The Forest and the Trees

This is a summary and a response to the book, "The Forest and the Trees" by Allan Johnson

The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and Promise
Sociology is about life, it is the systems of life and the people in those systems. It is not just about the systems or just about the individuals but it is about when people participate in social systems. It is not just about the forest or the trees it is about both together. The social system affects people as they participate in the system; it affects how they think, feel, and behave. People make systems happen, yet these systems lay out paths of least resistance that shape how people participate in these systems.
Since everything connects in a system, all the events are contextual. Therefore, looking at just the individuals in a situation does not interpret the social system. Systems can develop in such a way that they promote evil occurrences without the people involved in them being evil themselves. There are problems inside the social system that are systemic. The individuals participate in these evils because of social conditioning within that culture. One of these problems built into social systems is race privilege. This privilege becomes a normal part of the way this society operates; it is a part of the system but individuals continue it. Therefore, individual solutions cannot solve the problem of racism. The problem is on the level of the system including how the individuals participate in the system. The solution must then be systemic which then affects the individuals in this system. This connection between people and systems is very complex and this creates social life.
People construct reality because of certain physical sensations. Words construct perceived reality as do symbols. This “reality” consists of ideas that individuals develop about the perceived world around them. This “reality” then creates culture. Culture is a way to understand and develop beliefs and values. Beliefs help people decide between true and false. Whereas values help, people choose between options that may be similar or equivalent. Morality is also important here. It is the feeling of attachment that binds people to the group and its moral rules. It is living within the norms for that system or within the ideas of what people ought to do. This “reality” blends with emotions and results in cultural attitudes. People’s perceptions of reality form the culture then the culture forms the ideas of reality for the people involved in that culture. Thus, it creates beliefs, values, norms, and attitudes in a certain way that determines individuals’ way of living and thinking.
The concept of the structure of social life is a key to understanding the social life. Structure is about the way social relations are organized and how this affects certain distributions among the individuals in that culture. A status is a concept in the culture that indicates position and location. Then a role is a set of beliefs about how the person in a particular status should live in connection to the values, norms and beliefs of that society. These statuses and roles determine interaction in relationships and determine the distribution of power and many other issues in the context of the society. These issues can also enforce inequalities that exist in the system.
People and systems also exist in relationship to the physical environment. The way physical space is used is determined by the thinking of the culture. Then cultures use the environment to produce according to their desires to expand. This expansion can produce surplus and inequalities as well.
Individuals to locate themselves in the system must develop the concept of “self.” This self develops as we grow into adulthood and is a socially constructed view. Individuals develop
this self concept in learning to relate to others. This is a basic part of sociology. As a result, individuals live in their cultural reality in its values, beliefs, and attitudes; this is the foundation of participation in social systems. The social system exists as those individuals in it actively shape and support it. It is about the forest and the tress.
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Response -
I realize that all of us operate with certain bias' and there is no bias free application of reality. This author seemed to operate from a Marxist bias with everything surrounding the issues of economy and power. Not that those are not important issues. However, this bias tilted his conclusions in a way that were predictable at best. I am not saying I would challenge him on sociology as the science. He definitely has a firm grip of the process but his "reality" once injected into the process moves the conclusions in certain directions.I realize that my bias is Christian theology and I think the main issues of society are spiritual rather than economic. But again that is predictable since I come from a Christian culture. Though my early roots were not Christian even though I was raised in the USA. In his view on population he said it is a common view. This hardly seems like a method to build a philosophy on in addressing systemic social problems. I realize this is a bit of a critique and I am not saying I know more about sociology than Allan Johnson I am simply saying that his bias proved the point of the book. It is about people and systems. People make up the systems but the values, beliefs, and attitudes of the individuals in the system are driven by the system. So how do we break out of the circle? I think this is one of the questions for sociology. I think it lies somewhere in the realm of entering each other's cultural systems for understanding, dialogue and challenge that must be deeply pondered and evaluated.