Connection: Humanties & Sociology

       Lately, I've been noticing that some things I'm learning in one class are very closely related to something I'm learning in another class. It's like de ja vu, but not really. Anyways, a new semester means new classes, which means everything must feel new, right? wrong. I thought that by switching some of my electives, I'd get some new information, but turns out, the history and english departments are put in the same wing of the school together for a reason; because they mysteriously go over some of the same topics.
       In Sociology we're talking about social "norms" and deviant behavior. In an article we read in class, social "norm" is defined as what a society expects an individual to behave and deviance is defined as behaviors that go against a society's rules. Then, we elaborated on social control -which is how a society keeps people from breaking the rules- and came up with external controls (authority figures), internal controls (morals), rewards and punishments. The people of a society conform to these rules in fear of punishment; which means that conformity and "going with the flow" both play huge parts in how people act, but deviant behavior comes from nonconformity and going against the flow.
       What does this have to do with humanities you ask? Well, to start off the new semester in humanities we discussed challenging the status quo.We had to read a letter Martin Luther King Jr. wrote while he was in Birmingham jail, and annotate for sections in which he talked about how one should and why one should challenge the status quo.
       So, the two things I read have multiple things in common. External forces were involved in both passages: police officers, parents and other authority figures keep the inhabitants of a society in check, while MLK talks about how external forces (like policemen, politicians, white people) are keeping African Americans from fully practicing their God given rights. Internal forces also play a role: people decide to take part in deviant behaviors because they lack internal morals, MLK talks about how morality should help African Americans in their fight for equality. Those who commit deviant acts are punished to maintain order in a society, MLK lists many occurrences in which African Americans are punished for being born a certain color, which is absolutely unfair.
       Most importantly, these two passages taught me that sometimes conformity isn't the best thing one can do; because nonconformity and challenging the status quo can lead to changes that a society may need.