Lectures

 

 

How we need to know history to understand social science.

 

We're a nation of immigrants.

 

JFK

 

Kennedy comes to power in the US, in a time during the cold war - Stanoff between Communist Russian and the U.S.

 

During this time, Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba through overthrowing the Batista govt.

 

Batista was an ally of the U.S.

 

Castro begins this revolution. It didn't seem like he had a chace against the Army machine in Cuba.

 

Che Guevara, M.D.

 

The Motorcycle Diaries - a "true story" film and also acutal diaries written by Che.

 

After Castro takes over, we initally ally ourselves with his new govt. Castro allies himself with Communist Russia.

 

Soon after, he begins importing military hardware from Russia. Thus begins the standoff between the US and Cuba.

 

During Kennedy's administration, a group of expats from Cuba convince the US govt that there is enough resistance to Castro that with some support, they could overthrow Castro. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a total disaster.

 

Castro begins importing nuclear missiles from Russia and thus beings the Cuban Missile Crisis.

 

Robert Kennedy saves the day and prevents all out nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union.

 

He gets JFK and Kurucheif to talk and stop the escalation.

 

We allow Cubans in our country to weaken the Cuban govt.

 

 

Alliance for Progess legislation creates...

 

The Peace Corps - go to countries and help do stuff.

 

Limited to dealing with educational issues, nothing military.

 

About this same time, if you were in social sciences, huge amounts of funding became available for research in South America.

 

The funding for this came from George Washington University - a front for CIA activities.

 

Project Camelot

 

The Kennedy administration was likened to Camelot.

 

It was revealed in a cocktail party in Chile by a State Dept official what the aims of the Camelot Project were.

 

Salvador Alende - turns country socialist

 

We had invested in Chile, and Chile nationalized "our" infastructure.

 

Project Camelot - South American research for the CIA to make a "cookbook" on how to destabilize and overthrow South American govts.

 

It was a response to the actions of Castro and Che Guevara.

 

So is immigration is the real problem?

 

 

Basic Sociology

 

Us and Them

 

One of the things that happens to all of us, before we're born.

 

Ashley Montegue - Prenatal Influences

 

At the time the assumption was that people were born as blank slates "tabla rasa".

 

Montegue says that inutero the infant learns about the society before it is born.

 

It knows the voice patterns of important people.

 

It knows sleep and wake patterns of the society.

 

It knows about light and dark.

 

We're born into a society and begin to learn the culture and social rules (or norms)

 

Norms - The stuff we're supposed to do. The rules of the society.

 

Culture - beliefs, attitude, understanding about how we fit in to the world, our world.

 

The process sets us apart from other animals.

 

Compared to other animals, we are the weakest, the slowest, least able to compete physically.

 

What we do have is our brain; creativity.

 

We are the only creature that inhabits every niche on the planet.

 

We eat everything. And we do.

 

We live every place. And do.

 

What sets us free also traps us. As we become more socialized, we take on the the language, beliefs, norms of the society we live in.

 

Therefore, when we come across other points of view exernal to our culture, we come up with us and them.

 

Ethnocenterism - the belief that one's culture is superior to others.

 

Critical Thinking - Have the ability to examine other points of view, other methodologies, other ways of thinking.

 

 

Sociology - getting outside of what traps us (culture)

 

BOOK - Occidentalism (check it out!): What's going on world wide is a reaction to "things western".

 

Check out history of how leaders use "cultural purity" to justify their actions.

 

 

Hunter-gatherer societies

 

Non-stratified societies - egalitarian

 

Walls exist in the archaeological record only after the start of farming.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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