Sociological Mindfulness

I’d like to share with you an excerpt from my first paper that I wrote for my Social Life class. In order to better understand this excerpt there’s a few things that you need to know.
#1. Yes, I am a nerd because I want to share an excerpt of my paper on my blog. [Proud of it!]
#2. Schwalbe is the author of the book, “The Sociologically Examined Life” that I was instructed to read chapter 1 of and then summarize/ comment on. Where you are jumping into the paper, I am summarizing some of the text and then moving on to comment on one of the author’s quotations.
#3. Sociological Mindfulness is defined by the author as, “the practice of tuning-in to how the social world works”.

Ok, I think that’s all you need to know. Enjoy! [If it’s possible.]

Schwalbe nears the conclusion of the chapter with commentary on the rarity of the use of sociological mindfulness. He ventures forth various reasons for this rarity; “that sociological mindfulness doesn’t seem like much fun”, there “might be a belief that it [sociological mindfulness] won’t matter”, and “American individualism” is an inhibitor of sociological mindfulness, just to list a few. Schwalbe then concludes, “people resist being sociologically mindful for many reasons, but not because they are naturally selfish, competitive, or cowardly. If such feelings arise and inhibit sociological mindfulness, it is because of how people have grown up” (Schwalbe, 7). This conclusion is far from beneficial. How are we as individuals to ever grow into mature, responsible citizens if we are continually diverting blame for our mistakes onto our pasts? What benefit does this conclusion have? Are we honestly to believe that we are not responsible for our own actions because our past has such control over us that we are incapable of making positive and productive conclusions in this present time? We must find it within ourselves to maturely conclude that everyone in this world has influencing pasts and, therefore, we must decide to no longer use that fact as an excuse for unsound behavior in our present. Once we are able to maturely accept these facts, then we can move beyond our pasts and become the responsible citizens that we desire to have in this world.