media portfolio #3

This is a demonstration of the kind of things Johnson talks about in chapter 6.In this chapter Johnson starts off by explaining that inorder for us to do something about power and priviledge we would have to talk about it and that's to risky even for those who actually have priviledge. He says that we live in a world that allows us to think that the social world begins and ends with individuals. It's like it's a collection of people and everthing that happens begins with what those people think, and feel. He explains that everything bad in the world is seen as someone's fault, that's why talking about priviledge steps on so many people's toes. We think in an individualistic way. Priviledge has nothing to do with the individual it has to do with the society. Johnson says in order to the "paralysis" we have to realize that the individualistic way is wrong and that the social world has alot more to deal with than just individuals. He says that social life happens only when people participate in social systems. The only way to understand it is to understand the relation between people and social systems. We develope a sense of personal identities and through those we see how they position us in relation to other people and in terms of inequality of power. The main goal is to encourage dominant groups to feel like they have entitlement in relation to the subordinate groups. Although people know they have other options they stick to certain things because they are afraid to try something new. Johnson says that we have to pay attention to the relationship between humans and the social life. People change from one social situation to the next. It's not enough to look at the person's thoughts, and feelings, intentions, and personalities for the very reason that people act different in different social situations. Most people participate in social systems and think they aren't apart of the consequences. As long as we all participate in the social systems we are all apart of the consequences good or bad. We can choose though how we are involved. We can choose to be part of the problem or we can choose to be part of the solution. He tells us how power and priviledge are two things that no one likes to talk about. It scares those who are in the positions because it's not something that is discussed that often. The one's who are lucky enough to be classified in these catagories don't think anything needs to be changed because they don't want to ruin their chances at staying in their positions. They look at those who aren't priviledged or don't have power as if they are less than them. It's almost in a way of them being outsiders. This picture is exatly like chapter 6. Tourists are taking pictures of the local people in the town as if they are savages or outsiders. If you really look at it the tourists are the one's who are priviledged or in power. They look down on the tourists that kind of shows pitty. Even though they may feel that way I'm pretty sure they won't do anything to help improve the conditions that they saw the local town people living in all because they don't want to mess up what they have.