Our Grand Children are victims of;

"Protect the "system" at all costs. The "system" is the only ultimate sacred cow - not any particular law or constitution, but only "the system." Because, ultimately, it is the system which makes certain that the individuals functioning within it - from judges to lawyers, to prosecutors, to politicians, to businessmen - have their places and positions, and opportunities and pecking order, and future."

In 1696, England first used the legal principle of parens patriae, which gave the royal crown care of "charities, infants, idiots, and lunatics returned to the chancery." This principal of parens patriae has been identified as the statutory basis for U.S. governmental intervention in families' child rearing practices.

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Preamble of the original "organic" Constitution

"We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."
Excerpted from the Declaration of Independence of the original thirteen united states of America, July 4, 1776


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Sociology Needs a Public / The Idea of the Illusion

From Sociology Needs a Public
by Frances Fox Piven

..."The public regards sociologists as experts. Whether we always consider ourselves experts may be another matter. But experts, when they speak only to the powerful, can be dangerous to democracy."

"A little story about another sort of expert will make my point. The priests of the flourishing pre-Columbian Mayan kingdom in Yucatan were indeed experts. Long before the arrival of the conquistadors, they had figured out the calendar, so they knew when the rains would return each year. However, they did not share their key to the mysteries of the seasons with their people. Instead, they performed elaborate rituals as the rainy season approached, presumably to persuade the gods to bring the rains, but really to persuade their people of their own influence with the gods. In other words, the priests who had deciphered the calendar controlled a valuable political resource, not because they and their royal and warrior allies could control the seasons, but because they could use their knowledge to mystify and subdue their people."

" Social science, whether conducted in government agencies, as in Krugman’s example, or in other institutions, is regularly used to mislead or befuddle the public. Whether the issue is poverty or marriage or child-rearing or immigration or health, social scientists do not provide the findings that solve social problems, they do not help to bring the rains or reduce poverty, but rather their work is used to legitimate policies for which the claim is made that the people’s work is being done, although policies are ordinarily shaped more by the hidden interests of the powerful than by the social problems for which they are named."

"This is a serious problem for our discipline. The uses of sociology by those in power is not good for democracy because it obfuscates the consequences of policy, and also helps to delude us about the interests that shape policy."

"Put another way, we have a dilemma as social scientists. We are attracted to power, to the idea or the illusion that we can make an imprint on the course of events, to the hope that we can make a difference. We are also attracted by the dollars that government, foundations, and businesses provide to underwrite our work. We cannot wish away either of these influences."...



*The posts made in this blog are of our opinion only* Without Prejudice UCC 1-207

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