Intro to my sociology midterm paper

[dragonrider]

actually, the paper is about what Charles Derber refers to as 'wilding', which is in its simplest definition 'individualism run amok'. It will be properly defined in the second paragraph and further exposed and disected throughout the paper. wait and see, everything you listed will be adressed properly.

EDIT..yes, most likely the paper will be based on a central premise, being 'wilding in america'. All the issues you bring up will correlate into one definition of how wilding is basically killing the america dream.

I look forward to seeing more of it.

[halfassedjedi]

heres a little more on my paper thus far.

The Wilding of America
How Greed and Violence Are Eroding our Nations Character

As long as America has been growing into a mature and economically driven society, so has its people grown to form the fabric of 21st century idealism at its worst. Members of its society are finding themselves being exploited and taken advantage of in the work place, in the general public, and even in their own homes. People are now finding clever and creative ways to climb the rungs of the social caste system in a perverse, irresponsible, and oblivious fashion. Seasoned moral values and ethical ways-of-being are now found lost in the ashes of the wake of a new era of Social Darwinism, and criminals are not being held accountable for the devastations they have sown in todayâ??s era of a free market.

In The Wilding of America, Derber exposes to the reader the harsh realities of an epidemic of Political and Civilian greed, corruption, and violence. The book shows us example after example of brutal crimes and situations in which the protagonists and antagonists display complete lack of remorse and empathy in their actions, which will hopefully lead to some sort of reward or payout to the person in question. Whether it be hiring an assassin to murder your spouse to collect a hefty life insurance policy, or perhaps a gang of young adolescents brutally beating, raping, and murdering local joggers, Derberâ??s work shows the reader the cruel story that occurs behind the curtain in America every day.

Wilding, or as Derber defines it as â??individualism run amokâ??, comes to us in two separate forms - Expressive wilding, and Instrumental wilding. The latter form is displayed as â??..wilding for money, career advancement, or other calculable personal gain.â?� For example, O.J. Simpson, as a child, would hang out in gangs, stealing food and other goods. His corrupt upbringings would lead him to further his agenda in financial greed and lack of empathy towards who his actions hurt, and eventually to his walking away free from a murder conviction.

The former, being expressive wilding, is a type of bizarre and even lustful way of taking advantage of some sort of situation. This deviant behavior ranges from rapists to sociopath children. Even domestic issues contain forms of wilding. Derber uses the example of a tribe of people called the Ik, who held no moral values even when it came to dying family members. As parents and brothers and sisters would lay dying, their family members would steal insignificant items from them, oblivious of guilt. This form of wilding is completely expressive, although not completely understood by many.