Social Change in today’s society is a major issue. Many people have different opinions than others and that causes arguments and protests. Bettering each side and communicating to ultimately solve an issue and create Social Change is a great way to better the community and world that people live in. Social Change for the planet however can be a country to country nuclear warfare issue or simply climate and emission regulation to save the Earth’s heating from heating too fast. A great way to solve climate change would be the usage of Charles Duhigg’s three part process. In Charles Duhigg’s literary piece called “From Civil Rights to Megachurhces” he stated, ““A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances. It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together. And it endures because a movement’s leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and a feeling of ownership” (97). With create awareness through strong ties and branching out of the strong ties creating weak ties with others awareness can be brought to everyone and changes can be made. It takes one person to start a chain reaction. One idea can translate into huge movements to ultimately create Social Change and in this case Climate Change.
Social change can be established in anything related to do with the public or actions that involve more than one person. Social is a very vague and broad term. A social event can be an Ice cream Social between 10 people or a social event can be a Social Change movement like many Civil Rights movements throughout history. A man by the name of Charles Duhigg created a three part process to succeed in Social Change. His three part process was as stated, “A movement starts because of the social habits of friendship and the strong ties between close acquaintances. It grows because of the habits of a community, and the weak ties that hold neighborhoods and clans together. And it endures because a movement’s leaders give participants new habits that create a fresh sense of identity and a feeling of ownership” (97). This three part process can be used in any social change movement. Duhigg’s three part process can be used for Bill McKibben’s approach to social change. Bill McKibben started a website with seven undergraduate students called 350.org, and that website is used to spread awareness and let people living on Earth know about the negative impact we humans are putting on our planet. Many say well our changes won’t help us right now. That may be true, but what we start today can continue in the next generations to come and we can save our planet for future generations to live and thrive. Duhigg uses a three part process and McKibben used a website and goes around giving speeches for anyone wanting to learn about how to save our planet. Charles Duhigg and Bill McKibben have two different social change methods, but they both can be used to create social change.
Bill McKibben goes around the country bringing Climate Change to the attention of anyone that wants to learn more or anyone that is interested in hearing him speak. He created 350.org with seven other undergraduate students to raise awareness of Climate Change and how we as humans can change our was to help save the planet. Barbara Kingsolver brings the awareness of Climate Change through writing. Kingsolver uses a differnet method in creating social change but she still reaches out to all that will read her book and changes their lives and teaches them about Climate Change. McKibben and Kingsolver both reach out to people across the world but in different ways. People can become educated on the subject in many different ways and these are just two people of many that have created different ways to obtain knowledge and understanding of Climate Change. With the growth in awareness on Climate Change and more people joining the fight towards a better tomorrow the planet can and will be saved. Our planet is not going to go back to the way it was in the 1970s by doing what we are doing right now. We need to change our lifestyles sooner than later or the world will not be around much longer.
American culture has changed drastically over the past few decades. Many family upbringings have changed as well. Most parents believe that everyone deserves a trophy and everyone is a winner. Not everyone deserves a trophy; there will always be a winner and a loser. Just because you work very hard maybe even harder than the winning team or person does not mean you deserve a trophy. You should take not earning a trophy to work harder fort eh next competition and then get a trophy. When I was a kid there was no everyone gets a trophy. All of the lacrosse awards I received from 2nd grade until my Sophomore year of high school were given to me because I earned them and I placed first over all of my competitors. All of the hockey championships and awards I received in high school were awarded because the team and I won them. Since when is everyone a winner? You don’t get a trophy or get to be recognized for finishing last. Finishing last should be an embarrassment and fuel you to reach for first place. Modern day parents want what is best for their kid and to make their kid happy, but these kids have to realize you have to earn your spot and work hard for everything. Nothing in life will be handed to you. If that’s how you think your life is going to be, you’re wrong. It angers me so much that these children always think they did perfect even if they didn’t place between 1st and 3rd. There is a reason why on a podium it is 1st through 3rd because they earned it and then the 2nd and 3rd place people will see the glory of being in 1st and strive to be that. Everyone should strive for their best and if they do not win they should not receive a trophy.
Social Change can be a numerous amount of things. Social Change can vary from changing laws, creating new laws, or even just starting a civil movement. Why should we care about social change? Social change can affect individuals, communities, states, or even countries. Some tend not to care about social change depending if what is being changed affects them. I usually do not react to social change unless it affects me directly, When the gay marriage was in the process of being legalized, I did not part take in any rallies; I am not a member of the LGBTQ community so I did not part take in the gay marriage social movement. Gay marriage has been one of the most significant social changes this century. Yes, believe there should only be two genders and wanting to become a member of the opposite sex is completely in your head, becoming what you want is your right as and individual. Others feel the same way I do and one of those individuals is an American conservative politician by the name of Ben Shapiro. Every emotion towards being Transgender is released and explained during a question he answered during an event he was asked to speak at. Here is the link to that speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkONHNXGfaM Others may see it differently and wrong of me that I think this way, but I stay true to my opinion and think that it is just an idea in ones head.
Charles Duhigg and Helen Epstein talk about creating Social Cohesion but in two different ways. Helen Epstein is a well noted journalist and she traveled to South Africa and Uganda discovering ways to prevent the AIDS Epidemic. In an excerpt from AIDS Inc. Epstein stated, “I spoke to the principal first, and he showed me the government-issued manual used for teaching about AIDS, which contained the usual information about abstinence and condoms”(118). This meaning that there is a government mandated manual that the students have to know or at least talk about in class so they obtain knowledge of AIDS, HIV, safe sex, and abstinence. Teaching the young generations will benefit the future because it will prepare them to teach the other generations after them. If all of the other communities and governments required a manual such as the one mandated in Kigali there can be social change and the communities can come together as one to help better all communities in Rwanda and eventually Africa. On the other hand, Charles Duhigg creates Social Cohesion in a completely different style. In the excerpt from his novel, The Power of Habit, Duhigg refers to Mark Granovetter. Mark Granovetter was a Harvard Ph. D student that explained job hunters and the relationship we have with people. Granovetter said, “While members of one or two cliques may be efficiently recruited, the problem is that, without weak ties, any momentum generated in this way does not spread beyond the clique. As a result, most of the population will be untouched”(91). Granovetter is stating that with our close friends and relationships one can only gather so much before, hypothetically, they run out of bodies for a rally. Without the “weak ties” people have with each other there would not have been huge rallies throughout history, especially not during the Civil Rights movements. Each explains a way Social Cohesion is used to make a change. Epstein is explaining how the use of a governement-issued manuals about AIDS helps the community. Granovetter explains how weak ties result in social movements creating Social Cohesion.
On December 1, 1955, a young woman by the name of Rosa Parks sat down in a bus seat after a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair. Rosa was a seamstress and had been working rough all day. There used to be three sections on the bus: the white section up front, the unclaimed section in the center, and the black section in the back. Most people think that the whites sat in the front and the blacks sat in the back. I even thought that there were only two sections until Charles Duhigg stated that there were three sections not just two in the excerpt we read from his book called, The Power of Habit. The bus driver asked Rosa to get up so a white man could sit down, but Rosa refused to do so. He later pulled over and got the cops involved and she was arrested for refusing in their presence. Many others had been arrested for refusing not just that week, but that year. What sparked the rallies and the movement of equality was something Duhigg calls weak-ties. Weak-ties are the connections between people that spark engagement in an activity just like peer pressure. For example, if you know someone who is engaged in an activity and you do not want to take part in it because it is not your strong spot, you don’t want word to go through the grapevine that you are bad at what that person is doing, you would rather just you and that person know and not participate in that activity. Weak-ties however refer to the gathering of the black community in Montgomery, Alabama. Charles Duhigg claimed, “On a playground, peer pressure is dangerous. In adult life, it’s how business gets done and communities self-organize”(92). Having weak-ties is the grown up way of saying peer pressure. If you do not participate in something everyone in that community will soon know that you do not like to be involved in community activities, and in what Duhigg is referring to, the rally for racial equality. Weak-ties lead to huge rallies and social change, and if all communities acted this way towards their goals, imagine what changes could be made within their communities.
For many years, the AIDS virus has been a problem all across the globe. Many families have lost friends and loved ones to this virus that used to be incurable. It used to be believed that AIDS used to be linked to the gay community. Now with the development of the LGBTQ community is that still a connected subject? This heterosexual community claims that the LGBTQ community is linked with the AIDs virus. How is it connected to the LGBTQ community if the virus is contracted through sexual contact of all sexual preferences? Why are there still claims of this virus coming from just this community when it has been scientifically proven that is is contracted through the transfer of sexual fluids. These accusations just bring more hardships to the members of LGBTQ community. There are many hardships that people with AIDS go through. LGBTQ members have a huge amount of hardships and discrimination. In some countries people act as if AIDS does not even exist. How could people treat a deadly virus and members of the LGBTQ community so poorly. Just because someone expresses that they are part of the LGBTQ community does not mean that they are responsible for creating this virus and spreading it. It just boggles one’s mind that someone could think like this and make these accusations.
Talking about AIDS in South Africa and Uganda is a problem because when people are taught about prevention and the virus in general it is brief, and boring. There is no talk about having AIDS because it is an issue that is to be avoided in the culture. Many people are not educated enough or are just told not to talk about it. Anne Hallward is a psychiatrist that created a radio station called Safe Space Radio. This radio station was made to help people talk about any issue that they are having anonymously. If something like this was created in South Africa and Uganda there would be more knowledge of the virus and prevention matters could be taken. It is all anonymous so nobody would know who has called in or is speaking. There could also be a question and answer so if someone does not have access to a phone they can write in and their questions or problems can be answered and solved anonymously as well. This could create Social Cohesion in the sense that the AIDS rate will be reduced and there will be less infections. It will also bring the community together for education about what AIDS is and provide a plethora of ways to prevent contracting the virus. If someone in South Africa or Uganda, there would be a dramatic decrease in people that have contracted this virus.
Chris Spino
Professor Amoroso
English 110, Section 1
13 September 2017
Anne Hallward’s Ted Talk was extremely eye opening and moving. It brought into perspective that there are so many people that bottle emotions up and are ashamed of who they are. Shame is what really digs deep into someone’s soul and makes a person lack self confidence. Anne Hallward also exclaims that speaking up and telling stories can help not only you but so many other people in this world. This world is full of people that can connect to not only her, but her idea of individual healing and healing in general.
I can personally relate to Anne Hallward because she spoke about her father having dementia and it was killing her to see him suffer the way he was. My great-grandmother died after a long battle with alzheimer’s and dementia. It was so sad to go and see her, each time I visited I had to remind her who I was and it took a while for her to remember me. At the very end I was a complete stranger to her and it brought her to tears because she recognized me but had no recollection. Hallward tells the audience, “We lost him progressively, and he didn’t recognize any of us for about five years…” (Hallward 4) This was the same thing with my great-grandmother as I mentioned before. Luckily for the family and I, it was only a few months that this went on.
Just like me, many others were helped by Anne’s story; she received email after email saying that they have gone through the same thing. It can be as simple as sharing one story to change so many people from depression and shame. These people felt ashamed because they wished death on their loved one’s and so did I, but it was for the better of the person because we couldn’t live seeing them suffer the way they had been. One story can change the world, it only takes one person to speak up and that story can touch possibly hundreds or thousands of people.
