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Sociology 100: Social Interactions (Emotions (A good way to look at the…

- - - - Keith Ward states these as The Questions in science and religion: Does the universe have a goal or purpose? Do the laws of nature exclude miracles? Can science provide a wholly naturalistic explanation for moral and religious beliefs? Has science made belief in God obsolete? are there any good science- based arguments for God?
        
        Questions pertinent to modern day faith are those such as: What is religion? Does faith matter? What is it to believe? Is religion Relevant? and most importantly, Is it possible, either as n individual or as a society, to live without religion or at least without a genuine substitute? Traditionally these questions have been answered by the collective consciousness of a society, which has now been given up, in some contexts, to the scientific community.
  - - - Definitions are too narrow, defining religion in terms of the speaker's religious beliefs or those of his/her culture and tending to exclude the religious beliefs of other cultures. In other cases the definitions are so vague and inclusive that they do not sufficiently delimit religion from other areas of human though such as psychology, law, economics, physics, etc.
        
        However, for the purpose of clarity, we will attempt to define religion. Religion originated in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses.
        
        Religion generally necessitates a belief in a deity/deities and practice of worship, action, and.or thought related to that deity/deities. Loosely, and specific system or code of ethics, values and belief. Another definition can be belief in, worship of, or obedience to a supernatural power or powers considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny. Any formal or institutionalized expression of such belief.
        
        Objectively considered, religion consists of a body of truth which is believed, a code of morality for the guidance of conduct, and a form of divine worship. Subjectively, it is a person's total response, theoretically and practically, to the demands of faith; it is living faith, personal engagement, self-commitment to God. Thus, by creed, code and cult, a person orders and directs his or her life in reference to God and, through what the love and service of God implies, to all people and all things
  - - - However, by the demonstrable social, geopolitical and legal influence religion possesses it is undeniable that religion still matters, although these days it generally plays the role of a legitimizing agent for political divisions as well as social and legal judgements such as the instigation of or involvement in war, the creation and application of societal stigma, and the creation and defense of sacredness. An example would be of the transition of ANZAC day from a day of memorial and commiseration of war during which protest of ongoing conflict was common, to a sacred day that almost sacralizes martyrdom and war.
        
        Examples of the lasting influence of religion are the fact that many religious holidays are public holidays, regardless of your belief, and the fact that religion influences social expectations of friends, family and partners. Here it is also pertinent to point out the power of symbols and symbolism in society as a form of branding for religion through which cultural relics of religion with lasting social power are created which act as vessels for religious influence.
        
        Peter Berger, whose stance is that we create our own reality through our perceptions and assigning meaning, has referred to religion as the sacred canopy under which humans shelter from the terrors of death and meaninglessness. Berger and Luchman argue that humans are predisposed to create meaning and create roles and scripts. We expect certain things and this affects our behavior in different contexts.
        
        Berger argues that there are many problems of meaning, and that religion is 'the audacious attempt to conceive of the universe as being humanly significant'. If the position of religion is changed what effect does this have on how we derive meaning of our world? Sideman argues that the transformation of societies due to modernity has brought forth problems of meaning. these problems of meaning refer to there existing within modern life a pervading uncertainty in questions concerning ultimate beliefs and values; confusion in regard to images of self, society and nature and an ongoing conflict over the way personal and collective life is organized and legitimated.
  - - - Marx' believed religion to be reactionary and thus harmful to revolution, and as stunting the potential of humanity on earth as well as acting as a form of social prison. He said of religion: "The basis of irreligious criticism is: Man makes religion, religion does not make man... Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creatures, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.
        
        Emile Durkheim viewed religion as having two two elementary forms of religion: the sacred and the profane. He saw religion as being a social glue and providing social order, social control and social cohesion. His emphasis was on the functionalism of religion, and it's mechanics of inclusion and exclusions a provider of stability in society.
        
        Max Weber emphasized the fact that beliefs and ideas influence actions and points to religion as the ethos of capitalism. Weber stated that religion plays or played a role in modern society which allows some people the capacity to transcend social class. Weber pointed to rationalization as a source of disenchantment in modern society, and believed that science cannot fulfill the human desire for meaning. He pointed to charismatic leadership as a response to crises and said that it becomes religion as crisis is averted and the roles and ideologies of that leadership become ingrained into society.
        
        Freedom from religion is a concept that only recently has the opportunity to become reality, and this begs the question of whether we will be free in a rational world. This idea sees the constraints of living in the modern world such as technology, morality, bureaucracy, industrialization, trust, rationalization, knowledge, alienation, disenchantment and anomie and points out that religion may be a reaction to the modern condition but it may also be in opposition to it.
        
        Some critics see the resurgence of religion and the renewal of religious symbolism as an attempt to restore the social bond. Secularization is seen as failing the individual and the community by its inability to give meaning even when it has been remarkably successful in becoming the dominant ethos. The resurgence of beliefs and believers termed 'fundamentalist' has been growing of late. Where they stand out from mainstream political and other religious groups is that they know exactly what they believe in. Their belief systems in a time of rapid change are rigid and static. Sacks says that 'they spoke with the rarest of modern accents - authority'.
- - - - However society has evolved a stigma around the idea of feelings. In most societies emotions are equated to excess and disorder. Hilman (1920) - the chaotic energy of emotions makes the, dangerous to anyone in their vicinity and weakens the person experiencing them.
  - - - The modern conception of romantic love is connected to leaisure culture and the modern obsessions with self cultivation. One demonstrates their worth in the competition for romantic love through the way they express their personality in how they spend their time, and their commitment to continual self betterment. As romantic love has become a part of western culture, many other things have changed: there is a growing shift in the attitude towards motherhood as a vocation rather than something that simply happened and was dealt with; A new emphasis on the emotionbal tied between husband and wife; romantic attatchments as a new source of identity and hope of personal salvation through the 'meeting of souls'.
        
        Love can even be seen as an ideological construct which has been socialization into particular beliefs about the nature of love, and where we should feel it, as well as what we should do about those feelings. Love has become a cultural inscription, a monolith of identity, and we see this in representations of romantic love through musoc. poetry, fiction, advertising; all of these cement peoples position on the emotional experience of love before they enter into actual relationships. Society has created scripts of how love is to be experiences, and thus created an entirely new dimension to social interaction, especially when it comes to how people participate in romantic relationships.
        
        This predetermined script builds sets of expectations for what romantic love is. The ideas that all you need is love, that love is tha basis of all relationships, that it is best for women if love is the crucial factor in defining relationships (making her own choice), that romantic love allows women to escape patriarchal control and that falling out of love ends a relationship are all relatively new ideas in the social landscape. This shows us how the modern conception of love has become central to the modern experience of life, and social interactions in the wider world.
  - - - James Jasper says of Social Movements "Participation in social movements can eb pleasuravle in itself, independently of the ultimate goals and outcomes. Protest becomes a way of saying something about one's self and one's moral, and of finding joy and pride in them."
        
        Emotional achievement is "The attainment of self-validating emotional experiences and expressions through active and creative persuits." Emotions are inextricably intertwined with identities and action in this movement. The emotional dynamics generated int his process dignificantly contributed to movement mobilization.
- - - - The Circuit of capital, as described by Karl Marx in "Capital: Volume 1" moves through a cycle of M-C-M' where (M) is the money invested in the production of (C) the commodity, which is then sold for more (M)oney plus (') which is surplus value, a portion of which is then reinvested as the (M)oney to produce more commodities.
        
        This endless cycle of production leads to a need for marketing to make sure there is demand for the next wave of produced commodities. These marketing campaigns rely heavily on the fetishisation of goods by tying them to other common desires, the most obvious occurrences of this can be seen today in gendered marketing and the marketing of video-games.
        
        The lack of rational associations in gendered marketing, and the gender stereotypes and social pressures associated with them are evidence of the power of social ideologies dealing with consumption and the influence they carry through the status they convey in our society. 'The so-called consumer economy and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form" - Marcus, H (1969)
        
        Commodity Fetishism itself derives from Sigmund Freud's concept of sexual fetishism which deals with libidinal (sexual) gratification from objects, or parts of objects. Similarly, Karl Marx's commodity fetishism has to do with social status based gratification from objects, which sees consumers identifying with the exchange value of the good rather than it's actual use to them, and disassociating the item from the actual process of production, including the labour that goes in to manufacturing."There is no unhappier creature under the sun than a fetishist who longs for a woman's shoe but has to make do with the whole woman." - Karl Kraus, 1923
  - - - According the Herbert Marcuse (2003[1964]), in his work "One Dimensional Man", euphoria is unhappiness. He says; "Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs."
        
        The culture of industry is a set of phenomena that drives the production of false needs. This culture is predicated on the process of aesthetic production which is rationalized away, despite there being little need or use for the product, such as factory produced garments. A product of this culture is that the principles of exchange stamp the creative process with their influence, robing the art of any significant meaning aside from it's exchange value.
        
        A key component of the this culture is the evocation and manipulation of anxieties, which is essential to the development of a consumer oriented economy. This culture extends globally, with a guiding vision of the world in the image of the US. In such a culture exchange value obliterates use value and is the universal measure of quality and enjoyment. As a result, a new form of consumer has emerged and proliferated the market, and this market manipulation has led to the closure of the political universe, as the necessary social status becomes more and more unattainable for someone of the working class.
        
        This new type of consumer is aggressively homogenized, and seeks to force all other consumers to conform, even knowing that consumption can give no satisfaction. T. Adorno [1938], in "The Culture Industry", says of them ; "Again and again and with stubborn malice, they demand the one dish they have once been served. H. Steinert (2003), in "Culture Industry" concurs with this writing "If a cultural product does not challenge us, it despises us: apparently desperate to comply with our wishes, it secretly scorns us. When culture is commodified - when it promises to instantly gratify our desires - it relies on deceiving it's customers."
        
        T. Adorno (2001) in "The culture Industry" writes of this phenomenon; "People are not only, as the saying goes, falling for the swindle; if it guarantees them even the most fleeting gratification they desire a deception which is nonetheless transparent to them. They force their eyes shut and voice approval, in a kind of self-loathing for what is meted out to them, knowing fully the purpose for which it was manufactured."