A Justification for Sociological Mindfulness
by
Charles Lamson
Why bother to be sociologically mindful? What is the point of all this analytic thinking about social life? Michael Schwalbe, the writer of The Sociologically Examined Life, answers these questions based on three beliefs.
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The first is the good life - one that is stimulating, intense, joyful, purposeful, caring, and dignified - can be had only in a society that is peaceful, cooperative, egalitarian, and minimally regimented. Schwalbe's second belief is that everyone has an equal right to a good life, and so no one should enjoy power or privelege at the expense of others. Schwalbe's third belief is that because human lives are intertwined, we are all obliged to consider how our actions affect others, especially their chances of living a good life.
The writer hopes you find these beliefs reasonable as starting points. If you want to mull them over, here is an angle from which to do so. Think of the people you love and the kind of life you wish for them to have. Is it a life of violence, deprivation, and suffering, or is it something more like Schwalbe's vision of a good life? If it is the latter then the writer of this book hopes you will consider the possibility that mindfulness may be useful, as a way to create better lives, for more people.
Mindfulness is useful because it helps us see how our lives are intertwined, and how our words and deeds help, or harm, others in non-obvious ways. Being sociologically mindful is especially important for helping us see that consequences of our words and deeds often escape our intentions.
For example, a person who tells a racist joke may intend only to be funny. Yet what this person does is to reinforce beliefs that some kinds of people are stupid, vain, immoral or inferior. Even if no one is offended when the joke is told, in the long run, people can be hurt. The sentiments expressed in the joke, might decrease sensitivity to others' feelings and to their needs for help, or it might be that the joke makes others seem unworthy of friendship, thus cutting people off from each other. In other words, the harm can be indirect, subtle, and delayed. It does not matter that no harm was intended. It can happen nonetheless.
Harm can arise even when our actions seem honorable. For example, working hard at one's job is usually a good thing to do, but when people work for companies that make weapons, cigarettes, or pornography, or when they work for companies that advertise, sell, or defend such products, violence, death, disease, and misery are the ultimate results. No one may intend for others to be hurt, yet that is what happens, and those who make it happen are responsible, the harm could not happen if not for their hard work.
The kind of awareness that sociological mindfulness produces, can be unsettling, because it sometimes forces us to see things we would prefer not to. But by failing to be mindful, we could inadvertently damage or destroy what we would like to preserve, or we might, through short-sighted action, diminish our own and others' chances of living good lives. By helping us see beyond our intentions to the consequences of our actions, sociological mindfulness can help us avoid traps like these, though it does not make them easy to escape.
Being sociologically mindful, also means paying attention to the hardships, and options, other people face. If we understand how others' circumstances differ from ours, we are more likely to show compassion for them, and to grant them the respect they deserve as human beings. We are also less likely to condemn them unfairly for doing things we dislike. By helping us appreciate the conditions under which others act, sociological mindfulness can help decrease the amount of hatred and conflict in the world.
Being caught up in our daily concerns, we often fail to see and appreciate all of our connections to others---to those who make our clothes, grow our food, clean up our messes, pay for the schools we use, use the schools we pay for, benefit or suffer from actions by politicians we elect, look to us as examples, and so on. Sociological mindfulness helps us see these threads of social life, and how they sustain and obligate us. The main benefit of this awareness is that it can make us more responsible members of a human community. That seems to be as good a reason as any for learning a new intellectual practice.
To be continued...
*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, 2001, MICHAEL SCHWALBE, PGS. 4-6*
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