Problem
Provide thoughtful, quality responses to this post? Agree or disagree? Why?
A. What image or statement stood out to you during the documentary clip?
All the photos of the starving children right next to the images of the huge week long feast stood out to me because it's crazy to imagine these were both realities of a people in the same country at the same time.
B. Describe Social Darwinism in your words?
Social Darwinism to me is taking the idea of survival of the fittest to the extreme for the purpose of justifying the haves, not having to care for the have-nots.
C. What surprised you most in the clip?
I was surprised that all the people were starving in the famine and even though they literally had the food that the people needed, they would ship it off to other countries and for profit. It only makes sense in the way it made sense for the ruler, not the greater good.
D. What emotions came up for you while you watched the clip?
Honestly, the history the clip covers gives me fear. In our society today I feel like more and more people are susceptible to believing in something like Social Darwinism and feeling justified in it. Without it being taught properly, events like this might not just be old history that we've never heard of or felt affected by personally, but something that could and would happen again.
E. Why do you think your textbook does not cover how Social Darwinism was applied?
I'm not too sure because this is my first sociology class and I don't know what all to expect to be covered, but it felt like the clip was more about a topic that should've been taught in history class and yet this was all brand new information to me. Given how honest and uncomfortable the clip was I understand how it didn't make it into the history textbooks because they're not pleasant histories and unpleasant ones increasingly rarely do.
F. How can you apply what you learned in this clip to your sociological analysis?
I will apply what I learned from the clip to begin developing my awareness for what has happened in history and use that to find out what other connections I can make on a smaller scale as a result of it going forward. It also brought to my attention how unaware I was about the whole historical event.
G. What can sociologists do differently as teachers/students to ensure racist or classist theories do not pass as "scientific knowledge"?
I think the biggest thing and something that has been causing problems in America currently, is ensuring that opinions are properly separated from the facts as well as keeping religious beliefs separate from education and politics.
H. What will be your biggest take away from this critique of Social Darwinism?
I was not previously very knowledgeable about what social Darwinism even was, now I know that it's not in regards to nature's survival of the fittest, but more about twisting that idea into another way to justify human cruelty and injustice as a way to put oneself above another.