Susan Samara
Sociology 385
Blog #
As humans, we want to be able to tell someone to do something and they obey and
listen to us right away. We want that feeling that we have the “power” over
someone. What I described is my knowledge and intake on power and what most
humans believe it means. However, after reading a piece from the great Max
Weber, he really opened up my eyes, provided me with more knowledge and made me realize a lot of things that I didn’t know about the real meaning behind power.
He connects it with two terms I never really knew much about until learning it
from Weber; domination and discipline.
Well, according to Weber, the term power “will be used to refer to every
possibility within a social relationship of imposing one’s own will, even
against opposition, without regard to the basis for this possibility” (Weber,
38). Basically, power is opposing ones will. Then he describes what domination
and discipline has to do with power and how they are strongly connected to
power. As weber explains, domination “refers to the possibility of finding a
specified group of people to obey a command of a determinate content; discipline
means the possibility of finding a specifiable number of people who in virtue of
an habitual attitude will obey a command in a prompt automatic unthinking
matter”(weber 38). The question that is asked for domination most of the times
is if people will obey what you ask them to do or if they won’t. Weber says that
power is sociologically diffuse. The knowledge that I got from this is that you
have certain situations in which you can find someone that will obey your
command, which is why weber thinks power is sociologically diffuse. If that
command is obeyed, then you have dominated them. However, when you discipline
someone, it’s when they command what you ask them to do without them thinking
twice about it.
How I would analyze power, domination and discipline and what Max meant
by it are experiences in my life. Having power is very important when it comes
to our parents in my family. I come from a culture where our parents are very
high and passionate about “power”. I come from a culture where it is very
important to obey what our parents tell us to do and if we don’t, then we are
known as the“disrespectful kids” in the family. None of our relatives will
respect us if they knew that we didn’t listen or obey one of the commands our
parents asked us to do. If our parents tell us not to go out, run an errand or
clean the house, then we have to obey their command without thinking twice about
it. “No”is not an option or answer in my family. I don’t remember saying no too
often when my mom or dad asked me to do something. I remember when my dad asked me to go check the mail once when I was doing my homework. I told him that I can’t because of my homework and as soon as he gave me the “look” I got up right
away and checked it without thinking twice about it. A situation like that is
when you know how much power your parents really do have over you. Sometimes youdon’t think about it, but after reading Weber’s piece on Power, it really made
me realize how much they do have power over us. I would say that my parents
fall underneath the discipline category. I find myself obeying my parent’s
commands now a day without even thinking about it, I obey their commands un
think fully. My parents don’t have to ask their selves if we will obey their
command or not because they know we will. That’s what Weber was explaining
about discipline, “uncritical and unresisting obedience by a large group of
people to the extent that is a matter of habit” (weber,
38).
If I had to analyze domination, it’s a situation when someone wonders if
people will obey what they ask them to do so or not. That’s when you know that
domination is not as powerful as discipline. I can give a real life example of
this as well. I worked at TCF bank for 3 years and was a teller for a year and
supervisor for 2 years. Within that year, I got very close to the other tellers
and I was always known as the “sweet and nice Susie”. We would listen to what
our managers asked us to do and we would have days where we would talk behind their backs if we didn’t like something they did. All of us tellers bonded and
were more like friends. However, my manager decided to promote me to a higher
position. With my good work ethic, she promoted me to a supervisor position
which meant that the other tellers that I was close with weren’t on my same
level. I was supposed to have more “power” then them. They were supposed to
obey my commands and do as I ask them to do. However, because I was a teller
like them, it was hard to believe that they would obey my commands. Even though
a supervisor position should fall underneath “discipline”, my situation was
more of a “domination” situation because I didn’t know if they would really obey
my commands or not because of the fact that they didn’t see me as having more
“power” then them since we were tellers together once and on the same level. I
was right; some of them weren’t obeying my commands because they didn’t like
the fact that I had more power over them.
We all can have our own knowledge, intake and opinion on power. However,
Max Weber has his own knowledge and opinion about power. His opinion and
knowledge on it makes you realize a lot of things you didn’t know before.
Domination and discipline are two terms that I never connected with real life
experiences or situations until Max Weber provided me with his knowledge on
it.
Sociology 385
Blog #
As humans, we want to be able to tell someone to do something and they obey and
listen to us right away. We want that feeling that we have the “power” over
someone. What I described is my knowledge and intake on power and what most
humans believe it means. However, after reading a piece from the great Max
Weber, he really opened up my eyes, provided me with more knowledge and made me realize a lot of things that I didn’t know about the real meaning behind power.
He connects it with two terms I never really knew much about until learning it
from Weber; domination and discipline.
Well, according to Weber, the term power “will be used to refer to every
possibility within a social relationship of imposing one’s own will, even
against opposition, without regard to the basis for this possibility” (Weber,
38). Basically, power is opposing ones will. Then he describes what domination
and discipline has to do with power and how they are strongly connected to
power. As weber explains, domination “refers to the possibility of finding a
specified group of people to obey a command of a determinate content; discipline
means the possibility of finding a specifiable number of people who in virtue of
an habitual attitude will obey a command in a prompt automatic unthinking
matter”(weber 38). The question that is asked for domination most of the times
is if people will obey what you ask them to do or if they won’t. Weber says that
power is sociologically diffuse. The knowledge that I got from this is that you
have certain situations in which you can find someone that will obey your
command, which is why weber thinks power is sociologically diffuse. If that
command is obeyed, then you have dominated them. However, when you discipline
someone, it’s when they command what you ask them to do without them thinking
twice about it.
How I would analyze power, domination and discipline and what Max meant
by it are experiences in my life. Having power is very important when it comes
to our parents in my family. I come from a culture where our parents are very
high and passionate about “power”. I come from a culture where it is very
important to obey what our parents tell us to do and if we don’t, then we are
known as the“disrespectful kids” in the family. None of our relatives will
respect us if they knew that we didn’t listen or obey one of the commands our
parents asked us to do. If our parents tell us not to go out, run an errand or
clean the house, then we have to obey their command without thinking twice about
it. “No”is not an option or answer in my family. I don’t remember saying no too
often when my mom or dad asked me to do something. I remember when my dad asked me to go check the mail once when I was doing my homework. I told him that I can’t because of my homework and as soon as he gave me the “look” I got up right
away and checked it without thinking twice about it. A situation like that is
when you know how much power your parents really do have over you. Sometimes youdon’t think about it, but after reading Weber’s piece on Power, it really made
me realize how much they do have power over us. I would say that my parents
fall underneath the discipline category. I find myself obeying my parent’s
commands now a day without even thinking about it, I obey their commands un
think fully. My parents don’t have to ask their selves if we will obey their
command or not because they know we will. That’s what Weber was explaining
about discipline, “uncritical and unresisting obedience by a large group of
people to the extent that is a matter of habit” (weber,
38).
If I had to analyze domination, it’s a situation when someone wonders if
people will obey what they ask them to do so or not. That’s when you know that
domination is not as powerful as discipline. I can give a real life example of
this as well. I worked at TCF bank for 3 years and was a teller for a year and
supervisor for 2 years. Within that year, I got very close to the other tellers
and I was always known as the “sweet and nice Susie”. We would listen to what
our managers asked us to do and we would have days where we would talk behind their backs if we didn’t like something they did. All of us tellers bonded and
were more like friends. However, my manager decided to promote me to a higher
position. With my good work ethic, she promoted me to a supervisor position
which meant that the other tellers that I was close with weren’t on my same
level. I was supposed to have more “power” then them. They were supposed to
obey my commands and do as I ask them to do. However, because I was a teller
like them, it was hard to believe that they would obey my commands. Even though
a supervisor position should fall underneath “discipline”, my situation was
more of a “domination” situation because I didn’t know if they would really obey
my commands or not because of the fact that they didn’t see me as having more
“power” then them since we were tellers together once and on the same level. I
was right; some of them weren’t obeying my commands because they didn’t like
the fact that I had more power over them.
We all can have our own knowledge, intake and opinion on power. However,
Max Weber has his own knowledge and opinion about power. His opinion and
knowledge on it makes you realize a lot of things you didn’t know before.
Domination and discipline are two terms that I never connected with real life
experiences or situations until Max Weber provided me with his knowledge on
it.