Posted in A, tagged ads, advertising, art, artists, barthes, baudrillard, bisexual, business, buying, buzzwords, Connotation, consumer, desire, economics, economy, Foucault, freud, freudian, gay, government, graphic artists, graphic arts, homosexual, homosexuality, hooks, hypocrisy, jung, jungian, lesbian, life, marx, marxism, money, neomarxism, postmodern, postmodernism, poststructural, poststructuralism, profit, psychoanalysis, psychology, same-sex, sell, selling, slogans, society, sociology, spiritual, supply and demand, synchronicity, wants on May 1, 2008 | No Comments »
Advertising Although the primary objective of commercial advertising is to sell goods and services, this is accomplished in a complex manner.
Social theorists directly or indirectly influenced by Karl Marx usually say that advertising creates a false or illusory relationship between the consumer and the producer.
Freudian-based sociological analyses suggest that when buying, the consumer enters into [...]
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Posted in A, tagged Adler, alien, Aliens, belief, channeling, childhood, Clairvoyance, delusions, demons, ESP, et, evil, fantasies, freud, genetics, jung, madness, medium, mental illness, mysteries, neurosis, nutrition, paranormal, parapsychology, Philosophy, possession, precognition, prophecy, psi, psychiatry, psychic, psychology, science, sociology, space, star trek, strange, stress, synchronicity, trance, trauma, ufo, unexplained, urban legend on April 17, 2008 | No Comments »
Alien Trio 2
Originally uploaded by bbaltimore
Alien Possession Theory (APT)
A corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit (Luke 6:43)
APT considers the possibility, commonly found within science fiction, that hostile extraterrestrials (ETs) from another world or realm may have a negative effect on psychologically vulnerable human individuals through the use of psi.
This alien invasion motif does not [...]
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Posted in A, tagged Athleticism, body, canada, Canadians, Class, crime, criminology, deviance, exercise, fitness, guns, health, jogging, media, mental illness, nutrition, politics, power, psychiatry, psychology, rap, society, sociology, status, stratification, sweden, swedes, swedish, television, TV, workout on March 19, 2008 | No Comments »
Athleticism In 1973 a Canadian not-for-profit private company called Participaction ran TV messages, similar in style to commercial ads, calling viewers to get physical exercise.
One segment claimed the average 30-year-old Canadian was in similar physical condition to the average 60-year-old Swede.
The ad had significant impact across Canada while years later it was suggested that
This was [...]
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Badges of Legitimacy A sociological term referring to credentials such as medical degrees, doctorates, legal degrees, etc., which usually connote some kind of socially legitimate expertise - and thus legitimate social power, privilege or status - held by individuals.
Critics of sociology might say that this term is somewhat hypocritical when used by sociologists who set [...]
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Posted in B, tagged barthes, cultural studies, gay, gay and lesbian, homosexual, lesbian, mythologies, queer, roland barthes, semiology, semiotics, signs, sociology, symbols on March 5, 2008 | No Comments »
Barthes, Roland (1915-1980) French semiologist, best known for his book Mythologies (1957).
Barthes argued that most of what we assume to be natural could be products of history and culture.
Linguistic and artistic representations play a crucial role in the naturalization of arbitrary and morally neutral historical events.
By way of example, politically active gay persons usually challenge [...]
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Posted in B, tagged authoritarianism, Borg, film, movies, oppression, orwell, sci-fi horror, semiology, sociology, star trek, TV, tyranny on February 20, 2008 | No Comments »
Borg In the American TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation, a disturbing interstellar species of technological zombies whose sole purpose is to increase their alleged perfection by assimilating the intelligence and technology of life forms throughout the galaxy.
From their technological modifications they are psychically connected to a collective like a termite colony.
Individuality is unknown [...]
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Bourdieu, Pierre (1930-2002) French social thinker whose work delineates ideas popularized by postmoderns such as Michel Foucault and the semiologist Roland Barthes.
Like Foucault, Bourdieu was critical of Marxism, Existentialism and Structuralism and tried to understand the discipline of Sociology within its own cultural context.
But not only that. Michael Payne says he also argued that theories, beliefs and [...]
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Posted in B, tagged brahmin, culture, hinduism, india, sociology on February 12, 2008 | No Comments »
Brahmin Not to be confused with the Brahman, the Brahmin is a Hindu idea refering to the highest caste of landowner/priests who in antiquity had exclusive knowledge of the Veda and its right of transmission.
Today Brahmins remain as the so-called upper classes in India, wearing the sacred thread of the “twice-born” to separate themselves from [...]
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Posted in C, tagged caste, christianity, Class, Gandhi, hinduism, india, politics, religion, sociology on January 31, 2008 | No Comments »
Caste In ancient India caste was apparently regarded as a positive, divinely-based phenomenon. The hierarchical differentiation of human beings on the basis of color (varna) and birth (jati) was seen as a worldly reflection of a ritually sacrificed Divine Body (purusa).
Accordingly, the Rig Veda of the conquering northern Aryans (if one subscribes to that version [...]
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Posted in C, tagged activism, chaos, politics, sociology on January 27, 2008 | No Comments »
Chaos Theory A popular idea centering around the view that social organizations, to include businesses, operate more like clouds in the sky than a railroad train.
In chaos theory systems interactions may be perceived and even predicted in a general, non-linear sense but precise numerical and linear-based predictions are beyond its reach.
Chaos theorists point out that [...]
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