Reflection on "The Forest and the Trees"

Choose three significant QUOTES from the text and explain what they mean, their relevance and how they have shaped your understanding of this text.

This week's reading was an excerpt from Allan G. Johnson's introduction to sociological practice "The Forest and the Trees: Sociology as Life, Practice, and Promise". In this chapter, Allan addresses his definition of sociology, provides an understanding of the concept of "systems", introduces a "systems orientation" to understanding social issues and discusses the pitfalls of an individualistic orientation to solving social issues. In today's blog, I will discuss three quotes which greatly enhanced my understanding of the reading and gave me greater insight into the author's purpose.

Early in the piece, Johnson posits that our conception of society and social problems is distorted by the overwhelmingly prevalent belief in individualism, the idea that we, as individuals, shape our destiny and are solely responsible for the consequences. By adhering to an individualist stance, we are more likely to propose solutions to social problems that put responsibility on the individuals, as opposed to the structures or systems in place that allow such problems to exist in the first place. In order to begin to bring about lasting change, Johnson argues that we must first become aware that "We are always participating in something larger than ourselves and if we want to understand social life and what happens to people in it, we have to understand what it is that we're participating in and how we participate in it" (Johnson, 12; italics in original). This quote enhanced my understanding of the text because it clearly articulated the author's takeaway message and made me realize the rest of the text was going to focus on how we become aware of what and how we participate in society.

Another significant quote in the text occurred within Johnson's continued discussion of the role that individualistic attitudes play in perpetuating ineffective solutions to problems. Johnson argues that  privileged individuals often take offense when oppressed individuals call society "racist" or "sexist" because they falsely equate society with people and often view injustice with a sense of guilt. In order to alleviate this guilt and help bring about change, Johnson argues that the solution is to "realize that the system isn't me and I'm not the system" (Johnson, 16). This quote enhanced my understanding of Johnson's argument because it made me realize that guilt or actions completed out of guilt will only lead to short-term solutions whose ultimate goal (whether realized or not) is to make the privileged feel as though they do not share responsibility to alleviate perpetuating structures of injustice and oppression. In a sense, the privileged can rationalize that they are not directly participating in perpetuating an oppressive society, despite the fact that they frequently enjoy numerous benefits as a result of this skewed system.

A final quote that I found particularly significant to my understanding of the text occurred in the context of Johnson's discussion of individual versus systemic change. Johnson argues that systemic change does not have to ignore individuals making changes in their lives; rather, we must acknowledge that although "[s]ystems don't change without people changing at one point or another,... no system can change through individual change alone" (Johnson, 31). This enhanced my understanding of the text because it made me realize that even though systematic change cannot occur solely through individual change, this does not mean that many individuals making conscious changes in their lives is unimportant for the health of society. Without a few individuals becoming critical of structures and making personal changes, we would have an entire society which is completely blind to the processes of privilege and oppression operating within our "purely democratic and equal opportunity" society.