Society has become fragmented with the loss of community, yet at the same time, we are managing to stay intact. This is because of our widespread pursuit of a common societal goal: the American Dream. When thinking of the America Dream, most think of a nice house with a perfect family, a great job, a nice car. At the root of all of this is money. We all desire money. In the media, we are constantly bombarded by messages telling us that with material wealth, comes happiness. We become greedy, and will do anything to attain this goal. Most use legitimate means to become successful. We work hard, get a good education and a good job. However, in our society, there is much emphasis placed on the goal itself, with weak emphasis on the legitimate ways of achieving it. This leads to a strain in society and creates innovators. Innovators are people who become creative and use illegitimate means to achieve this goal. For example, when someone is in need of money, rather than picking up a few extra shifts, they may just rob a bank. This is not an accepted way of getting money, but it is getting money nonetheless. Merton defines these illegitimate acts as being illegal, and this is where wilding comes in.
Wilding
Wilding is basically any act done in complete self interest at the expense of others. This act is not necessarily illegal, yet it is always harmful. For example, extreme cases of wilding could be murdering someone for their life insurance policy or robbing a bank. However, everyone engages in wilding, most cases being much less serious and at times very accepted. For example, look at the show The Apprentice. People are constantly backstabbing each other, lying and cheating simply to get ahead. This is wilding since it is for self benefit, and it harms someone else. This is very common in competitive jobs. The bottom line is, wilding is the term for both legal and non-illegal actions performed in self interest at the expense of others. It is interesting to see how we accept some actions that are just as harmful as others that are not.
It is evident that we socially construct what we label as criminal, when at times, it is the very same act as something completely normal.
Example:
Someone is selling a drug to make a profit. One is selling Prozac, one is selling marijuana. The act itself is exactly the same, yet we view one as criminal and one as completely normal and encouraged.
What is also funny:
There are 106,000 deaths per year IN HOSPITALS from side effects and reactions with prescribed medications...marijuana? zero. All illegal drugs: 10,000
Recently, I watched an episode of Law&Order where there was an example of the strain theory. The case involved a man that was paying girls to have sex with him and exploiting them in videos. Because he paid the girls, they felt that they were unable to go get help. This man was making a large sum of money off of the video tapes. He used this money to buy himself nice clothes and cars. He also used the money to live a party lifestyle. This shows the strain theory because this man used illegitemate ways to obtain money. He was using the money to fulfill his idea of the American Dream. He can be called an innovator. This man can also be called a "wilder". He exploited girls and emotionally harmed them in order to get ahead. His acts were simply benefiting himself, while harming the girls. It was interesting to see an example of wilding on Law&Order because we only talked about examples of this on reality shows such as the Apprentice and Survivor. It was really cool to see how some people are really innovative when it comes to making money. They will do ANYTHING to get what they want.
ReplyDeleteOur discussion on 'wilding' was very interesting. I didn't realize how often I see 'wilding' in my everday life. I work in an office during the summer and it can be very competitive between full-time employees. I sit back and watch as co-workers manipulate, lie, and backstab one another to try and get ahead in their work. Also, in all the reality TV shows that involve winning money and working as a "team" are an example of 'wilding'. The players manipulate, lie and backstab to better themselves and make the money. Almost anyone will use the idea of 'wilding' if it means better themselves and their lives (especially for money).
ReplyDeleteI believe in the idea of the strain theory. That people are so engulfed in reaching their goals of attainment they do not consider the means of getting there. Our society is at fault for teaching and accepting the behaviors of such people. We teach that everyone should have money, beauty, etc but we do not teach how to get there when you are not from a middle class educated family.
ReplyDeleteWilding is interesting to me. I think that it is important for people to compete with each other to get ahead in life. Without this competition and the ability to go higher on the ladder everyone would be at the same lever. There would be no reason to do your best, just keep up to par because you are not striving for anything. This country is marked by its engineers, inventors, academia's, etc to take that competition away would take away the strive for better. But it is also imperative that we address the problem of illegal wilding as it is dangerous and not about competition or climbing the ladder with your skills. It is just about cheating to get to the top, which could cause to be destructive to the whole process.
We socially construct what is criminal and what is not and it seems easier for something to become illegal than it is for something illegal to become legal again. Even with constant evidence proving that marijuana is not as harmful as it was thought to be when placed illegal, there are only very subtle changes made in the outrageous laws. But prescription drugs that are labeled as legal and beneficial still stand against the piles of evidence against their usage. I do not understand this.