The fish bowl of society

A great question has arised amongst sociologists all around the world, after researching so closely how society affects an individual, people started wondering about their intellectual freedom. Are we actually free? Are we just muppets of society? The sociological perspective points out that indeed, we have strings that move us. Now it is not completely controlling us, but rather direct us between paths. We still have our own right to choose and act as we see fit.

Society gives us options, but WE get to choose those options. Things like economics, ascribed statuses,etc. Gives us limits to what we can do and what we cannot. "The people around us can limit the choices we have. People that are close to us, such as our parents and friends, often limit the choice we have in our life." We can still act freely in this space, those limiting things are the glass bowl and we are fish, we swim inside of the water bowl. We swim in any direction we want. Society is working on lessening the differences and making it easier to swim in this water bowl. While we are not FREE out of the water that is society, we can still make the most out of our natural freedom.

"The people around us can limit the choices we have. People that are close to us, such as our parents and friends, often limit the choice we have in our life."

The people around us influence our actions but by realizing that we are influenced, we free ourselves a little bit more. Picture a group of people telling you a line is bigger than other, you study sociology, you realize that your opinion is being biased by these people, then you can try isolate yourself from them and take better unbiased choices. In judging people, we are prone to be ethnocentric, out sight being narrowed down by 2 closing walls that is culture, but then we can practice cultural relativism, look past the walls and see the truth. 

Like Berger said, if we see the strings controlling us, we can yank on them to act by ourselves. Maybe if we yank hard enough we can get past these glass walls, swim in the free space that is outside the water and be free.

Jose Antonio