WASTELAND
It seems serendipitous that my training as a Sociologist helps me understand things that are not about Sociology at all. This happened when I watched the films I discuss in this two-part series about the aftermaths of unimaginable traumas. In part one I look at Lars, the Emo Kid, which is about a teenage boy whose best friend commits suicide, and The Bridge, a documentary that recounts the impact that people’s suicides have on those who are left behind. Depending on who you ask, Sociology either has various paradigms, or does not have any paradigms at all. I do not know which is right. I just know that I love the rich collection of perspectives that my field offers. Two of these are conservativism, which Sociologists refer to as Structural Functional Theory, and liberalism, which we call Conflict Theory. You can think of Structural Functional Theory, which argues that social structures last because they work, as meaning “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and y...