There is an emerging theme:  Social structure does not determine our agency, rather it is determined by our agency.  Therefore, our actions are always reflective the position we are prepared to take regarding the condition of American society.  Compliance is tantamount to the endorsement of the current social configuration.

There is no escape from the consequences of our social actions.  Whether we consent, in the sense that we publicly support the structural arrangement that currently exists, or not, only has significance in a limited context.  The consequences of our acquiescence, demonstrated by our conformity, continues to have the impact of promulgating the status quo.

These remarks are not intended to cast blame upon any individual who elects to conform to the present condition of American society.  However, it does render the consequences of that individual’s choices transparent. 

We have not consented to any social contract in advance of our own ability to actually make decisions.  Therefore, the social condition into which we have been thrown since birth does not have any legitimacy until we decide to make it legitimate through own choice to acquiesce to the traditions and prejudices that give shape to social reality.

Tags: modern society, social, society
Categories: Commentary, Society, Russell Cole's Blog, Social Change
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There are certainly raw, brute facts in nature, but social reality is a different matter altogether. Our collective representation of our social-political condition is constructed by a complex system of gate-keeping devices that filter what descriptions of social affairs are publicly disseminated through mass media devices and other forms of communicative conduits. Furthermore, we are all prejudiced to form patterns of interpretations of the events to which we are privy. These prejudices are implanted within us by years of pedagogy and intellectual disciplining.

What we passively accept as the taken-for-granted routines of our social lives are products of our acquiescence to an order that does not transcend our agencies, but is the result of our agency. We are always contributing to the condition of social reality. We accept the present circumstances because we have been conditioned to possess dispositions, which render us docile and eager to conform to the conventional. We are trained to be trained by those who exploit us.

Tags: Russell Coles Blog, Social Change, society
Categories: Commentary, Society, Russell Cole's Blog, Social Change
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