their social relations a certain way, for example, varying degrees of formal politeness versus informal directness.  Additionally, each person does not know the specific role that the other person would like them to play, for example, friend or lover.  So people act to please others, and people play roles to please others.   (2) People also act when they do not like or do not trust the other person. (See also: Arts, movies > Acting.)  ---  7/7/2005

Sociology.  ---  An important part of social relationships is being on the same wavelength, being on the same page, seeing the same world, seeing the relationship the same way, speaking the same language.  Understanding each other, if not necessarily agreeing with each other.  A correspondence of views.  If not, then at least a tolerance of views.  ---  3/11/2000

Sociology.  ---  Analysis of an individual's total social condition.  (1) How big is your social network (everyone you know)?  How many people do you know?  How big is your support network (friends)?  (2) How close are they?  (3) How many different types of relationships do you have?  Example, friends, lovers, enemies, acquaintances.  (4) How varied are the people with whom you have relationships?  ---  06/10/1997

Sociology.  ---  Begging.  Various types of beggars.  Various phenomena of begging.  Various possible causes of begging.     PART ONE.  Begging terms.  All of the below are homeless.  (1) Beggar: no other means of subsistence than begging.  (2) Bum: has a means of subsistence (for example, canning or squeegee).  (3) Hobo: a traveling beggar.  (4) Tramp: a traveling bum.     PART TWO.  Types of Beggars.  (1) City beggar vs. wilderness beggar.  (2) Stationary beggar vs. traveling beggar.  (3) Young beggar vs. old beggars.  (4) Secular beggar vs. religious beggar.     PART THREE.  Possible psychological causes of begging.  (1) The beggar as an ascetic.  A person who renounces material possessions.  (2) The beggar as a contrary or rebel.  If society was ascetic then these contraries would be materialistic.  (3) The beggar as freedom monger.  A person who wants to be as free as can be.     PART FOUR.  Beggars and the link between rebellion and renunciation.  Rebel against everything.  Renounce everything.  Renounce material possessions (own nothing).  Renounce society (give up on society's goals).  Renounce activity (renounce work and renounce play, just sit around).  Renounce self (self destruction).     PART FIVE.  Two types of beggars:  The empty-headed beggars vs. the thinking beggar.  The question is whether the beggar renounces the mental world as well as the physical world.     PART SIX.  There is a similarity between beggars and other types of ascetics.  Beggars and the homeless.  Beggars and street kids (grunge style or punk style).     PART SEVEN.  Two key factors are escape and re-entry.  (1) Beggars can escape from society if they want to.  Begging offers an escape hatch.  Some people can't escape from their place in society.  (2) Some beggars can re-enter society if they want to.  Other beggars have difficulty re-entering society.     PART EIGHT.  (1) Related social types.  (A) The lazy (don't want to work).  (B) The crazy.  (C) The fakers (malingerers).  (2)  Other factors:  (A) Mental illness.  (B) Liquor and drug addiction.  (C) Loners who don't work well with others.     PART NINE.  Begging and societal outcasts, for example, the marginalized, the rejected, and the branded.  Some people beg because they have been cast out (ostracized) against their will, while other people beg because they have chosen to leave.     PART TEN.  The relationship of begging and nomadic cultures.  Some nomadic cultures beg for a living.  Other nomadic cultures support themselves through trade.     PART ELEVEN.  Begging and the free-rider problem.  Beggars are often criticized because they are free-riders who exist off the resources of other people.  However, beggars are small free-riders, and  they are often a target for criticism only because they visible.  There are many more hidden free-riders, who take many more resources from the system for free.  The result is that beggars are often scapegoated with excessive severity and in an unjust manner by society.  ---  8/6/2000

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  (1) Conflict.  Types: inter-group, intra-group.  Causes.  Cures, ways of resolving: fighting.  (2) Competition: same.  (3) Cooperation: same.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  (1) Friendly vs. unfriendly.  (2) Social vs. anti-social.  ---  9/20/1998

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Active vs. passive.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Change, to build one thing you must destroy another.  Nurture, destroy.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Conflict, competition, cooperation (working together, trading, sharing).  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Cooperation vs. conflict.  When to, who to, how much to, how to, why to.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Dynamics.  Healthy vs. unhealthy.  Conflict vs. cooperate.  Aggressive vs. passive.  Dominant vs. submissive.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Eating, moving, communication, sex, struggling.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Friendly vs. not friendly.  Helpful vs. unhelpful.  Open vs. closed.  Honest vs. dishonest.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Helping, neutral, hurting.  Hurting: to protect, to assert, to attack.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Mean: destroy, dominate, compete, aggressive, assertive.  Nice: seduce, submit, ingratiate, kiss ass.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  People will treat you great one minute, and treat you like shit the next.  Consciously or unconsciously.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Picking on.  Disrespecting.  Bullying.  ---  9/20/1998

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Posing, pretending, falseness, disguises.  (1) The rich, sane, and smart pretending to be opposite.  Visa versa.  (2) Men pretending to be women, and visa versa.  (3) Pretending to be (fashion experimentation) vs. wanting to be.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Real, authentic, original vs. fakers, posers, b.s.-ers.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Social behavior.  Behavior analysis.  Types, causes, effects, purpose (conscious and unconscious).  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  The most common social behavior is doing what everyone else is doing.  It saves thinking things out.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Behavior.  Your goals.  Need others to do something.  Need others to not do something.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Causes of anger at my friend and his wife.  (1) Jealousy?  Self pity?  Anger at myself redirected towards another?  Fear that they are above us?  Or is it just their superior attitude?  (2) Doubts about them.  They are crazy.  They are beneath us.  They will hurt us.  (3) I should just enjoy their friendship.  ---  12/20/1998

Sociology.  ---  Causes of interpersonal interaction.  (1) Loneliness.  (2) Boredom.  (3) Pain.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Change.  Development of social nature of individual.  (1) Social development of individual.  Oriented toward (A) Parents.  (B) Nuclear family.  (C) Friends (teens).  (D) Significant other (late teens).  (E) New family (early adulthood). (2) Social development of a society.  (A) Generation.  Historical events that shape a generation.  Attitudes of a generation.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Change.  In some areas you are ahead of society.  In some areas you are behind society.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Change.  Social change.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  Causes and effects.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Change.  Social change.  Sometimes behavior creates relationship.  Sometimes relationship creates the behavior.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Change.  Social change.  Structural change in society.  (1) Top down strategies.  Lobby lawmakers for political change.  (2) Bottom up strategies.  Grass roots movements.  Talk to everyone you meet.  Change minds through informing, reasoning, or emotional appeal.  Exhort them to take action.  The Internet is useful for this.  ---  02/28/1998

Sociology.  ---  Change.  Societal change.  Static societies vs. dynamic societies.  Society's attitude toward change (positive or negative). Change agents in a society.  Technological, economic, and political change, and their effects on each other.  ---  9/20/1998

Sociology.  ---  Charm.  The secret to charm is to believe (1) I am wonderful.  (2) You are wonderful.  (3) It is a wonderful world.  Thus no problems, no worries, just a calm, happy confidence and an interest in others.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Civilized.  (1) Those who closely follow meaningless arbitrary unimportant manners of an society.  (2) Those who blindly follow truth and justice systems.  (3) Those who understand truth and justice.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Cohesion and dispersion.  Things about me or you, or about our relationship or situation that keep us together or draw us apart.  Chosen freely or against our will.  In our control or beyond our control.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Computers are in many ways improving social relations.  (1) Physically dispersed individuals can meet online.  Group formation is not based on proximity or looks but by ideas.  This is an improvement.  (2) Anyone can participate.  It does not matter what color or age you are.  This is a very democratic improvement.  ---  3/9/2000

Sociology.  ---  Control vs. freedom.  Order vs. disorder.  See Politics.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Conversation seems impossible, even if you find someone who shares your area of interest.  Love seems equally impossible as conversation.  Yet people continue to converse, and people continue to fall in love.  ---  12/21/2006

Sociology.  ---  Crime.  See Psychology, pathological, specific, crime.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Describe and analyze in detail best and worst social states, in general and for me.  And how to get and avoid them.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Development of social nature.  (1) Development of social psychology and behavior of individual.  (2) Development of social psychology and behavior of humans.  (3) Development of social psychology and behavior of any group.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Dreck.  Round up the usual bullshitters, status seekers, show offs, and money grubbers.  ---  7/23/2006

Sociology.  ---  Dumb is annoying.  Smart with a superior attitude is annoying too.  But dumb with a superior attitude is annoying to the second power, annoying squared.  And these types of people are all over.  ---  12/25/1998

Sociology.  ---  Economic aspects: how much they give, for what cost.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Economics and sociology.  Comparisons of modes of consumption.  What mail order catalogs do you subscribe to?  Susan subscribes to LL Bean and Harry and Davids Fruits.  Sally subscribes to Williams and Sonoma, and Pottery Barn.  Susan forms an opinion about herself and about Sally, based on the mail orders catalogues each subscribes to.  Sally forms an opinion about herself and about Susan based on mail order catalog subscriptions.  For example, Susan and Sally meet.  What is the first thing they discuss?  The first thing they discuss is where each one shops.  Identity through consumption, its a bitch.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Economics of sociology.  All social interactions have an economic aspect.  Give and get.  Exchange.  ---  11/25/2004

Sociology.  ---  Emergentism vs. reductionism.  What phenomena emerge at the societal level that are not present at the psychological level?  ---  10/10/2004

Sociology.  ---  Environments and sociology: urban, suburban, rural, wild.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  A leader shows people the way.  A friend shows people the way.  A good person shows people the way.  You do not have to be a leader or a friend to show the way.  It is something people should just do for anyone.  The key is to do it subtley.  ---  11/20/1997

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Game theory and ethics.  (1) Number of players.  Analysis of possible actions.  (2) Single person: doing a single action, or series of actions.  (3) Multiple player: each doing a single action, or multiple actions.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Geography and ethics.  (1) Scandinavian ethics vs. mediterranean ethics (ie. Polar vs. equatorial ethics).  (2) Rural ethics vs. urban ethics.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Justice outside of the formal legal system.  (1) Vendetta, feud, retaliation, revenge, retribution.  (2) Escalation.  (3) Getting your friends to gang up and beat up enemy.  (4) Public bitching and complaining.  (5) Talk it out calmly and rationally.  (6) Verbal fight vs. physical fight.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Justice: the big social question is how to get total, instant, catharsis?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Person X meets person Y.  Y treats X like A.  Should X treat Y like B?  See also: Philosophy, ethics.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Power.  How much power do you have?  How much freedom do you have?  What can you do (personal power)?  What can you make others do, or prevent others from doing (interpersonal power)?  How much can you curtail others freedom?  Political power: who gets how much freedom?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Relationships.  We affect each other.  They drag you down as much as you drag them up.  Purpose of love/sex relationships is to help each other.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Society's ethical system consists of laws and norms.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Ethics and sociology.  Struggling and ethics.  (1) Life is a struggle.  What, why, and how to struggle for and against?  (2) To conquer or not, achieve or not, success and failure.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Evolutionary psychologists suggest that most men fight over women, but one reason some males continue to relate to each other with attitudes of conflict and competition is because they fear that if they do not relate to other males in terms of either conflict or competition then the only other alternative is something that has a whiff of homo-erotica about it.  So they fight and compete to try to prove their heterosexuality.  Its interesting to observe that there are various additional tactics that some men use to deal with the above very narrow view of reality.  One way is to say that another man is not human, that is, call them an animal, which is an attitude some fearful men use to try to take the pressure off themselves.  Another tactic is to say that another man is human but not a man, that is, call them a woman.  However, to call another man a woman is a strange way to deal with one's own insecurity.  Yet another tactic is to call another adult a child.  And yet another tactic is to deny the existence of another person, i.e., to call them "nothing".  Are there any better ways than the above tactics?  Perhaps to call another person "human" or "citizen".  ---  8/5/2000

Sociology.  ---  Evolutionary sociology.  (1) Social behavior in animals.  Bees, ants and other insects.  Schools of fish.  Flocks of birds.  Herd mammals.  Social behaviors like mating, territory, communication, cooperation and conflict.  (2) Social behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC).  ---  5/16/2005

Sociology.  ---  Evolutionary sociology.  What was the evolution of human social nature?  How are humans similar and different from other social animals?  What are the good and bad aspects of man's social nature?  ---  6/22/2004

Sociology.  ---  Exchange theory.  Bargaining, negotiating, haggling, deal making, occurs everywhere and always.  You must be a politician, salesman, advertiser, even if your product is good.  Good things do not always sell themselves.  Good does not always conquer evil.  Not to lie, but to sell, push, advertise, pitch the truth.  See public relations and political campaigning.  ---  04/23/1994

Sociology.  ---  Extremism.  Violence, terror, harassment, invasion of privacy.  Instead of reason and dialogue.  Political extremism.  Religious extremism.  Corruption, injustice, unethical behavior.  ---  12/2/2003

Sociology.  ---  Faces.  Need to develop a game face that is friendly and relaxed, not tense, haughty, somber, etc., like it usually is.  Yet also strong, confident, and serious, for leadership.  The strength and competitiveness is what lets you put on an appearance of being friendly to others.  ---  07/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  Faces.  Poker faces and game faces (emotional expression).  Esp. for urban survival.  Don't give anything away vs. natural beatness.  Losing one's cool, head, composure, confidence.  ---  05/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  (1) Fads are fleeting.  The fad is in the fading.  If it never fades then its not a fad.  (2) Fads are trivial.  If its important then its not a fad.  (3) Important and true ideas, actions, and things, are not fads.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  (1) Fads are, in part, about social imitation.  Fads are due to the desire of individual people to be like everyone else.  Some people have the desire to be trend setters, while other people have the desire to be trend followers.  (2) Fads are about what is popular.  Fads are a popularity contest.  (3) Fads are about what is in your face, ubiquitous, omnipresent.  (4) Fads are about trying to be "with it", current.  (5) Fads are, in part, about social coercion for conformity.  That is not a good thing.  Pressure to be like everyone else even when you do not want to be.  ( ) Fads are about aesthetics tastes.  Fads are not about ethics.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  All the rage.  Social manias.  Social contagions.  Social viruses.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Fads are a means of signifying, representing, and communicating.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Fads are a way that people try to add meaning to their lives.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Fads are memes.  There is a memetic nature to fads.  Fads are an example of how thoughts spread in a society.  Fads, gossip, and media are all about how thoughts spread amongst people.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Fads often return or reoccur.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Fads often take place along class lines.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  In large part, marketers create fads to sell products.  Advertisers create fads through media.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Popular culture.  Pop music.  Pop television.  Pop fashion.  Pop foods.  Pop fads.  ---  4/27/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Somehow, fads connect to the zeitgeist, or the tenor of the times.  The zeitgeist is to some degree manufactured.  Fads are often a result of the battle for eyeballs.  Money is spent by corporations to advertise to create fads.  Fads are often the result of public relations campaigns.  Fads are the result of desires, and desires are to some degree artificially manufactured.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Types of fads.  (1) Food fads.  (2) Clothing fads.  (3) Shelter fads.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Types of fads.  Arts fads.  (1) Literary fads.  (2) Music fads.  (3) Visual arts fads.  (4) Movie fads.  (5) Is it a fad or a style?  The word "style" seems to have a more legitimate connotation than the word "fad".  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Types of fads.  Fads in academia.  Thought fads.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  Types of fads.  Fashion fads: Hair length.  Skirt length.  Bell bottom pants.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fads.  What is an example of a fad?  The hula hoop from the 1960's.  The pet rock from the 1970's.  Neon spandex pants from the 1980's.  The Macarena from the 1990's.  Ugh boots from the 2000's.  ---  3/25/2006

Sociology.  ---  Fairs, carnivals, circuses and farmers markets.  How did these social events shape our civilization?  ---  7/30/2002

Sociology.  ---  Fame is confusing and painful.  (1) Fame is confusing because one day you are nobody and the next day you are somebody.  And there is often no logic, reason or justice to it.  (2) Fame is painful because some people will dislike you for being a nobody and some people will dislike you for being a somebody.  There is always somebody who dislikes you for no good reason.  ---  7/18/2000

Sociology.  ---  Fame:  Cause of desire for it.  Effects of fame.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Fame.  (1) Paul Nervy, as a public persona, now exists.  He was created when I first published.  You have to watch what you say, and what you write.  Be professional.  People can take what you say out of context.  Your public personae, or public self, is more accurately termed the fame-self.  Fame defined as when a stranger recognizes you by name and face but you do not recognize them at all.  The fame-self must be distinguished from the public self that you use in social interactions with equal strangers.  The fame-self must also be distinguished from the social self that you use with friends.  Also from the private self that you show only to your loved ones.  Also from the private self that you keep to yourself.  (2) When you become a public persona you become a target for people's free-floating anger.  You have to protect yourself.  Be strong.  (3) Sometimes the news media will do anything for a story, including distorting facts, just so that they can keep bread on their tables and build their careers.  It sometimes does not pay to interact with them, even for a chance to promote your work in the media.  Let your work speak for itself.  (4) Its easy and natural for people to criticize, so there will always be critics, both for and against your work.  Do not pay them too much attention.  They are merely a distraction from your work.  (5) Critics will invariably misinterpret your work.  Communication is, by its nature, that difficult.  Do not let it bother you.  (6) Miscommunication (not saying what you mean) and misinterpretation (not understanding what was said) always occur.  You can try to minimize it by using exact language.  However, where does that leave a poet or artist?  (7) Fans.  Bless them.  They love your work, but they don't know you.  The relationship of you to your book is like the relationship of an actor to the character the actor portrays.  The fan knows the character, not the actor.  The fan knows the book, not the author.  ---  3/1/2000

Sociology.  ---  Fame.  Hero worship, sports and movie star worship, is it an indication of low self esteem (we're not worthy!)?  Or is it a form of religious worship?  Or is it submissiveness?  ---  08/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  Fame.  Once you publish, your fame-self exists whether you want it to or not.  The fame-self can drive you a little crazy if you are not able to integrate it well into your personality.  If you do integrate it well, the fame-self can be used to protect yourself from intended and unintended abuse from others.  The fame-self can also be used to protect others from intended and unintended attacks from yourself.  ---  3/1/2000

Sociology.  ---  Five dichotomies to describe people.  Ancient/modern.  Rich/poor.  City/country.  Young/old.  Male/female.  ---  01/26/1994

Sociology.  ---  Flame.  (1) Grice's principle of charity is not followed on the Internet.  Instead, the attitude of, "assume the worst" holds.  (2) In face to face conversation one often thinks, "I wish I had thought of that riposte sooner.", long after the fact.  Email gives you time to pick your barbs.  (3) Text is more difficult to interpret than face to face conversation.  Subtle non-verbal nuances are lost, even with the use of emoticons.  ---  7/14/2002

Sociology.  ---  Followers, types of.  (1) Those who let themselves be convinced that they are incapable.  (2) Those who let themselves be convinced that they should cede all their powers to others.  ---  1/4/2004

Sociology.  ---  Forgiveness.  See Philosophy, ethics.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Formal and polite vs. friendly and rough.  Pros and cons of each.  Mistakes of using one when should use the other.  When one person expects to receive one or other and doesn't, or wants to move into anothers formal or friendly zone and is rebuffed.  ---  5/30/94

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  (1) How much does society, or any other social group, like family, friends, school, work or media, how much does it affect the development of the individual?  This question is about the nature-nurture debate.  ---  1/1/2006

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  (1) Is sociology really a science?  How so?  Sociology is a science to the extent that it uses the scientific method.  Also, if psychology is a science then social psychology is a science, and sociology is a science.  (2) Does it make sense to talk about sociology as a field of inquiry distinct and separate from political science and economics?  ---  1/1/2006

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  (1) It does not make sense to deny social and psychological phenomena and the study of them.  (2) People use the existence of psychological and sociological phenomena to attempt to validate a multitude of diverse, often opposing, attitudes and views.  (3) For example, the nature vs. nurture debate.  Some people say its all social.  Other people say its all individual, either genetic or experiential.  Actually its a combination of psychology and sociology.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  (1) Political views of social phenomena.  (2) Economic views of social phenomena.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  (1) Some who argue for sociology use it to argue for altruism and cooperation and communitarianism.  Those are good things.  It takes a village.  (2) Others who argue for sociology use it to argue for state totalitarianism.  Totalitarianism is a bad thing.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Do individual people act differently when in a group?  Yes.  Do people think differently when in a group?  Yes.  Human life is inherently group based, so in that way sociology is at least as important as psychology.  If humans were solitary animals then psychology would be more important than sociology  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Hypothetically, if humans were physically connected to other humans, like coral animals in a coral reef, then sociology would perhaps be more important than psychology.  Another hypothetical: If humans were mentally connected to other humans, for example, by the ability to read other people's minds, then life would be even more social.  Cellular phones are a technology that have the effect of making life more social.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Individuals exist as physical entities.  The group exists as an abstract entity.  Are abstract entities any less real than physical entities?  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Is sociology a valid science and philosophical pursuit?  Yes.  Sociological phenomena exist beyond psychology.  For example, social phenomena like group, cooperation, conflict, politics.  The phenomena and concepts of psychology are not sufficient to describe sociological phenomena and concepts.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Some criticize sociology based on the notion of the inalienable rights of the individual.  Liberalism.  Libertarians.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  The Social Science Model (SSM) has been criticized by Edward. O. Wilson and Stephen Pinker.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  The tendency to downplay the importance of social entities is wrongly used by some people to promote egoism and conservative political attitudes.  For example, Libertarians often criticize sociology in an attempt to wrongly disparage Communitarians.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Two opposing views of sociology.  (1) Sociology is a real science and an important subject.  (2) Sociology is not a real science and not an important subject.  ---  7/20/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  Types of social inquiry or methodology.  (1) Social philosophy.  (2) Social science.  ---  10/9/2005

Sociology.  ---  Foundations of sociology.  What is more important, the individual or the group?  The individual cannot exist without the group, or can he?  The group cannot exist without the individual.  It appears the individual and group are equally important.  (2) The very concepts of individual and group can be critiqued.  One can argue that there is no individual.  One can argue that there is no group.  (3) What are the metaphysical, epistemological and ethical concepts and problems of social theory, social science and social technology?  ---  1/1/2006

Sociology.  ---  Friends and lovers appear and disappear.  Stick to your principles.  ---  2/27/2005

Sociology.  ---  Given the arbitrary prejudices of humans, there may one day be a war of people with long legs and short torsos against people with short legs and long torsos.  ---  10/30/2005

Sociology.  ---  Going native.  Lord of the Flies.  Apocalypse Now.  When civilization crumbles, socialization dissolves and people revert back to the law of the jungle.  ---  11/30/1998

Sociology.  ---  Gossip.  Gossip is a small group phenomenon.  Gossip is not a dyad phenomenon, because gossip always is about a third party.  Gossip is not a large group phenomenon, because in large groups people do not know each other enough to gossip.  (2) Gossip is a pejorative term.  Gossip is a term used to describe unethical, sleazy communication tactics.  (3) Gossip lowers the level of discourse.  People should be interested in raising the level of discourse.  (4) Gossip shows a lack of thought about the world at large.  Gossip typically involves name calling.  Gossip is often a type of verbal bullying.  I do not enjoy gossip.  ---  11/25/2005

Sociology.  ---  Gossip.  Gossip is often about sex.  Gossip often involves an attempt to promote oneself by putting down others.  Gossip is pathetic.  Gossip is for people who cannot think of anything better to talk about.  Mocking, scorn and derision.  Instigators, troublemakers and liars.  Trying to pit people against each other for amusement.  Petty and venal.  Gossip discusses who is sleeping with who.  Related phenomena: trivialities, small talk, empty talk, shallow talk, fluff.  ---  11/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  Gossip.  PART ONE.  What is gossip?  (1) Gossip is a social phenomenon.  Like most social phenomena, gossip is a communicative phenomenon.  Like most social phenomena, gossip is a power phenomenon.  (2) Gossip is more than speaking about other people.  Gossip is more than speaking negatively about people.  Gossip is more than lying about other people.    PART TWO.  Why do people gossip?  (1) Some people gossip as an outlet for free floating anxiety.  These people often gossip out of feelings of insecurity.  They feel a need to bolster themselves.  They feel a need to inflate themselves.  (2) Some people gossip as an outlet for free floating anger.  These people may even have their gossip devolve into hate speech.  (3) Some people gossip in order to gain power at the expense of other people.  (4) Some people gossip because they enjoy gossip.  Some people find gossip exciting.    PART THREE.  What is wrong with gossip.  There are several objections to gossip.  Gossip is unethical.  Gossip is a bore.  Gossip demeans the gossiper, not the gossipee.  ---  11/25/2005

Sociology.  ---  Groening style of analysis: adjective types.  (1) Brown nosing, ass kissing, boot licking, (2) Two faced, two timing, back stabbing, (3) Stickler, nit picker, fuss budget, picky, pest, (4) Ball busting, chop busting, back breaker, sadistic variety, anal rule following variety, (5) Lazy sack of shit, neer do well, sleepy, goof off, fu*k up, dizzy, fogg, (6) Leaders, followers, (7) Loners, independent free thinkers, misfits malcontents misanthropes, (8) Bohemians vs. straight laced, i.e. Layed back and loose vs. uptight.  (9) Rule breakers vs. rule followers.  (10) Eager beavers, industrious, ants, vs. lazy crazy boozy floozy.  (11) Boosters, go-getters, cheerleaders.  (12) Snitch, rat.  (13) Scapegoat, human sacrifice, low man on totem pole, kick me sign wearer.  ---  03/26/1994

Sociology.  ---  Heterogeneous societies vs. homogeneous societies.  Heterogeneous societies have diversity, pluralism, tolerance.  Homogeneous societies have uniformity.  How do societies achieve homogeneity?  Through coercion.  Through shunning and ostracizing outsiders.  ---  10/10/2004

Sociology.  ---  History, current and future of: (1) Social theory and social science.  (2) Social attitudes and social behaviors, in both animals and humans.  ---  5/16/2001

Sociology.  ---  Holidays are arbitrary social conventions.  ---  6/5/2004

Sociology.  ---  Holidays secular and religious.  (1) I do not believe any day is more less holy than then the next.  (2) If you want to remember or commemorate a person or event then do it everyday, not just one day a year, and especially not the same day every year.  ---  12/26/1997

Sociology.  ---  Holidays, birthdays, graduations, weddings.  I view these functions as essentially meaningless.  Yet 95% of people spend every free minute planning and attending these events.  They try to build meaning out of the meaningless.  ---  6/4/2002

Sociology.  ---  Holidays.  (1) Halloween is a holiday to let your subconscious arise and express itself.  You can act out your fantasy of who you want to be.  You can have anonymity behind a costume.  You can express your aggressive instincts safely.  Halloween is a psychologically healthy holiday.  (2) The many people wearing convict outfits on halloween is an expression of the subconscious existential feeling people have of being imprisoned by life.  ---  10/30/1997

Sociology.  ---  Holidays.  (1) Religious and secular holidays are b.s..  (2) It is a commercial excuse to make money.  (3) It is mindless ritual and blind obedience, following others because they say so or do so.  (4) You shouldn't do something if you don't feel like it just because society does it or says you should.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Holidays.  (1) Why New Years is our greatest holiday.  (A) It tolerates, nay, encourages you to run around like a drunken loon.  (B) Even if you are not drinking or drunk you can still act like it and it is ok.  It is the most Dionysian of all our holidays.  (2) Secular (ex. labor day) vs. pagan (ex. new years) vs. religious (ex. christmas) holidays.  (3) The whole concept of holiday is b.s.  Picking one day out of the year to honor or celebrate or mourn or remember, truly or falsely (whether you feel it or not), and then forgetting them for the rest of the year, is irrational.  ---  12/01/1993

Sociology.  ---  Holidays.  The christmas card controversy.  (1) Are they sending them to you out of friendship or out of ritual or out of perceived social obligation.  (2) Strategies.  (A) Send out none.  (B) Send on christmas eve, only to those who sent you.  (C) Send out on a one year delay.  (3) The core issue is (A) Unasked for gifts, and (B) Norms of reciprocation, and (C) Holidays.  I do not believe in holidays.  I do not want any gifts from anyone, and do not ask me to reciprocate.  (4) Also at issue is a billion dollar a year card industry, based on an inane social practice.  Like sending flowers.  ---  01/01/1994

Sociology.  ---  How can you tell if someone is being real (showing true thoughts and emotions) vs. acting for whatever reasons (1) Lies, deception, teasing, (2) Manners, (3) Cold, reserved, secretive, (4) Public relations or trying to get something.)?  ---  11/20/1993

Sociology.  ---  How much you choose to hang out with lessers or greaters (truly greater, or only greater status), and why you do so.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  How often you think of a person, and whether you think bad or good things about them.  ---  11/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  How to ensure positive social interaction, a situation where you are not hurting them and they are not hurting you?  ---  4/26/2001

Sociology.  ---  How to study sociology (from books)?  (2) How to do a sociological study (science research methods)?  (3) How to interact socially?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Humans may have developed an ability to spot other humans who are acting strangely (crazy).  Often humans are too quick on the draw to claim others crazy.  ---  4/30/2005

Sociology.  ---  Humans societies and social interaction.  Their structure and mechanism.  (1) Is it innate?  (2) Are there universals?  (3) Is it not innate, rather, determined by rules, mores, conventions and laws?  ---  5/1/2002

Sociology.  ---  Hypothetical.  Professional friends.  Someone to talk to.  $20 an hour.  No sex.  No therapy.  No psychic abilities.  Just a  warm body that listens in a public place.  ---  8/25/2000

Sociology.  ---  Hypotheticals.  Set up a situation.  Add personality types.  Describe the social dynamics that result.  Ala lifeboat.  ---  03/26/1994

Sociology.  ---  I am opposed to typical American weddings and funerals because they are bourgeoisie conventions and ostentatious displays of wealth.  ---  10/27/2003

Sociology.  ---  I love (hate?) watching those who are still within the system (consciously or unconsciously).  Meek, playing by the rules, not even daring to think a radical (political view), unholy (religious view), thought experiment (epistemology).  So good, so clean, so healthy.  Let them have many babies.  They follow a pre-set path.  They will never explore.  They will never discover.  They are tame, not wild.  ---  11/10/1993

Sociology.  ---  Ideal.  Dealing with people.  (1) Review the situation aloud to them.  Latest interaction and entire relationship.  (2) Reveal the problems. (3) Ask questions to them.  (4) Evaluate their answers out loud.  (5) Decide if it is good or not.  (6) Explain your judgment to them.  (7) It is catharsis and justice in action.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  If a person is ok when alone, but has problems when encountering others, then they need to (1) Develop social skills, or (2) Find healthier, better people.  ---  11/04/1993

Sociology.  ---  In my dealings with people, must I act like a therapist?  For their sake?  Or for my sake?  ---  8/23/1998

Sociology.  ---  Individual and society.  Are you going to do what you want to do, or are you going to do what others want you to do?  Do the former.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Individual and society.  Will you break free, totally or partially, mentally or physically, or will you remain unconsciously or consciously enslaved and bonded to it.  And once free, will you develop, stagnate or decay.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Individual versus group.  PART ONE. Individualism.  (1) Positive aspects of individualism.  (A) Think for self.  Do-it-yourself attitude.  Independence.  (2) Negative aspects of individualism.  (A) Egoism.  Selfishness.  (B) Narrow-mindedness.  Extreme parochialism.  Isolation.  PART TWO. Group mentality.  (1) Positive aspects of group mentality.  (A) Altruism.  Sharing.  (B) Cooperation.  (2) Negative aspects of group mentality.  (A) Group think.  (B) Peer pressure.  ---  12/28/2006

Sociology.  ---  Inevitably, someone will try to do you wrong in this life.  (1) Who will it be?  The obvious hostile people are easy to spot.  Much more destructive are people who appear to be friendly, neutral or uninvolved, yet who plot your grief.  (2) How will they try?  Here it pays to use your imagination and educate yourself.  (3) How can you stop them?  Protect yourself.  ---  5/22/2003

Sociology.  ---  Ingratiation.  Argument for kissing up, boot licking, and brown nosing.  People can be for you or against you.  They can help or hinder you.  It does not pay to stand on principle for a worthless inconsequential fight against a worthless inconsequential person.  Ninety percent of people do not value rational argument, they consider rational argument a personal attack.  All they want is to be confirmed, stroked, and saluted.  And they hold endless grudges.  Why get your chops busted forever for no good reason?  Yes them as long as the issue is inconsequential.  To do this you need a firm sense of who you are and what you stand for.  And also who the assholes are, what causes them, and how to pacify them.  Then lying and keeping silent in front of assholes will not bother you so much.  ---  06/10/1994

Sociology.  ---  Ingratiation.  Me vs. real brown nosers.  We both brown nose (lie, deny self).  But for different reasons.  I do it as little as possible, in order to survive.  They do it as much as possible, in order to get ahead.  My reasons are good, theirs are bad.  So I don't feel so bad.  ---  06/17/1994

Sociology.  ---  Instead of a business card, have a social card that has your name, phone number, email, and a list of your likes and dislikes.  ---  1/25/2005

Sociology.  ---  Know that others, on your track, with your beliefs and interests, are out there.  Keep it in mind.  The camaraderie should buoy you.  The competition should spur you.  ---  08/15/1994

Sociology.  ---  Leaders perform several functions.  (1) Leaders motivate people.  Leaders give encouragement to good efforts.  Leaders help steer the efforts of individuals and groups.  (2) Leaders gather together like-minded individuals.  Leaders get a conversation going.  Leaders keep communication lines open.  Leaders help build a community.  (3) Leaders help think up group projects.  ---  2/6/2007

Sociology.  ---  Leadership is not an "all or nothing" phenomena.  In an egalitarian group each person is sometimes a leader and sometimes a follower.  Everyone is a leader and a follower.  Or, no one is a leader nor a follower.  ---  2/6/2007

Sociology.  ---  Leadership.  See Politics, power, leadership.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Levels of sociology: number of individuals, and/or degree of organization.  (1) Social psychology.  (2) Interpersonal relationships.  (3) Society.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Levels of sociology.  (1) Personal level. Social psychology.  (2) Interpersonal levels.  Dyads.  (3) Group level.  (4) Societal level.  Cultural level.  We are immersed in culture.  We are surrounded by culture.  ---  8/14/2004

Sociology.  ---  Life is difficult and painful.  Free floating, generalized emotions like anger, fear and depression result.  (1) Some people look for scapegoats to unload on. Some people enjoy the bloodsport of character assassination.  That is a mistake.  (2) Some people try to protect themselves by being squeaky clean, uncontroversial, not expressing any views and not alienating anyone.  That is a mistake.  (3) Stand up for what you think is right.  ---  9/29/2003

Sociology.  ---  Living your own life vs. (1) Letting someone else live your life, or (2) Trying to live someone else's life.  ---  06/17/1994

Sociology.  ---  Manners are arbitrary social conventions.  Manners are often an example of blind conformity.  Doing something just because everyone else is doing it.  Doing something because someone told you to do it, even though you don't understand it and even though you don't know the reason why.  Doing things even though you know they are wrong and you disagree.  We have to end that kind of ignorant behavior.  ---  6/25/2004

Sociology.  ---  Manners are bullshit.  When you put on airs, or bow to social rules, you are repressing, you are corrupting yourself, you are lying to others and lying to yourself.  You are acting like an asshole, and eventually become an asshole.  It is healthier and more appealing to be open and honest with oneself and others.  ---  02/01/1989

Sociology.  ---  Manners are conventions or standardized behaviors, like driving on the right hand side of the road.  Manners help organize society.  Manners, on an individual level, help us predict societal behaviors.  They help us know what to expect when we interact with others.  So it turns out manners are helpful in one way.  ---  06/10/1997

Sociology.  ---  Manners with a real purpose vs. arbitrary and meaningless rituals.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Manners, customs, etc.  (1) At what point do they go from helping (greasing, smoothing) social relations to hindering (holding up, stagnating) social relations. (2) If two people have different manner systems, and both think the other person is using the same manner system that they are, then problems like misinterpretation and taking offense can result.  ---  09/23/1993

Sociology.  ---  Manners: habitual, pre-ordered social behaviors.  Manners with reason vs. manners without reason.  The former is better than the latter.  ---  06/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  (1) Manners that have an intended meaning or purpose, and the meaning is clear, and fulfills a purpose vs. manners that do not.  (2) Manners that are socially useful vs. are not.  (3) Manners that a specific person does know the history, meaning or purpose of vs. does not.  ---  11/20/1993

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  (1) Saying grace before meals.  In the old days, the quality of food was so low that meals were a life or death proposition.  So before eating, people prayed for protection.  (2) Another time of vulnerability to danger was during sleep.  So people prayed before bed.  ---  01/07/1997

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  Four ways to look at manners.  (1) Manners are a type of exchange (economy) of gestures.  (2) Manners are a type of dealmaking of gestures.  (3) Manners are about giving and getting civil respect.  Civil respect is a base level of respect that we all deserve.  (4) Manners are about giving and getting reassurances.  ---  11/20/2001

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  Knowledge of manners, or societal norms or rules, gives you an idea how people will act under normal circumstances, and how far people will break the rules to survive and get what they want.  It gives you an idea how to fight guerrilla warfare with them.  It gives you an idea how far you can bend rules without breaking them and still stay in society.  ---  02/14/1989

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  Norms, rules, manners.  Manners are customs and habits.  For a reason vs. without a reason.  Or for a past reason now outdated.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  Polite society is anything but polite.  ---  02/14/1989

Sociology.  ---  Manners.  Politeness.  People quickly and easily take offense (pride), and are easily offended (hurt feelings).  Be explicitly and proactively polite.  ---  12/12/1993

Sociology.  ---  Massage is important because touch is important.  Babies die without touch, and so do adults.  Massage works not because of the rubbing or pressure on muscles, but because of the touch of another person.  A light touch massage from a person beats a deep rub massage from a machine.  ---  3/30/1998

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  (1) In our society, we only let total strangers, or good friends of the opposite sex, or lovers, touch us to the degree that massage involves.  (2) At what point in a relationship, starting from complete strangers, does enough trust build to let a massage take place?  How much time must be spent together?  What words must be said to each other?  (3) Massage is very trusting.  Very often you are naked, face down, with someone sitting on top of you, with their hands around your neck.  This seems too dangerous to me.  Should it be done in public?  ---  2/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  (1) There is a need for touch beyond the need for occasional massages.  A need to touch and a need to be touched.  (2) Shaking hands may have started with a convention to hold the spear in the shield hand, but it continues to exist because it allows formalized (guided, rule based, safe) touching of a minimum sort (hand to hand).  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Arguments for massage.  (1) Strong view: you can't be healthy without touch or massage.  (2) Weak view: touch and massage improve your health (both psychological and physical).  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Importance of touch.  There is a lack of touch in current american society.  A degree of touch that exists in between common current conceptions of friendship and intimacy.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Part-time masseuse.  I am an artist, and I need to get inspired to do my best work.  I get inspired from seeing women, up close and nude.  So the person I am massaging benefits from the actual massage, I benefit from inspiration, and the world benefits from my art.  It is a win-win-win situation.  And it just took me to realize it.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Prostitute and Shrink are two occupations where you can pay for a person on demand.  But the shrink is all talk and no action.  And the prostitute is all action and no talk.  There should be a third occupation that you pay for on demand that is all talk and all action.  This job would be a massage therapist that also gives you talk therapy at the same time.  Sex would be optional.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  The massage project.  Why do it?  (1) Safety: sex risks diseases.  Need for safe sex or sex substitute.  (2) Ethics: I don't really want to cheat on girlfriend.  (3) There should be a level of intimacy between friendship and sex.  (4) There should be something between a date and a hooker.  (5) Power of touch, and the lack of touch in our society.  (6) My love of the female form.  Women inspire me as an artist.  (7) Helps me as an artist by giving me material.  I like hearing stories and talking to strangers.  I like to hear their dreams and goals, and experiences good and bad.  (8) Helps them as a form of touch therapy and talk therapy.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Touch is different from massage.  Massage is a technique used in special situations.  Touch, of various types, occurs all the time in social situations.  Touch is important.  Babies die without touch.  Adults do to.  There is no legitimate way to give adults the touch they need.  The loving touch.  Touch has also been associated through history with healing.  The healing touch.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Massage.  Types of touch: (1) Hand to hand.  (2) Face to face.  (3) Body to body (clothed and unclothed).  (4) Genital to genital.  (5) And various combonations of the above.  ---  02/22/1997

Sociology.  ---  Me.  I can't stand being offended.  I can't help being offensive.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Methodology of sociology.  (1) Philosophy methods.  See modes of thinking and philosophy.  (2) Science methods, see science.  (A) Comparative sociology: theoretical, and actual.  (B) Historical sociology.  (C) Facts, theories.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Methodology.  Major attempts to explain social phenomena.  (1) Psychology.  Freud.  Sociology is psychology on a larger scale.  (2) Evolution.  Sociobiology.  Animal studies.  (3) Economics.  Exchange theory.  Marx.  (4) Politics.  Power.  Conflict.  (5) Language.  Semiotics.  Symbolic interactionism.  Communication.  Information.  (6) Sex.  Gender.  Feminism.  (7) Post Modernism.  Functionalism.  Structuralism.  (8) Other.  System theory.  Network theory.  Game theory.  ---  7/31/2005

Sociology.  ---  Methodology.  The multiple methods of sociology (for example, communication studies, conflict studies, economics, and politics) point to different aspects of social phenomena.  An eclectic, multi-modal approach is needed.  ---  7/20/2005

Sociology.  ---  Micro level.  Different people desire different amounts of social interaction.  Different people desire different types of social interaction.  When people interact, sometimes one person expects the other person to act in a similar way.  Other times people recognize that the other person has their own way.  Many people, when their social expectations are not met by other people, are hurt or offended.  In fact, a common but unfortunate social phenomena is that when one person does not adhere to another person's arbitrary social convention, the other person often is hurt and angry, and attempts to ostracize the person by saying to others that there is something wrong with the person.  (2) Macro level.  A society develops customs of social interaction.  Some customs of social interaction are similar from society to society.  Other social customs vary widely from society to society.  ---  11/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  Modes of cultural criticism.  Literary criticism, philosophy, anthropology, sociology, Marx (economics and history), feminism, psychology, structuralism, post-structuralism, politics.  ---  06/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Most important ideas.  (1) Finding and keeping a lover.  (2) Finding and keeping friends and allies.  People above and below you.  People similar and different from you.  (3) Fight or avoid enemies.  Stay away from enemies and assholes.  If you meet them, and they attack you, you must fight them.  If you meet them, and they attack others, you must decide in what cases to fight them in order to attain justice.  ---  10/20/1997

Sociology.  ---  Most important ideas.  (1) Know how to defend yourself.  (2) Know how to reach out to others.  (3) Find good friends, or else having friends become a boring waste of time.  ---  10/30/1997

Sociology.  ---  Most important ideas.  Treat people justly.  Know how to spot and deal with those who do not treat you or others justly.  ---  10/05/1997

Sociology.  ---  Most people need more attention and smiles than I do.  They are like children.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Neighbors.  (1) Definition of neighbors: to live next to each other.  (2) Types of neighbors.  Neighbors in the city, suburbs, rural and wilderness.  (3) Choices we make as neighbors: (A) To know or not to know your neighbor.  (B) To help or not to help your neighbor.  ---  2/25/1999

Sociology.  ---  Networking.  Old contacts, develop or cool them off.  New contacts, develop them.  What do I have that they want?  What do they have that I want?  ---  07/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Networks are webs of power and communication.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Networks.  Types of social networks.  (1) Power networks.  (2) Information networks.  (3) Emotion networks.  (4) Human relationships are as much about emotion as they are about power and information.  ---  6/3/2001

Sociology.  ---  Non-negotiable things, i.e. things you won't change for no one.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Number one rule of social relations: do not freak people out too early in the relationship.  And do not challenge them too early either.  ---  8/23/1998

Sociology.  ---  Overcivilized.  To be overcivilized or oversocialized is to have an excessive superego, to defer always to others, especially to authority figures.  To have no independence or self reliance.  To have no feeling for the wilderness.  (2) To be undercivilized or undersocialized is to have no social skills.  To have no empathy, no feelings for others.  To not want to belong to any groups.  To not perceive the achievements of civilization, perhaps because one is ignorant or uneducated.  ---  11/25/2001

Sociology.  ---  Participants in society.  (1)(A) Knowledge creators: scientists.  (B) Knowledge distributors: publishers, bookstores, schools.  (2)(A) Agenda setters.  (B) Value setters.  (C) Goal setters.  (D) Trend setters.  (E) Taste makers.  (3) The latter group (group two) includes the legislators and the entertainment industry.  They ask questions like "What will we spend our time and money on?", and "What will we think about?"  ---  5/15/2000

Sociology.  ---  Party.  Wall to wall people.  Smiling, talking, dancing.  Looking to hook up.  Young, pretty, horny, and scantily clad.  Smoke, booze, and music.  Unscathed, happy, hopeful, hedonistic people.  ---  11/16/1997

Sociology.  ---  Patriarchy is bullshit.  Men who think that they are the boss of their wife and kids are wrong.  Men who think its okay to hit their wife and kids are wrong.  The people who promote patriarchy are wrong.  ---  1/9/2006

Sociology.  ---  People are cool vs. assholes by degree.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  People are starving for attention.  ---  04/24/1997

Sociology.  ---  People are treacherous.  Their feelings are easily hurt.  They take offense easily and then they lash out.  People are spiteful, vengeful, petty, vituperative.  See also: Philosophy, people.  ---  11/29/2005

Sociology.  ---  People don't want to see anyone get more than them, or get ahead of them.  They feel glad when people above them are laid low.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  People want to see that you are less happy than they.  And if you seem more happy, people will try to dig up dirt on you to feel better.  ---  8/15/2005

Sociology.  ---  People.  (1) People who can't stand each other due to set philosophical ideas.  (2) Can't relate to each others experiences.  (3) Don't understand each other.  (4) Have different likes and dislikes.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Person A is not interested in person B's life, because person A has a life of their own.  Person B is interested in person A's life, because person B has no life of their own.  ---  4/25/2003

Sociology.  ---  Personal ads and resumes are interesting social phenomena. Personal ads and resumes reflect the following: (1) Who we think we are.  (2) What we want.  What we are looking for.  Who we are looking for.  What we think we should do.  What we think is good and important.  (3) What we think is the case in the world.  What we think of life, reality, world.  ---  8/25/2004

Sociology.  ---  Personal space.  A seating problem.  Two versions.  PART ONE.  In the city, personal space is limited and human interaction is abundant, so it is an unspoken principle in the city that in many situations people take seats to maximize the distance between all sitters.  For example, as an empty subway car fills up with commuters, people often seat themselves to maximize the distance between themselves.  Or as a cafe' fills up with customers.  The problem can be formalized.  For any given seating pattern, and any given starting point of the first sitter, what is the function or equation that will maximize the distance between a series of sitters?     PART TWO.  In rural areas personal space is abundant but human interaction is scarce, so people often seat themselves to minimize the distance between themselves.  That is, in rural areas people often intentionally sit next to each other.  In many human situations the minimum distance version of the seating problem is uninteresting because the nearest seat is usually directly adjacent to the other seats.  That is, in many humans situations, the seating follows a regular pattern, such as a line of seats at a counter, or a grid of seats in a theater, and the seats are located on a flat plane.   But imagine if it was not easy to discern which was the nearest seat, for example, imagine if the seats were in a irregular pattern on an irregular polyhedron.  It is possible to formalize this problem.  For any given seating pattern, and any given starting position of the first sitter, what is the function or equation that will minimize the distance between a series of sitters?  ---  12/12/2004

Sociology.  ---  Polish.  (1) Style: a neutral term.  Style can be good or bad.  (2) Panache and elan: good style.  (3) Grace.  (4) Ease.  ---  09/17/1994

Sociology.  ---  Polish.  Physical traits: ease of movement, not wild, uncoordinated or restrained.  Nice face, body, clothes, graceful movement, voice, vocabulary.  Psychological traits: friendly, firm, fair, quick, not too giving or taking, not too superior or inferior, calm, not nervous, feel comfortable and confident.  ---  09/15/1994

Sociology.  ---  Politics of social relationships.  (1) Campaigning in social relationships.  People campaign for things in social relationships.  (2) Voting in social relationships.  There is a voting process in social relationships.  Sometimes its open voting.  Sometimes its private voting.  ---  5/14/2006

Sociology.  ---  Popularity contests.  Its unfortunate when social situations degenerate into popularity contests.  Some people will do anything to be popular.  Because popularity is a form of power.  And some people will do anything for power.  Popularity contests are for people interested in establishing a pecking order, aka, people interested in rigid social hierarchies.  ---  12/5/2003

Sociology.  ---  Popularity is a social phenomenon.  What does it mean to be popular?  Popularity means being liked.  Popularity means being admired.  Popularity means having many friends.  (1) Many people want to be popular.  For some people, the desire to be popular may be an expression of the survival urge.  For some people, the desire to be popular may stem from a desire to please people, a desire to ingratiate.  The things some people do in order to be popular is astounding.  (2) Other people do not want to be popular.  These people do not mind being unpopular.  These people are willing to be unpopular in order to stand up for principle.  (3) What happens when things turn into a popularity contest?  What makes a person popular?  Sometimes the most trivial traits can make a person popular if those traits are valued by the group.  Some people try to use money, looks, sex, etc. to become popular.  ---  6/15/2007

Sociology.  ---  Popularity seeking.  Dissing some, and kissing up to others (ingratiation).  Some people see life as a popularity contest.  Small town, high school mentality.  ---  03/20/1997

Sociology.  ---  Possible causes of, descriptions of, and techniques for dealing with, various types of assholes and asshole behaviors.  ---  11/06/1993

Sociology.  ---  Poverty.  See International development.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Primary social strategies.  (1) Warfare, conflict, force, threat.  (2) Exchange, deal making, bargaining, negotiation.  (3) Ingratiation, friendliness.  (4) Beg, whine.  (5) Con, manipulate, use.  ---  2/25/1999

Sociology.  ---  Problem.  (1) Social problems of individual.  (2) Social problems of society.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Problem.  (1) You are trying to change me.  (2) You are trying to limit me.  (3) You are calling me something I'm not.  (4) Defining, confining, controlling.  (5) Degree person A actually does above to person B.  Degree perceived by both.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Problem.  A relationship is a problem if it is sub-optimal for you, or if it is pathological for you.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Problem.  Cultures that promote and require excessive amounts of showing of interpersonal respect.  Example, the south.  Example, the mob.  Cultures of violence.  ---  1/20/2004

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  (1) People who believe that people who do not act like themselves are crazy.  (2) People who know another person is not crazy, but who will call that person crazy to make that person do what they want that person to do.  (3) The former is ignorance.  The latter is devious, totalitarian, planned evil by self righteous assholes.  ---  11/24/1988

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  How not to deal with people.  (1) Give in, give up, too passive.  (2) Not attacking enough, not defending enough.  (3) Too aggressive without reason.  (4) Too defensive without reason.  (5) Paranoid, withdrawal.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  Pathological sociology consists of things like the following: (1) Pathological social psychology.  (2) Pathological groups.  (3) Communication problems.  (4) Love relationship problems.  (5) Conflict resolution problems.  ---  1/2/2001

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  Social problems of an individual, or of a society.  (1) Does not work well with others.  (A) Withdrawn and uncommunicative.  (B) Combative, bossy, bully, argumentative; or suspicious, distrustful, paranoid; or bigoted.  (C) Screws others (sociopath): lies, cheats, steals, uses, abuses, confidence plays.  ---  10/25/1997

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  Some assholes believe their importance, and thus their worth as humans, is based on the number of people they can boss around, and who can not boss them around.  So they boss and jerk around as many as they can.  Bullies.  It makes them feel important and good.  ---  07/01/1994

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  Some people have trouble recognizing or knowing the following:  When to speak up?  When to act?  When am I hurting another?  When is another hurting me?  When am I being walked over?  When am I being taken advantage of?  When should I stand up for myself?  When should I fight for self?  ---  6/23/2000

Sociology.  ---  Problems.  Types of social interaction problems.  (1) Listening vs. speaking.  (2) Seeing vs. acting.  (3) Understanding vs. expressing.  ---  6/23/2000

Sociology.  ---  Promise, reciprocation and contract.  (1)(A) The promise: I will do x in the future.  Explicit verbal promises vs. implicit or implied promises.  (B) Reciprocation: if you do x then I will do y.  Or alternatively, if I do x for you, then I expect you to do y.  This is known as "the deal made".  Reciprocation is often implied by social norms.  Promise and reciprocation form the basis of the written contract, which is a signed promise you cannot back out of.  Promise and reciprocation are a basic way of viewing social relations, and are related to exchange theories of sociology.  Promise and reciprocation are the basis for cooperation.  The idea is "I give, you give".  Promise and reciprocation are type of rational social behavior.  (2)(A) Rational forms of social behavior.  Are based on communication.  Involve thinking, being cognizant of one's needs, aware of opportunity and threats in environment, aware of strengths and weaknesses of self and others, ability to form goals and strategies.  (B) Irrational forms of social behavior.  Are based on drive or emotion.  Action on impulse.  No foresight or planning.  (3) Besides promise and reciprocation, another form of rational social behavior is force and conflict.  I attack, you defend.  I take, you withhold.  ---  4/15/1998

Sociology.  ---  Rebellion.  See Psychology, personality, traits, rebellion.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Rejection.  (1) Quitting vs. getting fired is like (2) Dumping a girl vs. getting dumped, which is like (3) Running away from home vs. being abandoned.  ---  05/03/1994

Sociology.  ---  Related subjects.  Psychology.  Emotional expression in social context.  Moods are contagious.  When I even just sound like I have lost hope, others lose hope.  When I sound weak, others become weak.  When I sound strong, confident and hopeful, others gain hope and become strong and confident and hopeful.  This is called leadership?  Ideally you feel confident and say you are confident, but if you feel unconfident and say you are confident, you are repressing your feelings, and lying to yourself and others, and also losing the personal and social benefits of talking honestly about your feelings with others, and they may think you are a bullshit artist, or they may think you are not showing the appropriate emotion.  So there are pros and cons to the issue.  ---  02/09/1997

Sociology.  ---  Related subjects.  Technology and society.  How does technology change society?  ---  10/10/2004

Sociology.  ---  Respect.  See Psychology, emotion, specific, respect dignity.  ---  12/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Rigid class based societies with low social mobility are wrong.  ---  3/30/1998

Sociology.  ---  Sex segregated, uniform wearing groups  are not where its at (be it school, workplace, society, etc.).  ---  11/20/2003

Sociology.  ---  Situation, participants, relationships, interaction, and result.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Skills.  Create a social contacts networking database.  An annotated contacts list.  (1) Name.  Address.  Telephone.  Email address.  Web site.  (2) When and where I met them.  Date.  Place.  What was discussed.  Phone calls too.  (3) For anyone you meet: Who are they?  What are their values?  What do they want?  What are their goals?  (4) What do they do for a job?  (5) How can I help them, and how can they help me (favor trading).  Pessimistically, how can they hurt me, how can I defend myself, and how can they be hurt (threat, defense, and counter threat)?  (6) Why do I like or dislike them?  ---  4/23/2006

Sociology.  ---  So much of human social behavior is simple mimicry.  Mimicry is a low level animal behavior.  ---  4/16/2006

Sociology.  ---  Sociability: human interaction, friends, and love.  Can we live without them?  Can we live without them without feeling emotional pain, or without going completely neurotic?  How much do we need of each.  As love is to sex, friendship is to what?  Human touch?  Hugs?  Eye contact?  What?  ---  11/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  Sociability.  (1) Most people feel happy when they meet friends, or even when they meet acquaintances and strangers in social situations like parties.  (2) Some people feel happy when they mentally review the reasons why they should feel happy in social situations.  (3) Some people just never feel happy when they meet other humans.  Is this a genetic defect?  Is it the result of poor socialization?  One would think that a human would be happy to meet another of their kind.  ---  10/31/1999

Sociology.  ---  Sociability.  Easy to get along with means (1) Does not have a lot of demands.  Not picky.  Not many things you have to do.  (2) Is not bothered by much.  Puts up with a lot.  You can do what you want.  Not many things you must do.  ---  12/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  Social acting.  In society, no one says out loud everything that one thinks and feels.  It would be a cacophony.  Therefore, we all keep things secret.  One could therefore argue that (1) We are all repressed in the Freudian sense.  (2) We are all liars and actors.  (if one defines a liar as anyone not telling the "whole truth").  ---  4/8/2001

Sociology.  ---  Social acting.  Real life everyday acting involves lying (1) To fit into the group.  (2) For secrecy, privacy, freedom and self-protection.  ---  4/8/2001

Sociology.  ---  Social attitudes.  (1) Positive attitudes:  I am part of society.  We are all working together.  Strangers are my friends.  (2) Negative attitudes:  I am alone.  Its all conflict and struggle.  Strangers are my enemies.  ---  12/5/1998

Sociology.  ---  Social cognition.  Individual's perception of: (1) Why do I think social interaction is important?  (2) What groups am I a part of?  (3) What do I think is the nature of groups?  (4) How are groups in society related?  As friends or foes?  (5) What is the individual's mental map of the structure of groups in society.  How do they see the structure of society?  ---  4/22/1999

Sociology.  ---  Social game.  I won't call them, but if they call me I will talk to them.  It is a game people play to make themselves feel powerful and superior.  ---  04/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Social heterogeneity and homogeneity and its effect on social tolerance and intolerance.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Social identity.  What others think you are, label you as, and treat you like.  It can affect your self identity if you let it.  ---  06/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Social interaction is very important to psychological health.  Having access only to small, isolationist, homogenous, uncommunicative groups is bad.  Having access to many, varied, communicative groups is good.  ---  1/22/1999

Sociology.  ---  Social interaction.  (1) Define other by observing and guessing what groups they belong to, and who other is.  Agree or disagree, like or dislike.  Determine whether they are above or below you.  (2) Define how you are going to relate to them.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Social interaction.  (1) Whose calls will you return?  Who will you give the time of day?  Who will you associate with?  Who will you spend time with?  There are many "nice" people in the world.  There is an seemingly unlimited number of pleasant people.  You cannot hang out with them all, so many are their numbers.  (2) Who is going to return your calls?  Who is going to give you the time of day?  Who will associate with you?  Who will spend time with you?  You will quickly find, if you enter the world of people, that many people are too "busy" too see you.  (3) There is a peculiar absurdity to the entire affair of social interaction.  And yet, despite the absurdity, many people put a lot of time and emotional energy into thinking about their social lives.   ---  5/16/2007

Sociology.  ---  Social interaction.  Ask them: How are you feeling?  What are you thinking?  What are your goals?  What are you doing to help the Progressive Cause?  Tell them the same about yourself.  ---  6/15/2005

Sociology.  ---  Social interaction.  It is not about popularity.  It is not about who is most popular.  It is about survival.  And it is about getting things done, solving problems, by gathering the talent and persuading them to action.  ---  06/10/1997

Sociology.  ---  Social networks.  (1) Who is talking to who?  Communication networks.  (2) Who is having sex with who?  Sexual intimacy networks.  ---  2/25/2005

Sociology.  ---  Social networks.  Types of social networks.  (1) Power networks.  (2) Communication networks or information networks.  (3) Favor swapping networks.  (4) Recommending people to friends.  Dis-recommending people.  (5) Kinship networks via marriages and births.  (6) See also: Philosophy, systems and networks.  ---  5/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  Social philosophy.  (1) Are humans basically social or non-social?  Social to what degree?  Chemical communication.  Physical links (like sponges).  No dissent allowed.  No free thinking allowed.  (2) Is there a human nature?  Is it the same as the nature of any living thing, i.e., to stay alive, get food and water, and reproduce?  (3) If there is a human nature, is it due to nature or nurture?  Or is it 50/50?  (4) Are humans basically good or evil.  That depends on how you define good and evil.  ---  5/1/2002

Sociology.  ---  Social philosophy.  (1) Those who see man as basically good or evil.  (2) Those who see social relationships as cooperation (doves) vs. conflict (hawks).  (3) Specific philosophies derived from these views.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Social pressures.  There are many types of social pressures besides peer pressure.  There are many types of social pressures to conform, for example, at school, at work, etc.  Every segment of society has some sort of norms that people are expected to adhere to.  Some people make the mistake of assuming all social pressures are peer pressures.  ---  6/19/2006

Sociology.  ---  Social problems.  Racism.  Classism.  Sexism.  Ageism.  (See: Sociology, discrimination).  ---  5/15/2004

Sociology.  ---  Social problems.  Sex problems.  (See: Sociology, sexuality).  ---  5/15/2004

Sociology.  ---  Social problems.  Social and psychological reasons for poverty, homelessness, drugs, crime, and other social ills.  ---  11/06/1993

Sociology.  ---  Social reassurance.  Kids (and grownups) need constant explicit reassurance.  People need to be reassured that you are not crazy, that you are not out to hurt them, that you care, that you want to help.  It is very important.  ---  6/30/1998

Sociology.  ---  Social situations, on a macro level and on a micro level, can be analyzed in terms of politics, economics and information.  (1) Politics.  Social power.  Soft power of influence.  Hard power of force.  (2) Economics.  Needs and wants.  Values.  Exchange.  Money and stuff.  (3) Information.  Communication.  (4) When we try to analyze social situations in terms of politics and economics and information we are applying abstract categories onto much more mercurial entities.  ---  11/25/2004

Sociology.  ---  Social skills to develop.  (1) Develop the ability to temporarily join, empathize and understand all people and groups.  (2) Develop the ability to separate and keep a healthy distance from all people and groups.  (3) Develop the ability to make quick strong connections and disconnections.  Fluid, changing.  ---  9/17/2001

Sociology.  ---  Social skills:  (1) Stand up for yourself.  (2) Work in a team.  (3) Conflict resolution skills.  (4) Persuasion, rhetoric, and communication skills.  (5) Team building, consensus building.  (6) Politics, Selling.  (7) Leadership and following.  ---  1/25/2000

Sociology.  ---  Social skills.  (1) Tact, subtlety, diplomacy.  (2) Combat model.  Fighting well.  (3) Competition model, win well, lose well.  (4) Politics model.  Politician, deal making (implicit, explicit, verbal contacts), bargaining, office politics, pecking orders.  (5) Business model.  Businessman, selling yourself and beliefs, public relations image.  (6) Nice model.  Making love well, making friends, contacts, schmoozing, networking, asskissing, ingratiation.  (7) Communication skills, propaganda, rhetoric, bluffing, saying nothing well (avoiding questions and issues, beating around bush, waffling, being noncommittal), euphemisms, vagueness, chit-chatting, small talk, asking questions indirectly, dodging questions, spy vs. spy, gathering information.  (8) Owing, favor granting, reciprocity, obligation.  (9) Not being ripped off, conned, taken advantage of, manipulated, used.  Knowing how to con, manipulate, sweet talk, etc.  (10) Playing the game, getting ahead, gaining power, climbing the ladder.  (11) Seeing how you appear to others.  Seeing how others see you.  Awareness of others thoughts and feelings.  Reading people.  (12) Understanding people.  (13) Negative acts.  Back stabbing, deception, mis-information, two facedness.  (14) Gaining trust, respect, admiration, impressing people.  (15) Figuring out and manipulating the system, picking up the culture, sizing up the situation and people.  Spotting the power hierarchy.  Spotting people's values.  Spotting people's agendas, spotting and avoiding assholes.  (16) Too strong, loud, dominating, overpowering, not mellow enough, self important, pompous, sanctimonious, know it all, diva complex, intolerant vs. too weak, timid, lax, loose, tolerant, ineffectual, spineless, passive, quiet, mellow, goalless, drifting, unfocused, no drive, too laid back, unconfident, panicky, wimpy.  (17) Neurotic, psychotic, loony, wild, wacky.  (18) Too right, straight, tight vs. too left.  (19) Fitting in, going with flow, finding a niche vs. loose cannon, wave maker, boat rocker, rebel, maverick, undependable, unstable.  (20) Not being or appearing jokey, sarcastic.  (21) Impolite, boorish.  (22) Boring.  (23) Hostile, angry, nasty, mean, bullying, uncooperative, inconsiderate, rude.  (24) Too distant vs. too close.  (25) Too far above (snooty) vs. below (we are not worthy).  (26) Slick, fake, bull-shit-artist, insincere.  (27) Geek, nerd, uncool, techno-dweeb, not a people person, no charisma, no charm.  (28) Greedy, power or money hungry, too driven.  Pushing enough vs. not pushing too hard.  (29) Loyalty vs. betraying confidences.  (30) Nosy vs. respecting others privacy.  (31) Knowing when to do what and why.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Social skills.  (1) The ability to make a good first impression vs. the ability to keep a relationship going long term.  (2) The ability to deal with people everyday, day after day, vs. the ability to keep a relationship going when the people rarely see each other.  (3) The ability to recognize words, gestures and noises of friendship vs. the ability to make and send noises, gestures and words of friendship.  (4) The ability to deal with conflict.  The ability to deal with differences of opinion.  Learning to defuse rather than escalate.  (5) The ability to deal with aggression.  (6) The ability to detect and deal with scammers.  ---  7/14/2001

Sociology.  ---  Social skills.  One on one campaigning, deal making, bargaining, haggling, negotiating, selling, conning, bullshitting, kissing up, putting down, schmoozing, networking, mixing, mingling, making contacts.  ---  05/03/1994

Sociology.  ---  Social skills.  Young kids must learn social skills from models.  Learning how to fight, when to fight (justice), levels of escalation.  Learning how to make friends, when to make friends, levels of friendship.  ---  03/16/1997

Sociology.  ---  Social theory.  PART ONE.  (1) Reductionist views.  Sociology reduces to psychology, which reduces to biology, which reduces to chemistry, which reduces to physics.  (2) Emergentist views.  Sociology deals with phenomena that are not reducible to psychology.  Supervenience.     PART TWO.  (1) Nature.  Innate.  Instinct.  vs. (2) Nurture.  Learned.  Culture.  ---  5/13/2004

Sociology.  ---  Social types.  Posseurs, fronts, bluffers, vs. real, authentic, true, honest natured people.  (See public relations.  See ethics, deception).  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Socialization.  People become socialized when they realize the survival of themselves is tied in some way to the survival of society.  ---  03/15/1989

Sociology.  ---  Socializing is serious and important.  We need good friends for physical survival and psychological health.  ---  10/12/1999

Sociology.  ---  Socializing though the Internet.  Is it a good thing?  What are its pros and cons?  ---  3/11/2007

Sociology.  ---  Socially recognized achievements that turn out to be hollow.  Illusionary achievements.  ---  3/31/2006

Sociology.  ---  Society and individual.  (1) To what extent does growing up in a social setting (ex. family, community, nation) affect your values, thoughts, personality, etc.?  (2) To what extent does living as an adult in a social situation affect your values, thoughts, personality, etc.?  ---  5/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  Society and individual.  100% control of the individual by society is wrong.  On the other hand, 100% freedom of the individual is also wrong.  A balance must be reached between control and freedom.  ---  5/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  Sociology at work and play, at home and abroad, in public and private.  ---  03/26/1994

Sociology.  ---  Sociology by the psychological model.  (1) Group drive: how the group forms its goals.  (2) Group memory: how the group keeps alive it memories.  (3) Group emotions: contagious moods.  (4) Group thinking: group decision making.  (5) Group attitudes.  (6) Group philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and aesthetics.  ---  6/6/1999

Sociology.  ---  Sociology by the psychology model.  Mood (emotional) of the group.  Knowledge of the group.  Memory of the group.  Attitude of the group.  ---  8/6/2001

Sociology.  ---  Some people use the social tactic of avoiding all controversy at all costs, including avoiding the controversy involved in pushing for progress, justice and ethical development.  It is a mistake to do so.  ---  3/23/2004

Sociology.  ---  Submissive vs. dominant.  Aggressive vs. passive.  Initiator vs. follower.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Taboos.  The hula hoop always existed.  What occurred in the 1950s and 1960s was a relaxation of taboos to the point where women could stand in front of you and gyrate their pelvis in a bikini.  That is why the hula hoop exploded as a fad at that point in time.  ---  11/28/1998

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  (1) You have to know how to deal with them (bullshitting, conning, dealing, schmoozing, fitting in).  (2) You have to know how to deal without them (standing on own, going one's own way, knowing when you are not wanted).  If you can't do both you are sunk.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Be friendly and nice to people.  Smile.  Offer to do them some favors.  Imitate their style and philosophy.  You may need something from them.  Even if just their support or neutrality toward you in discussions about you that occur behind your back.  ---  03/26/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Best principles and techniques to deal with people in general, specific types of people, and specific people.  Attitudes to take and why.  Communication to use and why.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  By taking the role of historian or sociologist/psychologist you can talk to anyone about anything.  ---  10/01/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Get catharsis from thought and then action, not from relationships.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Get in their faces (space), and jerk them around a little.  Make them think you are unpredictable (random) and wild (pushing norms, breaking taboos).  Make them think you are dangerous, so that they will fear and respect you.  ---  06/05/1997

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Get what you want, satisfy drives by any and all legal means.  Don't get hurt, fight hard and smart.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  I want to become the consummate bullshit artist and confidence man: self assured, confident, sophisticated, never caught off guard, have an answer for everything.  My professional image and personal image: polished, tactful, diplomatic, showman, actor, chutzpah, ham, comic.  ---  04/04/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Keep the opposition stupid, enslaved, happy sheep.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Kick ass.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Practice politeness and bullshitting.  ---  01/20/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Protect yourself, get what you want, never give anyone an edge, reveal nothing.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Public relations.  How to make everyone feel like they are the greatest, smartest, most interesting person you ever met, and that you want to be in their presence all the time.  What to say?  How to act?  ---  04/30/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Public relations.  You've worked hard to build an illusion for others to see.  It is not a bad thing.  It is a public relations image to get ahead, not a lie, but rather the best side.  One wrong word can destroy all you have built.  Don't show them your bad side or even the parts of your good side that they can't handle.  We are all actors always.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Schmoozing and networking, with who?  To offer what?  To get what?  What should you not offer, and what should you not accept?  How to pitch things to people.  How to turn people down, and reject others pitches.  ---  04/30/1993

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Schmoozing, networking, brown nosing.  Play up what you have in common, values and agendas.  Play down what you disagree on.  ---  02/07/1994

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Social skill.  (1) Learn how interact with, and yet not let morons, assholes, and nuts drive you crazy or make you a withdrawn recluse.  (2) Learn how to put up with those who are smarter, richer, better looking, etc.  ---  12/26/1997

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Social skills.  Things to keep in mind when you interact with people.  (1) Everyone has value, current value and potential future value.  Value meaning what they can accomplish now and in later years, at their present and future level of development.  (2) Everyone is fragile psychologically, and has feelings.  They can decay if neglected or abused.  (3) Everyone can grow and improve, and you can help them do so.  ---  12/29/1997

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Stay squeaky clean and be friendly to everyone.  Reassure people because otherwise their fears will make them lash out at you.  ---  5/20/1999

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  Tactics sheet.  For each person you interact with, figure out what you want to remember and think about them, say to them, and do about them.  List various contingencies and your options for each.  Develop the message.  Get the message out.  Repeat the message often, at least once a week.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  The way to deal with people is to always ask how they are, and ask how you can help them.  Pay them respect, and look at them like they are pretty, interesting and smart.  Even though you are smarter than them and superior in character.  It makes them feel good and safe and secure.  Kiss up to them.  ---  12/30/1995

Sociology.  ---  Techniques.  We should develop both social skills.  (1) Defense:  Protect.  Distance.  Repel.  (2) Offense:  Approach.  Attract.  (3) That is, we should learn to set boundaries.  We should develop the ability to let close and push away.  ---  3/30/2000

Sociology.  ---  Technology and sociology.  Technology makes possible new forms of society.  Technology makes possible new social phenomena.  Technology makes possible new forms of social interaction.  (1) Agricultural technology.  Domestication of plants and animals let population densities increase, which let cities develop.  The city as a sociological phenomenon.  (2) Communication technology.  (A) Internet sociology.  Chat rooms.  Message boards.  Email.  Text messaging.  (B) Phone sociology.  Talk to people far away.  Party lines.  (3) Transportation technology.  (A) Automobile and sociology.  People driving to visit each other.  The suburbs as a sociological phenomenon.  (B) Airplane and sociology.  Cultural mixing.  Cultural exchange of ideas.  ---  1/15/2006

Sociology.  ---  The basic nature of social relationships is power.  The basic behaviors of social relationships is cooperation, competition, and conflict.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  The big sociological question: what is it that happens between people?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  The chain puke phenomenon: One kid in a classroom pukes from eating a sandwich he brought from home and it sets off a domino effect of children puking even though they ate their own sandwiches from home.  Why should seeing someone puke make me want to puke if I did not eat what they ate?  The cause is a reflex that evolved from natural selection.  It is based on two facts.  (1) A tribe of cave people all ate from the same "pot" or food source.  (2) The food that they ate was often half spoiled because they had poor preservation methods.  (3) Therefore evolution would favor a tribe that all puked whenever one person ate bad food and puked.  Tribes that kept eating spoiled food whenever one person puked soon died out from food poisoning.  (4) You do not even need to see, smell or hear the puke.  Just having someone tell you that someone puked should be enough to make you puke.  ---  8/15/1998

Sociology.  ---  The effects of social interaction.  (1) Effects of positive social interaction:  Feeling safe and secure.  Feel relaxed.  High sense of self-esteem.  (2) Effects of negative social interaction:  Feeling threatened.  Feel tense.  Low self-esteem.  ---  11/15/2000

Sociology.  ---  The quality of individual psychologies yields the quality of society (?).  You want all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of the brains (conformist brain), the heads (nonconformist), and the jocks (conformist physical).  ---  09/15/1993

Sociology.  ---  Their false sense of superiority.  My false sense of inferiority.  Which is worse?  ---  4/11/2000

Sociology.  ---  There are some people who will stoop very low in order to win.  They play dirty.  They don't mind destroying other people's lives.  They actually enjoy it.  Some people will resort to dirty tactics.  So one has to go through life with that fact in mind.  Protect yourself.  ---  5/22/2003

Sociology.  ---  Think of an idea for a social organization.  The goals of the organization should be good for the natural environment, healthy for humans, socially responsible, and promote social justice by promoting economic justice and political justice.  ---  3/3/2007

Sociology.  ---  To steer a group or a relationship you must change attitudes.  You must persuade, convince, remind and get them to agree.  It is social psychology.  ---  12/15/1998

Sociology.  ---  To what degree can one recognize the implicit assumptions in a society's attitudes?  To what degree can one think outside the framework of societal attitudes in which one was raised?  Some cultures encourage diversity and creativity, which are healthy much like biodiversity is healthy.  Other cultures discourage creativity and diversity, and they become sparse and non-variegated, which is unhealthy.  ---  6/8/2001

Sociology.  ---  To what degree do bar regulars (i.e., barflys) become a family?  ---  4/4/2001

Sociology.  ---  Too much or too little resources (time, money, energy (physical or psychological)) spent on socializing, love or sex.  ---  8/26/2000

Sociology.  ---  Tribalism.  Religion and politics, and why it does not pay to talk to people about them.  Their response is involuntary.  Their response is not rational, nor is it based on issues or views on issues.  It is all tribal instinct.  In order to have a "we" that sticks together in friendship, there must be a "they" to hate.  In and out groups.  The only alternative is to be a cosmopolitan, world citizen, which is what I am.  ---  06/10/1994

Sociology.  ---  Two major social strategies.  (1) Pleasing.  Conforming.  Cute.  Ingratiating.  Complying.  Agreeing.  Doing what others do.  Going with the system.  Joiners.  (2) Thorny.  Prickly.  Criticize.  Take a stand.  Aloof.  (3) You can use both, in varying situations.  ---  10/30/2005

Sociology.  ---  Two opposing social forces.  (1) People want to be distinctive, unique, special, individuals.  People want to create a self-identity for themselves.  People are sometimes non-conformists and contrarians.  (2) People want to belong to a group.  People want to do what everyone else is doing.  People are sometimes conformists.  ---  8/8/2006

Sociology.  ---  Two types of subversion.  People who publicly denounce you, yet who secretly support you.  People who publicly support you, yet secretly denounce you.  ---  12/28/2003

Sociology.  ---  Types.  (1) Individual to individual interactions.  (2) Individual to group interactions. (3) Group intra-actions.  (4) Group to group interactions.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Understanding.  Degree of understanding or misunderstanding.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Unique vs. common, the conundrums of.  (1) Everyone is unique, with a unique mind and a unique body, yet we all share common human traits.  (2) Everyone wants to feel unique and special, yet we all want to feel like part of the group.     PART TWO.  (1) Unique.  We view "Mao jacket" conformity as bad.  Americans see independence  and individualism as good.  Lack of human diversity, like lack of biodiversity, is bad.  (2) Commonality.  Americans see the community as good and important.  Having a basis for unity is good when trying to resolve conflicts.  ---  11/20/2001

Sociology.  ---  Us vs. them mentality.  Exclusivity vs. inclusivity.  ---  10/10/2003

Sociology.  ---  Vocabulary.  Elements or factors and variations.  Social complex.  Social environment, social situation.  Social elements.  Social meetings.  Social relationship.  Social forces, social pressures.  Social interaction.  Social event.  Social phenomena.  Social theories.  Social institutions.  Social skills.  Social position.  Social change.  Social thinking, social communication, and social action.  Social psychology.  Abnormal sociology, pathological sociology.  Power: authority, leadership.  Obedience and rebellion.  Conformity vs. non-conformity.  Deviance.  Race (color), ethnicity (nation), creed (belief, religion).  Class, status, prestige, snobs.  Majorities, minorities.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Waffling.  Standing up for what you believe in (idealistic) vs. blowing with breeze (pragmatic).  Pros and cons of each.  Where is the balance between two?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  What are some of the values that humans transfer to each other?  Physical things.  Money.  Power.  Information, ideas, thoughts, words.  Emotions.  ---  5/30/2005

Sociology.  ---  What can change the attitude of the masses?  Better communication and transportation technologies.  Better information technologies.  Better thinking technologies.  ---  5/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  What causes one to feel more or less sociable?  What combination of neurotransmitters and hormones can it be?  ---  4/11/2000

Sociology.  ---  What is sociology?  Study of human interactions.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  What percentage of the population is (potentially vs. actually)  (1) Really good helpers (great idea people, great action makers).  (2) Helpers, solution makers.  (3) Do nothings: lazy, waste of life, couch potatoes.  (4) Somewhat bad:   (5) Really bad destroyers: murderers, robbers, child or spouse abusers, etc.  ---  10/30/1996

Sociology.  ---  What to do with people?  How to organize, direct and control people?  The answers have been government and laws.  Also, influence via public relations, advertisement, propaganda and the media.  Also, incentives like wages.  Also, education systems.  ---  5/23/2005

Sociology.  ---  What.  Psychology kicks sociology's ass.  Psychology has accomplished so much more than sociology.  Sociology is reducible to psychology.  ---  7/28/1998

Sociology.  ---  When a democratic personality meets an authoritarian personality.  (1) Authoritarian feels (A) If the democrat is below the authoritarian, the authoritarian feels the democrat is not showing enough respect to him.  (B) If the authoritarian is below the democrat, the authoritarian feels the democrat is wishy washy.  (2) Democratic feels (A) If the authoritarian is above the democrat, the democrat feels the authoritarian is bossy.  (B) If the authoritarian is below the democrat, the democrat feels the authoritarian is a brown nosing asskisser.  (3) What if both are equals?  What is each point of view in each situation or case?  ---  10/20/1993

Sociology.  ---  When they try to stop you from publishing, they try to stop you from writing, they try to stop you from talking, they try to stop you from thinking.  They want to disempower you.  They want to hog all the power.  (2) They try to stop you from surfing, reading and listening.  They try to stop you from talking, writing and publishing.  ---  9/12/2003

Sociology.  ---  Whether you approach or avoid a person depends on if you think they can help you or hurt you.  And if you see them as above you or below you.  ---  02/04/1994

Sociology.  ---  While going for a run, I felt a feeling of connectedness to everyone in the world.  We are all in the same situation, with the same needs and problems, and we are all working together.  I could imagine I was anyone, anyplace.  Physical isolation with psychological connectedness is better than being with people yet being psychologically isolated.  I could relate to people.  We are all a group, whether you are conscious of it or not.  ---  09/01/1994

Sociology.  ---  Why be nice?  (1) Some people want to use you up and throw you away.  Abuse, hurt, mock and belittle.  (2) Some people need nurturance, honesty, feedback, kindness, love, civility.  Consciously looking for and unconsciously looking for.  (3) Most people are on both the first and second list at once.  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Why study sociology?  (1) Get goals.  (2) Solve problems, avoid mistakes.  (3) Less pain, more success.  (4) Improve relationships, interact better.  (5) Why interact socially?  ---  12/30/1992

Sociology.  ---  Why.  (1) Why be social?  If you want to get good stuff done for the world, it pays to be social.  To get people to see and do things your way in order to multiply the good you do is thus one reason to be social.  To learn from others is another reason to be social.  To avoid loneliness.  To shmooze and cheese your way ahead.  (2) Why be isolationist?  To avoid the assholes who will try to hurt you for not thinking like them or doing things like them.  To avoid assholes who are trying to help you, but who actually hurt you.  To avoid wasting time talking to morons.  ---  02/09/1997