Cut to the good part at 4:12" in when Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges begins discussing how POWER is being arrested from the people in our democracy. He talks about the power of civil disobedience and what happened in the Occupy movement.

Rosa Parks 50 years ago refused to sit in the back of the bus and it took 5 years before real change was evident nationally. That was her political speech act.

It's your job to do some background work on who Hedges is, how influential he is and what he has been up to lately relative to the Obama adminsitration.

I am curious what you each know about Occupy and what you know about the points Hedges makes? How have you enacted your civil liberties to speak about political issues that matter to you in public (whether oral or written or artistic)? How have you to date enacted the power of your voice or influence. Give us an example no matter how small in the comment section.

This is optional but it's essential that we begin to share with one another as a group. 75 minutes in class is not enough.

An upcoming task that each of you will be responsible for is creating your own PERSONAL LEARNING NETWORK (PLN) to develop your voice in an area that matters to you. That area may be related to your final political speech act but if you have no idea yet what area that might be, just start looking into an area that matters (i.e., fashion, literature, politics, health, finance, saving money, domestic abuse, etc.)
Here are two great resources for learning how to create a PLN. Be sure to Google the term on Wikipedia and get an overview of what a Personal Learning Network is:

• Kathy Schock's Guide to Everything: Creating Your PLN 
• 35 Ways to Build Your Own PLN Online
  

SPECIAL REQUEST: I am looking for a blog facilitator or two from the course to post once a week on things related to our discussion and to coordinate this with me each week. This is perfect for someone who is not a technophobe but you do not need to KNOW IT ALL to do it. This is great for a self-starter

During the course, we will examine primary source documents and speeches by people who helped shape history with their public presentations of their self in public speech acts (incl. song, art, dance or other).

The idea came before I found Howard Zinn's The People Speak DVD. But it was as if it was sent to me as a source we could use.

WATCH THIS!  Check out the 2009 piece on Howard Zinn on Bill Moyers Journal here. Here is the intro to the segment. Make sure you WATCH the piece with Howard Zinn for context on who he was and what he stood for.

December 11, 2009
Howard Zinn died at the age of 87 on January 27, 2010

"They're willing to let people think about mild reforms and little changes, and incremental changes, but they don't want people to think that we could actually transform this country."

Howard Zinn has long been known as the historian of the American everyman and woman. His groundbreaking work, THE PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, turned history on its head — concentrating on the power of the people to effect change, not just the deeds of great men and those in political power.

Now selections from his collection of voices from the American past are performed by actors, poets and writers in a new documentary directed by Matt Damon which is airing on The History Channel. Find out more about some of those voices below, and delve further into American history through the JOURNAL's coverage of American history on-air and online.

• "Ain't I a Woman?" Sojourner Truth (1851)
• The Rev. J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. "A Narrative of Real Life"(1860)
• Mark Twain, "Comments on the Moro Massacre" (1906)
• Industrial Workers of the World, "Why the IWW is not Patriotic to the United States" (1918)
• Langston Hughes, "Ballad of Roosevelt" (1934)
• Dalton Trumbo, "Johnny Got His Gun" (1939)
• Daniel Ellsberg; "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers" (2003)

Welcome Great Ones!

The image in the header of our blog for POL/SOC 3062 The Political Sociology of Courage is of the unknown "Tank Man" in Beijing, China who summoned the courage to face dozens of tanks in the face of the Tiananmen Square Massacre of students in 1989. 2013 marks the 24th anniversary of the event in June. To appreciate the awe-someness of his act under a Communist regime, click here to see the larger view of this scene.

Why is it so hard to imagine doing something so courageous (or was it reckless)?  Even in our democracy, touted as the greatest in the world, these kinds of acts and even small acts of courage seem rare. What then is courage? How do we learn to be courageous? Can we teach ourselves or it is a purely social act, a public act?

This course will examine power and the text we will use Readings in Contemporary Political Sociology ed. by Kate Nash will be our literary guide, but the real grit of the course will come from you. You and I will examine how power works sociologically in our own lives. How you and I as individuals can galvanize power in community or in social ecologies where and when issues matter. This is about creating a sustainable and ethical community and civilization of power where inequalities, differences and money matter. That said, it is the power of your voice in all the possible ramifications of that that matter most in any political structure or ecology.

On day one of our course we begin with one-minute talks from the class. Then we will watch the documentary The People Speak by historian and author of the People's History of the United States Professor Howard Zinn. Watch the trailer below and test out the comment section below after watching. You will be asked to blog or comment here once a week for preparation in our dialogues.

The major theme for the course is COURAGE and the sub-themes will examine sociological theories of stigma introduced by sociologist Robert Merton; we will examine what constitutes a "speech act" under our free speech; and how Erving Goffman's work on the Presentation of the Self plays a big role in how and why we may resist being courageous. Where would you love to be courageous in the classroom? What about in your life?

Why teach a political sociology course as a practical exercise and examination of courage? That's for you to answer this term. I have my own reasons and it's too soon to share. All you really should know is that I am committed to empowering emerging adults to own their own greatness and this is another one of my experiments in that. Welcome to the experience! -- Prof. G