Serving in Florida and Framing Class

I never cease to be amazed by the content of this text book. Wow. The readings this week were amazing! Both authors brought light to issues that are usually acknowledged with a shrug and a sigh of "That's life." I think sometimes we take our liberties for granted and don't fully understand the capacity we are endowed with as American citizens. 

The first piece entitled Serving in Florida by Barbara Ehrenreich gave the reader amazing insight into the life of someone trying to attain the American dream under seemingly impossible conditions. I think the reason this piece is so effective is because of the mass amount of imagery Ehrenreich uses to describe virtually everything. I could actually visualize myself in every setting she described. I thought this was an interesting experiment. One that I personally would not want to embark on. I think the reason Ehrenreich decided to conduct such a ludicrous experiment was because she could. Nearing the end of the piece Ehrenreich says "I had gone into this venture in the spirit of science[...]but somewhere along the line, in the tunnel vision imposed by long shifts and relentless concentration, it became a test of myself, and clearly I have failed." The most important thing Ehrenreich accomplished through writing this piece is to allow the reader to question the remains (if any) of someone who has spent their life chasing the dollar. 

The second piece, Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption by Diana Kendall was genius in it's purest form. Research has actually proven that TV is an excellent form of mind programming, which is just an ornate way of saying mind control. TV is effective because of the hypnotic state it lulls us into, this causes our right brain to take over, completely diminishing our cognitive and analytical thinking. It's no surprise that class framing has been found lurking in media, we were so mesmerized by Ryan Seacrests dazzling smile to even notice, or care. Kendall nicely summarizes her thoughts in the last paragraph by saying "Some analysts believe that the media amuse and lull  audiences rather than stimulating them to think, but we must not become complacent, thinking that everthing is all right as our society and world become increasingly divided between the 'haves' and 'have nots.'" The frightening reality is we are complacent.