A Continuing Conversation
by
Charles Lamson
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Because people see and experience different things in life, and have different ways of interpreting what they see and experience, people are bound to disagree about how the social world works and about how it ought to work. What if the disagreements concern matters of taste ("You like opera? Yeech!"), or are trival, then perhaps we can just shrug them off. "No big deal," we might say as we wonder how it is that other people can embrace such odd notions.
Other times, there is more at stake. One person might think that democracy is ensured by elections, in which the candidate who gets the most votes, wins a place in government, and the loser can try again next time. Another person might think that such a system is undemocratic, because it means that 49 percent of the people can end up with no voice in government. A disagreement such as this, when it involves a large number of people who have taken up sides, can lead to violent conflict.
Being sociologically mindful can help us to avoid the destructive potential of disagreements over matters large and small. If we are mindful, we will realize that our knowledge is always limited, that others know what the world looks like from where they stand, and that we cannot claim to have a monopoly on the truth. So at the very least, we will want to listen to others, and try to understand how and why they have a different view of things. We will also want to look back at ourselves and try to figure out where our knowledge has come from
Being sociologically mindful is thus likely to engage us in a conversation aimed at understanding several important matters: how the social world works, how and why others are different from and similar to us, and how we can get along with others despite our differences. As long as we are engaged in such a conversation - as long as we are thinking, talking, and trying to understand each other and ourselves - we will not be beating anyone over the head, and insisting that they do what we say. Nor will they be doing this to us.
The kind of communication Michael Schwalbe is referring to in this book I am analyzing, The Sociologically Examined Life, can involve many people, and can be carried on through print and other media, as well as through talk. It can also occur over long stretches of time - days, weeks, years. In fact, if we are lucky, this conversation will go on indefinitely, because that is the only way we can avoid violence and work together to create social arrangements, that will allow as many people as possible to live good lives. Practicing sociological mindfulness is a way into this conversation, and a way to keep it going.
This book is part of the conversation, and no serious conversation about how the social world works, or how to make sense of it, proceeds without disagreements. And so, the writer of this book is sure that you will disagree with some things he says in The Sociologically Examined Life. When this happens, Schwalbe urges the reader to "please talk back to the book, and raise questions in your own mind, and with others." Disagreement can move a conversation ahead, if we take it as an opportunity to look more deeply into why others see the world differently. The hope of the writer is that "whatever disagreements this book can provoke, can be used in this way."
At the end of each chapter in this book, Schwalbe lists a few sources, which you might want to look at. These are not sources that "prove him right." They are relevant pieces of the conversation - pieces upon which Schwalbe draws, and from which you might also benefit, if you care to consult them. If you do, you will see where some of this writer's thinking comes from, how it is a response to what has been said before, and how his thinking goes its own way. This will give you a larger view of the conversation to which this book and its readers now belong.
All the writer can do in these pages, is to invite you to consider a way of thinking, that he believes holds great promise for making better sense of the social world, and for living in it more humanely. It is the hope of the writer of this book that you will agree that sociological mindfulness is useful. As Schwalbe puts it, "If I did not believe this myself, I would not have written this book. But whatever you think, I will be satisfied if you are willing to keep the conversation going." Sometimes that is the best we can do, and sometimes it is enough.
To be continued...
*SOURCE: THE SOCIOLOGICALLY EXAMINED LIFE, 2ND EDITION, BY MICHAEL SCHWALBE, 2001, PGS. 7-9*
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