Capitalism, Social norms, Government policy 2nd draft

The single most controlling and powerful force in western culture is capitalism. The very structure of our society (a capitalist one) keeps the masses working for, and making money for the few controllers or bosses. The stratification of class roughly breaks down into the following categories: working class which encompass more than 75% of the population, executive class which is about 20%, and finally the owning class which is about 5% or less. The idea that anybody can succeed if they do what is necessary is just simply a fallacy. One that perpetuates the idea of some sort of “American dream” that continues to keep people fighting to succeed. People tend to blame poor people for their own situation and point to simple recipes for success; going to a good college, doing well, working hard, etc. The reality is that the idea that everyone can succeed undermines the very fundamentals of capitalism. How can everyone who wants to succeed do so and still have people to work for them and make profit? Who will be there to work if everyone is a boss?
This sad fact causes a vicious cycle to ensue, in which the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. The unemployed, people who have no jobs, are simply the reserve armies of capitalism, ready in case hey are needed to work for the profit of capitalists.
This affects children, teens, adults and elderly or in other words people at all stages of their life. Children are generally products of their rearing, and the economic class you were born to affects what class you aspire to become. This is evidenced in the movie “7 Up” which tracks many different people from different social and economic classes and shows how they change every seven years. It is based off the quote “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man", this means that people will stay the course that they are born into and for the most part your future is decided for you. Another huge idea in this paper is that we are like pinball’s being smacked around by social forces with rarely any awareness of how we are being funneled and played during the different life stages. Throughout each installment of the documentary films this theory is mostly proven true, with the upper class remaining upper class and working-class remaining working-class. People in America generally join the work force and start to earn wages when they are in their teens. Throughout "teenagerdom" and adulthood you are slaves to capitalism directly. In your elderly years you rely on things like social security and having raised enough in capitalism during your younger years to be able to live throughout your retirement. There are also restrictions on certain funds that you are not allowed to touch until a certain age in order to keep people financially stable in their old age. Capitalism played out fairly predictably in the movie 7 Up, the kids with wealthy families went on to good expensive schools to study law or business in order for they them selves to make a lot of money. There was one exception though, Bruce, a member of an affluent family went on to teach at a public school in a poor part of London as well as live in a flat within walking distance to his work. Needless to say he could have used is Oxford education to do something that would make him a lot of money, but when Bruce was seven he wanted to be a missionary in Africa, and help people. Bruce is an example of the quote: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" because he does remain with the same ideals (to help others less fortunate). Although he does disprove the general statement I made about the rich staying rich and poor staying poor.
Social norms are also an extremely powerful force that affects people, probably at every life stage. I say probably because I have only experienced two of the life stages that we are discussing; Childhood, and teenagerdom. I would describe Social norms as precedents set or ideals to live up to in order to be socially "accepted". Wikipedia says a: “norm, or social norm, is a rule that is socially enforced”. Social norms can be very apparent or extremely hard to notice because we are so deeply conditioned to follow them. Social norms are a huge deal in a young child's life because this is the time that we are learning them. From the time that you begin to have a social life you are subject to following these norms in order to be accepted by your peers and others. Some of the most basic examples of social norms that are learned at that stage in life are to respect your elders, girls have long hair boys have short, chew with your mouth closed, hold the door for others, and countless more. We are all basically zombies following social norms that are present everywhere and provide a sick and twisted map for how to live our lives.
When you enter your teenage years these social norms become even more intense, and vary differently among different social groups. By the time you are a teen you have most likely fallen into a particular "clique" or associate with a group of people like yourself. This is a time when there is a delicate mix of rebelling against social norms and strictly following them. This is generally a confusing time in ones life for many reasons, and one of which is because you idea of social norms is being altered. Here there are generally two roads people take: 1. Become even more conditioned and in doing so enforce social norms your self, or 2. One resists social norms, realizes them for the methods of controlling that they are. However, one can never really be free of following all social norms for some are also enforced by laws. This is where social norms turn into government policy.
Adults generally conform to the same social norms as teens although I am speaking from a rather ignorant standpoint considering I have never experienced adulthood. Elderly people are where the idea of social norms gets very interesting. From what I have gathered from my trips to Boca Raton, FL to visit my family's elders, I find they are conformed to past social norms that have since gone out of style, thus are actually resisting social norms.

Government policy is where these ideas intersect because in many cases there are government policies (laws) set up to perpetuate social norms. The biggest and most obvious example of this is of course the norm/ law that people must where clothes. It is not only extremely unacceptable to not where clothes but if you do so it will probably warrant an arrest in most places. Other government policies such as drug prohibition, restrictions on sex, drinking, and driving ages are all policies that have imbedded many social norms and taboos into our society. In retrospect I feel that government policy is not as controlling a social force for me as capitalism because and social norms are because I, along with most other people, only need be governed by the guidelines of social norms and never really break such laws that would require government intervention. I break drug laws, traffic laws, drinking laws, etc, but these are all victimless crimes that should go unpunished in the first place and for the most part do. What keeps the average person in line is not fear of imprisonment but instead fear of reticule and alienation from society because of breaking social norms.
Now to shift gears a little bit; Lately, I have been having, for one reason or another, having what I can only describe as an Existential Crisis. Wikipedia describes an existential crisis as a: “concept…describing a state of panic or feeling of intense psychological discomfort about questions of existence.” What makes this idea relevant, is the fact that the crisis is much more common in cultures where basic survival needs are met, and our lives are bogged down by meaningless/material things. What this means is that in western cultures; defined by Capitalism, Social norms, and Government policy, there are much more people who suffer from an EC, than those in cultures where they live more simple, less vein, and more significant lives.
The point I am obviously attempting to make is that these unnecessary intrusions on our lives, aka Television, Ipods, minimum wage, drinking age, Etc, are the fundamental causes of “our” (I say “our” because I can only hope that people other than me are experiencing the same thing) EC in the first place. At this point in my life I am experiencing what others and I, and others (mainly Andy) can only identify as an existential crisis. To give the reader a little background knowledge on the feelings involved in this situation are, are confusion, disappointment, and a feeling of missing something very large, that you think should be apart of you, but it is not. To quote Wikipedia again: “an existential crisis is the sudden awareness of one’s inevitable doom.
What triggers this EC? How do you know when it is happening to you or someone else? Are you going insane?
Apparently, these EC can be “triggered by a significant event or change in a persons life.” This idea of what triggers them is what relates me back to the main point of my paper’s main idea: Capitalism, Social norms, and Government are enormous driving forces in our lives.

In conclusion I feel that social norms and capitalism are by far the most driving forces controlling our society and the people in it today. I believe it is worth mentioning that statistics show one in every fifteen black males between the ages of 18-25 are incarcerated. If I fell into this demographic I would have to think government policy is the most driving force because clearly these policies are targeting a particular group and age of people.