Blog #11

The concept I want to discuss is one that we only touched on briefly in class but which I found to be most interesting. We talked about Merton and strain theories and how people in society fall into different categories based on their goals and means. We all supposedly want to achieve some level of the American Dream, yet some people have greater barriers between getting there than others, so they may have to find alternative routes to their ultimate happiness. There are 5 different categories a person could fit into according to Merton. The first is conformist, where people go about their days in a conventional way, with the same goals and trying to achieve them in an honest way. A ritualist then would go through the honest motions and means, but really have no goal in place. I think of this as people who have stricter views on life who like to follow the rule, yet seems routine and simply going through the motions each day. Next, and innovative person would still have the same typical goals in place, but go about reaching those goals in ways that are not considered legitimate. For instance they could possibly be stealing money to save up for material goods rather than work an honest job and save like a conformist would do. There is then the retreatist group who has neither the conventional goals or means in mind. They've almost retreated for life and don't care much about what they do. They are possibly living a life through using drugs and giving little meaning to their days. Lastly the rebellion group would be outside the grid. They've decided to make their own set of goals and means and go about them in a completely different way. In my criminology class we talked about terrorists falling under these categories and going completely against our typical society.

I think it's interesting to think of where we could all fall within these categories. I think it's possible to say we've all drifted between them at one point or another until we decide where we truly want to be. It'd be ideal for us all to be in the conformist category having honest goals and legitimate means, but it's not necessarily realistic for everyone who deals with more troubles than us on a day to day basis. This is one reason why I want to get into social work and criminology to hopefully help get people out of innovative or retreatist lifestyles and hopefully become an inspiration to some people. 

Below is a picture of the concepts I talked about so you can see where people would fall according to their different goals and means.