Synaptic

The assignment was to interpret selections I’d chosen from a book on Detroit using the theoretical perspectives we’d covered throughout the semester. Aly’s paper demonstrated a clear grasp of how someone using each perspective might approach those chapter excerpts, and she did so using humor while providing significant theoretical insights.

– Jon Witt

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“One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.”

-Golda Meir

I

A jaw-popping yawn escapes my mouth as I climb up into our Lift and wait anxiously for mom to come out. Sleep eluded me once again, as it has all week. That happens when I am excited. I have been waiting for this day all year. Today is Traveler Day, the most beloved day of all high school students. I pop a Wake pill into my mouth and select a water bottle on the screen to be produced from the Dash Printer. It takes a couple minutes to print. We bought our Lift brand new in 2117 but it is already three years old. It is not nearly as quick to print and has a lot less inventory to choose from than the newer Lifts.

Mom finally exits the house and climbs up into the Lift. I swallow the pill that will ensure that sleep continues to elude me – at least until the school day is over. She presses the pre-programmed button for the school on the screen, and it feels like an eternity has passed before the rotators pick up enough speed to lift us off the ground. Like I said, our Lift is pretty old. I rest my head against the window and watch as we zip over the neighborhood. I read all the advertising signs below, some new and some old. We just learned in History class that signs and advertisements used to be painted on large stationary billboards that stood vertically, rather than horizontally as they do now. I guess that makes sense because people used to drive cars on the ground, rather than Lifts above. I think I would have liked to live in that era, where technology existed but did not control everything like it does today.

We set down in the landing zone, and I am out of the Lift and running toward the school before mom has a chance to exclaim her usual: “Have a good day, Honey Bunny!” Despite me grumbling about it every night at dinner, she continues to do it. How humiliating. I get to the Theory classroom and am surprised to find that I am the last one to arrive. Everyone else is already in their seats, anxiously awaiting class to start. There are excited whispers pulsating around the room, quiet discussions of what the Travelers will be wearing, how they will look and smell and talk.

We have five Travelers visiting today – the most Jacksonville High has had at one time. We just finished reading a really old book in class called Detroit: An American Autopsy, and Ms. Ping thought it would be a fun learning experience to have multiple theorists come and discuss some sections from the reading with us. There are currently only 395 Travelers available, soon to be 396 once the Lab has completed some guy named Robin Williams. She had slim pickings, but Ms. Ping chose theorists that seem interesting enough. Their names are Emile Durkheim, Karl Marx, Max Weber, Jim Powell, and Erving Goffman.

I always get nervous when I think about Traveling. We just learned in History that “traveling” used to mean simply going from one place to another within the same timeframe. People would seatbelt themselves into their gas-fueled metal boxes with four wheels and “travel” from home to work or from one part of the state to another to visit family, and so on. It is certainly not that simple nowadays (though, again, I sometimes wish it was). Traveling today refers to time travel, and it is simultaneously awesome and terrifying. We learned the latter the hard way.

II

There were countless old science-fiction films and novels produced in the early twenty-first century that implied a lot about what people back then thought about time travel and its possibilities. Occasionally we watch clips of these old movies in class and laugh at the horrible acting or awful CGI. The most recent clip was from an old movie called “Back to the Future” produced in 1985. The plot was kind of awkward and the graphics were absolutely terrible, but the whole class loved it. The surprising element of a lot of these old movies, however, is how accurate the plots actually were. Many of these films involved technology that did not even exist at that time or that scientists had written off as being impossible – time travel being the most popular one.

It is argued whether the technology we have today in 2120 only exists because of the ideas posed in these old movies or if they exist because of the natural progression of technology. How ironic is that? Quite frankly, I do not care either way. It reminds me of an old saying my grandpa used to say -“Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Doesn’t make a damn bit of difference to me as long as I get my breakfast.” The argument I do care about, however, is where the development is taking us and if we should continue just because we can.

It is this very argument that almost triggered the fourth World War. Time travel is now highly regulated and for that I am glad. When Cherita Sparrow returned as the first human to successfully complete a time travel episode, complete chaos ensued. Things got weird. Entire buildings disappeared and countless humans vanished from the face of the earth. It seemed as though the apocalypse had been triggered. It didn’t take long for pomodigists1 to figure out what had happened. It was simple: we had ignored the warnings. No attention was given to the consequences of time travel laid out so clearly in almost all of the old twenty-first century films. When you mess with history, you mess with the future.

Before the pomodigists could even smack their foreheads with the palm of their hands, they were sending Cherita back. She had to undo whatever it was she did when she traveled back in time. Since then, Traveling has been significantly restricted – and rightfully so. The only Traveling Machines currently in existence are under the strict regulation of pomodigists in the West. Their current project involving Traveling seems more like an extremely risky game than anything else. Basically, they send a pomodigist back to a specific era wherein he or she has to sneak around until finding the object of interest and return undetected without changing anything significant.

Recently, these objects of interest have been as simple as a strand of hair from someone of importance so that pomodigists return with the necessary DNA for cloning that particular individual. The most recent Travel caused some major controversy. Pomodigists intended to send a guy back to the year 2014 to obtain the DNA of that Robin Williams guy I mentioned earlier. There was a mishap and the pomodigists accidently sent the man to the year 1932, where he stuck out like Robert Wadlow in a kindergarten classroom.

The black-and-white photo captured of the pomodigist dressed so out of place in the era of nice suits and fedoras became an iconic image of the time travel debate during the early twenty-first century.

There are also debates ensuing about the nature of cloning. Much of the world remains at odds with its current undertaking. So we can clone famous and important individuals from the past, but for what reason? Pomodigists argue it is to ensure that we never forget our history and where we come from. Philosophers and social scientists have warned for centuries that forgetting or ignoring the past means it will happen again; history repeats itself. This is the reasoning the pomodigists argue to maintain that cloning is a good thing. The values and ideals from the past that are vanishing in society today are preserved in the minds of these cloned individuals. Never mind the fact that the clones (or Travelers, as the pomodigists prefer them to be called) remain unconscious in large chambers in the labs until requested for use.

When requested by schools, museums, or other institutions, there are certain procedures the Travelers must undergo before the pomodigists allow them to even step foot out of the lab. The first is an implantation into their brains of an artificial memory of sorts – an explanation of where they are so that they are not shocked and suffer from the confusion and stress of being woken up in a completely different time period. The second procedure is an implantation of the particular mission for which they were awoken. In this case, they were given the memory of having read the book Detroit: An American Autopsy.

These cloned Travelers are increasingly being used in schools as interactive and effective ways of learning history and other subjects. They are utilized mainly in more affluent school systems that can actually afford them, Jacksonville being one of these schools. So you can imagine our excitement as we prepared to host not only one Traveler, but five.

III

A deep, booming laughter and the sound of footsteps echoed off the walls of the hallway, making its way into the classroom. The excited whispers hushed immediately as everyone turned in their seats to face the doorway. Ms. Ping appeared first, an energetic bounce in her step and twinkle in her lavender eyes as she made her way to the front of the room. A few moments later walked in the most magnificent and strange combination of humans I had ever seen – and that is saying a lot coming from a kid who lives in a world where you can choose what you want to look like. What was so magnificent about them was how completely and utterly human they looked. They did not have exotic colored skin or hair or eyes. They did not wear wrist-phones or virtual glasses or levitating shoes. They were simultaneously the most boring and fascinating humans I had seen with my own eyes. This applied to all except the last one to walk in the room. This one was wearing the costume of an old Disney character that my virtual glasses instantly recognized as Mickey Mouse.

“Class, please give a warm welcome to our lovely guest speakers!” said Ms. Ping as she pranced to the front of the room and powered up some virtual chairs for the Travelers to sit on.

Everyone was so completely entranced by the speakers that the “warm welcome” turned out to be some half-assed clapping by a handful of students. Ms. Ping frowned at us and turned to the Travelers.

“We are so very excited to have you here with us today. Let us begin with some brief introductions. How about we start with you, Mr. Marx?”

The man she pointed to was sporting a massively thick, white beard. He looked familiar, but I could not figure out why – until it dawned on me that he resembled a character from an old, creepy fairy tale told in the early twenty-first century of an overweight man wearing a red suit who would sneak into homes around the world to leave toys for children as they slept. I quickly searched the story using my virtual glasses and found the name Santa Claus.

This Santa-looking man began talking in a heavy German accent. Ms. Ping briefly interrupted him in order to tell the class to turn on the “translate” options on our glasses so we could see the English translation of what Santa was saying as he spoke.

“I was born in Germany in 1818. I am a philosopher, a writer, and a sociologist, among other things you children would not understand. My studies centered upon theories regarding class struggle, labor, and the means of production.”

Santa started to say more but Ms. Ping politely cut him off.

“Danke, Herr Marx. Now for the next introduction!” she said, gesturing to the bald man sitting next to Santa.

“Very well, then. My name is Emile Durkheim, born in France in 1858. My life work included establishing sociology as an academic discipline and analyzing how society functions in the modern era. You may better know me as the “Father of Sociology” as I have been named.”

Santa let out a scoff, and Durkheim shot him an insulted look.

“How wonderful,” Ms. Ping said. “Next!”

The man sitting beside Durkheim had a somber, intense expression that I had a hard time taking seriously in combination with his large, elf-like ears.

“I am also from Germany, born in 1864, and I spent much of my life analyzing the sociology of religion and legal-rationality of bureaucracy. My name is Max Weber.”

“Interesting. I suppose it is my turn?” asked the clean-shaven man sitting next to Weber. “My name is Erving Goffman; I was born in Canada in 1922. I studied the micro-interactionist sociology of everyday life, particularly the importance of symbolic interaction.”

Ms. Ping nodded in approval to Goffman.

“Now, last but certainly not least, Mr. Powell.”

The last person was the one wearing the Mickey Mouse costume.

“I would venture to guess that most of you are questioning why I am wearing this. The main reason is because I thought it was funny – and let’s be honest, how many times do you get the opportunity to wear stuff like this?”

Giggles and murmurs surrounded throughout the room.

“Excuse me, Mr. Powell, but we have the opportunity every day to wear stuff like that,” said a shy girl in the front row.

“Indeed you do. But do you see the irony in doing so?” inquired Powell. No one said anything in response.

“Hmm. Well, I will explain my reasoning. May I begin my dissection of the piece on Detroit, Ms. Ping?” Powell asked.

“Certainly!” she replied. “Thank you for volunteering. Please, begin.”

IV

“My studies began at the beginning of an era called “postmodernism”, an era of which you are experiencing the tail end. The transition from modernity to postmodernity was a strange one. Anomie became a normal aspect of our lives.”

The bald guy, Durkheim, chimed in.

“Ah, yes. Anomie. Characterized by no meaningful order, no sense of purpose. A time in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals. We can see this happening in our piece on Detroit, no?”

A couple students nodded. Durkheim continued.

“It occurs straight away. Frankie could not afford to fix his van. Bills went unpaid. They got behind on their mortgage; the credit card companies offered no assistance. What was he to do? He told the car company to screw themselves, and they took his van. It had to be done this way because there was no meaningful order; none of the institutions in which Frankie lived would provide any sort of guidance. It portrays a breakdown of the bonds between individuals and society at large – a mismatch between personal standards and wider social standards.”

Mickey Mouse had been sitting patiently, nodding his head as Durkheim stole the spotlight.

“That is very true. Now if I may explain?” asked Mickey.

“My apologies. I tend to get ahead of myself,” replied Durkheim.

“Postmodernism is a time of Nihilism – a general nothingness. A time when nothing is known for sure. In fact, it can be argued that Detroit is not even real. It is a social construction; simply a figment of our imaginations. Pastiche and irony plague postmodern society through art, architecture, and even day-to-day interactions with one another. Things that did not correlate were thrown together. It was a time for playful reflection upon reality. That is why I chose to wear this costume today. It is ironic; a beloved character of the early modern era being worn by a postmodernist whilst speaking to a classroom of students living in an era of post-postmodernism.”

It was then I noticed Weber frowning and shaking his head.

“Will you please move past this nonsense and get to the point?” Weber asked of Mickey, sounding exasperated.

“The point, you say? Try as I might to get to the point, I’m afraid I will be unable to do so, Herr Weber. There is no metanarrative in this story of Detroit. It is characterized by only micronarratives – many different small stories, all legitimized simply by the telling of them. As such, there is no grand theme, no ultimate meaning we can take away from this discussion. We can no longer make generalizations. Every story is multiplex and fragmented with no whole to be found. But, because you requested so kindly, I will do my best”.

The class was silent, waiting out the awkward tension that was occurring between Durkheim and Mickey. Then Mickey threw his head back and laughed a hearty laugh.

“How fun is this?!” he exclaimed. “To be arguing my perspective with men who lived before me in an era in which none of us lived. The irony is killing me!”

Durkheim looked at the other three Travelers and shrugged. “But I digress. Postmodernism signaled the death of the social. America was becoming richer in democracy but poorer in civilization. A prime example of this was the child on the bus, described on page 38 in your books if you care to follow along.

‘A kid’s got the flu and he vomits on the bus and all the kids are laughing at him, and he’s so embarrassed he gets off the bus into the cold. And his mother ain’t coming to get him. And you’re thinking these kids don’t have a fucking chance ‘cause they don’t. And nobody cares.’

How ironic is it that in a society with increased mobilization and communication, humans interacted less? Neighborliness became a rarity. The harmonious structure of society that was the prediction and intention of modernity had failed.”

Both Marx and Durkheim let out a scoff at Mickey’s last statement.

“Detroit is an example of this failure. Page 43 describes the Great Migration of blacks and southern hillbillies: ‘Detroit was seen as the Promised Land, where a man could buy himself a house with a patch of grass, just as long as he had a job to pay for it. And Detroit had plenty of jobs’. Why did people fall for the illusion that Detroit was the Promised Land? The explanation is a vital characteristic of postmodernism – the idea of images and simulacra. An image of Detroit was portrayed to these individuals, an image of life being much greater than where they lived in the South. Their reality, mediated through signs, symbols, and words, was that moving to Detroit would mean owning their own property and living a better life. This fake perception of Detroit had become real to them – the map preceded the territory. Their perception of Detroit became a simulacrum, an unsatisfactory image of the real thing. What the black man found in Detroit was extreme segregation, forcing him to live in densely packed, substandard housing plagued by rats and rotting garbage. It is this very simulacrum that characterizes the postmodern era. Images or perceptions of ideas and things become more real than the original. It demonstrates the idea that we were beginning to live in a hyper-reality, a world that replaced reality and became more than the real itself.”

A student with neon-orange hair near the back of his room chimed in.

“If they realized their perception of Detroit was wrong once they got there, then how is that a simulacrum?” he asked thoughtfully.

“Very good question! That is the irony of this entire discussion. Nothing can be wrong. No perception can be wrong, if nothing is true. And as I mentioned before, a defining characteristic of the postmodern era is that nothing is really fake and nothing is really real.

I am not even real. I am a copy of the real me. All of us sitting at the front of the room are copies – clones of our actual selves. But to you and even to me, the copy has become more real than the original.”

A few groans were heard throughout the classroom.

“I know this is confusing, especially so since this story is set during the transition from modernity to postmodernity. But let me provide an example. The bartender at the VFW claimed that mayor Young was to blame for the degradation of the city. Frankie smiled and replied with ‘I guess that depends on who you’re asking’. This response sums up what I am trying to get at. We all live in our own realities, mediated by culture – by signs and symbols and words. Modernity and postmodernity is characterized by a jumbled up mess of race, gender, class, ethnicity, and so on. As such, each of our own realities, our own stories, becomes legitimate. It depends who you ask because each person is living within his own reality – there is no longer one overarching reality, one theme, one metanarrative that explains why things happen the way they do.

We see this again when trying to figure out how Detroit became a ‘cadaver’ as the author calls it. You might blame the postwar industrial policies; you might blame the riots and white flight; you might blame it on the gas shocks or the trade agreements. The bottom line is this: all of these are right and none of these are right at the same time. It demonstrates the disappearance of a solid foundation that characterized the pre-modern era. Notice that no one blamed God or some other transcendental being for the downfall of Detroit – that metanarrative had already been delegitimized. There was no ultimate meaning or purpose behind its downslide. It just was.

This is simultaneously depressing and freeing. Anything became possible – people were no longer constrained by the larger metanarratives or ideals that lent order to society. They could do whatever they wanted, be whoever they wanted. Choice became the norm. It was expected. There were more and more choices for everything imaginable as a consequence of the success of modernity and globalization. Unlimited choice became possible for things as simple as dog food. How amazing and ironic is this? Frankie most likely purchased the bag at his local general store – dog food made all the way across the globe in a country where people ate the very animals they were selling food for. And it was poisoned. It killed his dog. This explosion of choices utilized to exercise freedom was also constricting and shrinking our worlds. We were more interconnected than ever but we realized it less.

These interconnected networks also characterize the transition to postmodernity. We refer to this as “rhizomatic” – there is no particular end or beginning, no single root or core. The increased globalization and interconnectedness of the modern era is demonstrated nicely in the gangster story told by Sgt. Martel. Each individual’s story was connected with another’s. Each event led to another in a massive web of interconnectedness. Stories were no longer black and white because every individual story had a worth and legitimacy equivalent to every other. It signaled the decline of the binary and resulted in a world of hybridity. The author himself became part of this gangster micronarrative simply by hearing the story – ‘Suddenly I was in the middle of a gangster picture and I didn’t have the script’. This script no longer existed in the postmodern era.”

It was quiet for a moment. A deep, rich voice melted over the classroom. It was Santa.

“All that is solid melts into air…”

Santa wore a pained expression, worry lining his face.

“Ah, yes. I remember reading that lovely quote of yours,” replied Mickey. “I believe I am finished, Herr Marx, if you wish to take over?”

V

“Let me first propose a question. What distinguishes men from other animals?” Marx inquired of the classroom. A high-pitched voice answered.

“The ability to reason?” the student asked in response.

“Ah! Wunderbar. Your answer is not far off. More specifically, however, we began to distinguish ourselves as soon as we produced the means of subsistence. What we are coincides with what and how we produce. Men are the producers of their conceptions. As such, the history of humanity must be studied in relation to the history of industry and exchange. This is the approach to which I will dissect the phenomenon of Detroit.

It all boils down to who owns the means of production. In the capitalistic society, we refer to these owners as the Bourgeoisie. They owned the land, natural resources, the materials needed to survive. The Proletariat were those who did not own the means of production, but rather owned the labor power – themselves. It is important to note that the ruling ideas of every epoch are the ideas of the ruling class. The Bourgeoisie had the power to structure the world the way they wished the Proletariat to see it.

As such, the structure of society always left people wanting more. That is what fuels capitalism. If the Proletariats became selfactualized, they would want no longer, and capitalism would collapse in on itself. It is this very collapse of capitalism we see forming in Detroit.

Frankie’s neighborhood was collapsing due to the extreme success of capitalism – a consequence of modernity. No laborer employed at the Dodge Ram plant could even afford one of the trucks they were working to produce. It was to the advantage of the Bourgeoisie, the ruling class, that ‘few whites then seemed to think much that the interests of the black working class were the same as theirs’ even though they did, indeed, maintain the same interests. The reason that this was advantageous was because the Bourgeoisie desired to maintain power. Maintenance would no longer be possible were the entire working class – blacks and whites – able to overcome their differences and unite. The inevitable revolution would occur once class conflicts ensued between the lower and upper classes, as opposed to only within the lower class. It would result in the death of capitalism. This is the ultimate inherent contradiction – capitalism would fail because it succeeded so well.

The secularization and increasing division of labor that characterized modernity turned humans into a commodity. Everything became an economic exchange. Private property was stripped away, just as the car company took Frankie’s van, and he was forced to take the bus. Detroit initially offered a nice -if unremarkable – middle-class life ‘if you committed your life to the machine’. Humans were becoming easily replaceable parts of a machine. Capitalism devalued labor power, thus alienating the working class.

The foundation, or infrastructure, determines the superstructure. In the case of Detroit, this means that all social relations seen are an efflux of the underlying economy. This foundation is unstable however; the capitalistic economic system was constantly changing. We see this in the devaluing of Frankie’s house, in the decline of 75 percent of the shops in south Warren, and in the rise of drug sales and prostitution. We see the unrest in the mobs that burned Detroit multiple times. We see it in the urban renewal and interstate projects that were rational decisions meant to improve the area, but instead displaced thousands of blacks and packed them further together still. We see it in the massive declining population of Detroit: capitalism worked so well, that humans were rationally replaced with machinery. It was efficient and rational.

Capitalism was digging its own grave, just as ‘the car made Detroit and the car unmade Detroit’. The auto industry worked so well that it brought about its own demise. People could no longer afford to buy the cars the Big Three were producing. Their businesses were plummeting. The very vehicles they were selling were unreliable. People create the world through their labors but become constrained by the things they have created.”

“How ironic is that?” Mickey asked, breaking the spell I did not even notice I was under from the deep, hypnotic voice of Marx.

“Ironic, sure. Laborers in the story of Detroit are beginning to recognize this irony, this alienation. They are the beginning of the revolution. There was no longer ‘respect for the working-class life’. It is this very alienation of the worker – this complete loss of control over their own products and their own labor – that would inevitably lead to the communistic revolution and the end of the capitalistic society. We may not see the united action of the Proletariat quite yet in this story of Detroit, but the fall of the Bourgeoisie and the victory of the Proletariat were inevitable. It would not be long before the working-class realized that they were the majority, suffering at the expense of the minority – the Bourgeoisie. They would be mad as hell and they would not take it anymore.”

“You’re right!” exclaimed a tiny, yellow-haired girl to my right. “That is what triggered the third world war!”

Excited murmurs floated around the room as Ms. Ping made her way to the front of the class.

“Yes, Herr Marx did accurately prophesize some aspects of the revolution on capitalism we saw nearly one hundred years ago today already. However, there are aspects of Detroit and modernity that have not been touched upon yet that I assume will be by our three remaining speakers.”

She turned and gestured to Durkheim.

“Please, share with us a view of Detroit through your eyes,” she said.

VI

“Marx has nicely explained some of the consequences of the division of labor. As we know, this division represented a fundamental challenge to the traditional social order. The more modern we became, the more differentiation and individualism that occurred, resulting in no singular sense of morality or viewing the world.”

“Precisely!” agreed Mickey, excitedly nodding his head.

“Our collective consciousness changed, as it does over time. One of the ways we can see this is through religion. Traditional societies were held together through religion. Modern society experienced increasing secularity of religion. Where would collective conscious come from in modern society? What would beliefs and values be rooted in? Religion provided a sense of meaning and purpose for traditional societies. Overlooked were the functional equivalents to religion we can see in the case of Detroit. Certain aspects of society, devoid of religion, continued to bind people together. A type of organic solidarity is evident. The division of labor present in this modern society was increasingly fulfilling the role that once fell on common consciousness. Society was increasingly made of interrelated parts that comprised one larger whole.”

I remembered talking about this in class before.

“So you’re a functionalist?” I asked.

“Yes, I would consider myself a functionalist,” Durkheim replied.

“If something disrupts the social order, society always adjusts and returns to a stable equilibrium. What is not as evident, however, is where the solidarity and equilibrium is coming from in the case of Detroit. It may seem that its very foundation is crumbling, as you emphasized earlier, Marx. The transition from traditional to modern society occurred so fast; the breakdown of norms and the increase in disorder and anomie was to be expected. What is less obvious is the fact that the violent crime in Detroit, whether in the form of mobs or in drive-by shootings, is actually normal and even necessary to the social system at large.”

A few scoffs and gasps erupted around the classroom.

“So you think committing crimes like killing and burning down buildings is normal?” probed the yellowhaired girl incredulously.

“Yes. It is normal in the sense that it validates the norms and values necessary to reinforcing the common consensuses of society. It provides us with social facts that lay out the boundaries and rules.

Besides, an act is only criminal when it offends the well-defined state of the collective consciousness. An act of crime is only viewed that way because the larger society deems it as such. Woolfolk shooting the young girl or Alls being killed were criminal acts only because of the common consciousness regarding crime. Crime is one aspect of modern society that resulted in a sense of togetherness.

Modern society responded to crimes with restitutive law as opposed to the repressive law seen in more traditional societies. They attempted to restore relationships that were disturbed from the norm by the crime. The essential jobs of the police, prosecutors, and prison sentences in the story Martel told were to dole out the consequences for the committed crimes so as to restore society to its functioning state.”

An arm shot up in front of me. “What about all time you spent studying suicide? How does that relate?” the student inquired.

“Excellent question, my friend. It is true – I always did find suicide a fascinating subject.” Durkheim replied.

“Ha! A sociologist spending his years studying the most individualistic of all acts. The irony! Will it ever end!?” exclaimed Mickey, throwing his head back in laughter.

“Though it appears to be an individualistic act, it certainly is not. However individualized man seems to be, there is always something collective remaining. Over the years, I discovered that suicide varies inversely with the degree of integration in the social groups of which the individual forms a part. This is extremely important regarding modern society. With no strong collective conscious and increasingly fragmenting lifestyles, where would individuals maintain a sense of integration?

The answer is quite simple – within other groups. Whether occupational, or sport-related, or a gang, individuals are able to affirm common values, identity, and purpose. There are examples of this all throughout the piece on Detroit. The VFW Hall of which Frankie is a member provides a sense of community for the Vietnam Veterans. The gangs dealing out drugs and the toughlooking kids hanging on the streets all provide those individuals a sense of belonging. Even mobs are people with common values, driven by similar goals. The examples go on and on.”

“But how is it good if people can only find a sense of belonging in a group that does harmful things?” I asked.

“That is not the only way people in modern society find a sense of belonging. The bottom line is this: eventually, things that enhance order will stay and disorder will leave; it is the nature of advancing civilization. As a result, a “good society” will emerge. If poverty, inequality, and crime remain within this better society, it is because they are advantageous for humanity as a whole. It exists because we need it.”

“Ridiculous. The good society cannot and will not be reached without a revolution!” Marx argued, his eyebrows furrowing and face reddening.

Durkheim shook his head as Ms. Ping made her way to the front.

“Oh how wonderful! Such a heated debate! Let us move along. Mr. Goffman, you have been sitting so quietly. I am sure the class desires to know what is going on in your mind. I know I am!” she sang, a sparkle in her eye.

VII

“Who in this room can explain the concept of the ‘Thomas Theorem’?”

The yellow bird-like girl sitting next to me began answering before Goffman had even finished the question.

“If someone defines their situation as real, then it will be real in their consequences. So whatever someone believes is how they are going to act,” she responded confidently.

“Precisely!” Goffman replied. “This is a key concept of the micro-interactionist approach to sociology. Reality is the most profound social accomplishment. The world as we understand it is entirely socially constructed. When I was only ten years of age, I had the honor of meeting a sociologist by the name of George Mead. Though I did not understand much of what he told me then, I do now. Mead described his theory through an example any ten-year-old should be able to relate to: by play. When we are children, we lack the internal guides that allow us to predict or judge actions of others; there is no consistency from one role to the next. Eventually, life moves from being “play” to a “game”, meaning that we realize our expectations and obligations to others – you know your position in relation to everyone else. You expect others to do their part. In order to effectively function in this way, each individual has thus created a map of society in his head. This is where reality becomes a social accomplishment – when the map in your head aligns well with most other individuals. You come to understand the world in an extremely similar fashion. Society exists inside of us, rather than something we exist inside of. It becomes internalized. Humanity is quite amazing in this way!”

“Well, how does that relate to Detroit?” someone inquired.

“Detroit is a fascinating case when looking through the lens of a micro-interactionist. Remember, every single social interaction is symbolic. We are all engaged in a never-ending array of tiny performances and expected to maintain a particular, unswerving social role. This is necessary if there are to be clear, consistent social realities. When something intended to remain backstage is accidently displayed on the front stage for outsiders (the audience) to see, we become embarrassed and self-conscious.

You are going to love this one, Mr. Powell. I discovered some institutional ironies during my years of study. A prominent one was the mental hospital, wherein I found mental illness to be a social role like any other. The formal organization of a mental hospital, by its very nature, works to create the symptoms it is designed to cure. This is due to a concept known as the Labeling Theory. It is applicable to nearly every social role, including criminals.

There are instances of this throughout the piece on Detroit. When Frankie rides the bus and hears black men calling each other ‘nigger’ and threating to kill one another, he should not be appalled. These men are acting upon social roles they have acquired given their positions. It would be strange if they did not act in this fashion. If we go back to thinking of interaction as a dramaturgical performance, we can see that these men constitute a sort of “team” or “cast.” It is within this particular social group that they identify themselves with and find moral support. It is similar to what Durkheim was just explaining. These individuals developed a sense of loyalty and moral obligation to one another and respond accordingly to those on the outside.

When drug sales and prostitution began to replace industries in Detroit, it could be argued that they arose out of necessity since there were fewer and fewer jobs available. It could also be, however, that they arose because it was ultimately what was expected of the people living there. When white folk treated blacks like scum or when they were too scared to even interact (like Frankie who starting keeping his daughters inside), it reinforced those social roles everyone was expecting these gangsters to carry out – they came to be expected by the police and the judge and the prison systems to act as criminals and to engage in criminal acts. So, that is what they did. That is what they come to understand as their reality.

Another example of this is when the black man tried to take Frankie’s camera from him, to which Frankie replied, ‘You’re gonna be embarrassed for the rest of your life that you got your ass kicked by a white guy weighing a hundred and thirty pounds.’ In this case, both Frankie and the black man were completely aware of what their own and each other’s social roles were. It would be embarrassing for the black man if Frankie beat him up because it would go against the expected performance; were they to get in a fight, it was presumed that the heavier black man would win. They are functioning under the societal assumption that black males know how to fight more effectively than skinny white ones. The black man chose not to fight Frankie because the possibility of being embarrassed outweighed the desire he had to take the camera.

The retired cop at the VFW hall told a story about shooting a black man who was running through the alley. The investigating sergeant walked over, pulled a cap gun from his ankle holster, and told the cop to modify the story so that it had seemed like black man had pulled the cap gun first. That way, the cop would have been justified in shooting – it was self-defense. That was how order was kept along Eight Mile. The reason the police could get away with this was because a black man pulling a gun on a cop was expected behavior. No one would even question if the cop was justified in killing the black man. It would simply have been considered the roles they were socialized into playing.”

“But that is not fair or even moral!” exclaimed the bird girl, her voice rising a few octaves. Goffman nodded his head.

“Though it may not be fair, that is the reality of the situation. Humans are the products of the culture we have created. As such, we lose a degree of control over our actions. We cannot change the rules except by first changing everyone’s way of thinking. That is certainly not an easy task!” replied Goffman.

“Splendid, splendid indeed! Thank you, Mr. Goffman. We will now turn to our last speaker of the day,” Ms. Ping said, curtseying awkwardly to Weber, who had hardly said a word the entire class.

VIII

“I will first delve into the manifestation of capitalism given the transition from traditional to modern society.

Capitalism would not function if fueled by greed alone. It needs stability, order, and rational decision-making. This implies that the labor force must continue the line of duty despite the money or material resources individuals have or have not acquired. The most effective way of accomplishing this is through workers internalizing this particular work ethic, which is exactly what happened in the transition to modern society. In short, the internalization of this mindset stemmed from the Protestant ethic and Luther’s idea of a “calling”. When an individual believes his line of work is his life’s “calling”, he will act as such. It is his destiny. The worker no longer questions why he is doing what he is doing because he has internalized and accepted that lifestyle. This is what allowed capitalism to thrive.”

“We learned in class that you wrote your book in response to Marx. We referred to it as the debate between you and the ghost of Marx. Can you explain that a little bit?” I asked, secretly wishing to see another heated debate.

“Sure. Marx and I have similar theories regarding capitalism itself. However, my studies revolved around the fact that capitalism would certainly not lead to any sort of “good society”. The very essence of what it means to be human disappears within a capitalistic society. People simply become cogs in the machine.”

“That is what instigates the revolution!” barks Marx.

Weber did not smile, but there was a twinkle in his eye.

“Ah, this is the very argument I have longed for,” replied Weber. “They cannot fight. Do you not realize this? The best way to fight a bureaucracy is ultimately to become more bureaucratic. It becomes a system of positions, not a system of actual individuals. No longer is any one human being important or significant. An iron cage has befallen upon society.

Look at Detroit. All individuals are functioning under certain life chances determined by the amount and kind of power and access to goods or skills they do or do not have. As such, classes are stratified according their relations to material goods, whereas status groups are stratified according to the principles of consumption, or “lifestyles”. Similar to what Goffman was saying, there are certain expectations of those who wish to belong in that particular circle. It has a direct impact on the consumption of goods and social intercourse outside of those with similar lifestyles.

The Big Three companies in Detroit functioned only because of the particular ethos of the class of laborers employed there. These workers are not responding only to power from the ruling class, the Bourgeoisie, as you explain, Marx. There are other forms of power or authority to which humans comply. In the modern society, it is no longer traditional or charismatic, but rather a rational-legal authority that fuels capitalism. The laborers believe in the established norms and regulations dedicated to increasing efficiency. It is because of this very rationality that capitalism has locked society inside an iron cage – why would humanity resort back to acting irrationally? A revolution toward a utopian society would be irrational and illogical.

The owners of the big businesses certainly took for granted the life chances their laborers were born into. Blacks and whites alike, crammed in run-down, rat-infested apartments, working long hours every week for little pay, generally had diminutive social resource. It was next to impossible for these individuals to abandon their positions, their particular way of life. They had negative estimations of honor, which we can see through their treatment by the police, by upper-class individuals, by company executives, and by the general attitude of the larger society. But they continued to function in this manner. Without the means of altering their positions – without access to knowledge, skill, and material resources – what other choice did they have? Detroit is simply one example of the entrapment of a capitalistic society.”

Silence shrouded the room as we waited for a response from Marx. I looked over and gasped. He was staring down at his hands as a look of horror spread over his face. He was quickly disappearing. Whatever was eating away at Marx traveled down his arms to his chest and from his chest to his legs and feet. Just before it could envelop his head and mound of wiry beard, I heard him murmur, “All that is solid melts into air…”

The last word seemed to float in slow-motion past my ears and around the room before I realized that all of the speakers were beginning to disappear. Confusion plagued their faces momentarily before they simply vanished. Soon, shouts and shrieks of horror sprung up around the classroom as students also began disappearing. The very chair I was sitting in disappeared and I fell to the hard floor. The News Alert Warning system popped up in my virtual glasses to show a hurried, anxious woman explaining the phenomenon.

“It has happened again. Pomodigists are currently unsure of what has triggered this particular episode, but it seems that history has repeated itself once again. If you are still present and watching this, please remain calm. Pomodigists are working to backtrack their steps and locate the error made in the most recent Travel. Okay, hold on… this just in: Pomodigists believe they have found pinpointed the miscalculation. The most recent Travel was in an attempt to bring back a strand of hair from actress and model Marilyn Monroe who lived in the mid 1900’s in order to clone her. It seems that the pomodigist assigned to this particular mission was misinformed. He carried with him a cell phone; a piece of technology used in the early 2000’s before Marilyn Monroe’s time. He dropped the phone and it was picked up by a woman who snapped a photo of the actress in her dressing room, instantly altering the course of the future – or history, in our case.” I was so focused in on the story that I did not even notice that I, myself, was beginning to disappear. I glanced around the room one last time to see nearly everything else had disappeared as well. I remembered learning in History class about a transcendental being named God that millions of people used to pray to in desperate times of need. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I shot a quick prayer up to the guy, even though I did not know him. Half a second later, the world went black.