Radical Experiment

The video we watched in sociology was an interesting one to say the least. At first it was kind of confusing and hard to follow, but eventually it started to make sense. He used a lot of big and confusing words, which made it difficult to understand. His first analogy of the United States being controlled because of our coal really got me confused. At first, I didn't know what he was leading to. But as he went on and explained that that's how some other countries feel, then it started to make sense. The real eye opener for me, however, was not the coal analogy, but when he said to imagine being an Arab-Muslim. That is when it really hit me. The people from Iraq have such a different point of view than we do. The sentence "One country's terrorist is another country's freedom fighter", really got me. They don't see it the same way we do. Their propaganda portrays it in a totally different manner than what we are actually trying to do. I wish they actually knew what we were trying to do. It makes me wonder how much is lost in translation when it comes to our communication and portrayal to them. The whole idea of his speech was to show that in order to start to understand sociology, we need to understand others. And in order to understand others, we need to show empathy. Empathy is putting yourself in someone else's shoes and looking at thing from that person's perspective. Everyone's perspective is different on everything. For instance, I wasn't too triggered from watching this video. But I do know that some people were rubbed the wrong way from this video. It's all about perspective. The thing I think our class agreed on, however, was that we are glad to be living in America. It might not be perfect, but at least it's not as bad as some countries. I know I often times get frustrated with my siblings, or my parents. But I know that if I slow down think if I were in the same position as them, I understand where they are coming from. And last but not least, I see myself fitting into the big picture of society because I am a positive role model. If I can even get one little girl or boy to look up to me, and for me to change their life in a positive way, then I will have done something worth living for.