Social Progress and Social Problems Toward a Sociology of Gloom Joel Best

1. Social Progress and Social ProblemsToward a Sociology of GloomJoel Best Avery, Rebekahand Emily

2. The 4 Paradoxes • Paradox of Perfectionism Perfectionism must be grounded in optimism, it fosters pessimism • Can be seen all through American history • Puritans: not only wanted a new form of government but an ideal form • Social Reform & Utopian Experiments • Social problems became emergencies • Social progress encourages us to be obsessed with perfectionism, which is unrealistic, making us always fall short of our goal

3. The 4 Paradoxes • Paradox of Proportion Solving big problems makes formerly small problems seem larger • Can be seen with fatal disease • 100 years ago infectious disease was leading cause of death (influenza, tuberculosis, measles, etc.) • Now these diseases are under control, our attention turns to other less common (diabetes, breast cancer, etc.) • Formerly overshadowed by infectious diseases, these once thought of as minor diseases consume all our attention • Can be seen with illiteracy as well • Social progress makes us obsess with problems that were never thought of as major

4. The 4 Paradoxes • Paradox of Proliferation Social progress encourages the recognition of a larger number of problems • Can be seen with television • Magazines • Internet • Social progress has allowed an increase in situations where people can create and talk about social problems

5. The 4 Paradoxes • Paradox of Paranoia Social progress fosters fears of social collapse • Can be seen with education Until recently, a child who didn’t do well is school and left to work on a farm or in a factory Today we fear leaving school early leads to poverty We worry about “schools that fail to teach” • Drinking water • Technology • We’ve raised our standards • Social progress has lead us to rely on large, intertwined systems of institutions and we fear of institutional collapse

6. The REAL problem • These paradoxes that Best points out hinders our societies progress with the new problems that the paradoxes present • We must realize how far our society has come and to appreciate it instead of creating new problems for ourselves

7. Discussion Questions