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Date: Mon, 10 Mar 1997 16:46:34 -0700 (MST)
From: Johnson Brett Edward <bjohnson@sobek.Colorado.EDU>
To: socgrad@csf.colorado.edu
Subject: Consciousness 
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hey-o,

I thought that it would be a good time to introduce myself to the list.  
My name is Brett Johnson and I am a second year doctoral student at the 
Univ. of Colorado-Boulder in sociology.  I received my B.A. in sociology 
from the Univ. of Northern Iowa in 1991 and I love to play Billy Bragg 
songs on my acoustic guitar.

Some of my interests in sociology are: gender, demography, and Marxism.
  
I currently am developing a new way to teach a  Self & Consciousness 
class at CU.  The course that is currently taught here is too focused, in my 
opinion, on the individual.  Psychological types and self-interest are 
the concepts that have been extensively examined. The common thread that 
I am interested in having the students read (and re-read),as a framework for 
the class, is Marx's writings on "alienated labor" in the Economic and 
Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. 
In short, he refers to modern human's separation from control over her/his 
labor, separation from nature, separation from other humans, and subsequently
alienation from her/himself, i.e. from her/his true nature as a 
communal/social human being.

I am planning then to focus the class on gaining a consciousness of life 
that is focused on our impact on the world around us instead of exclusively 
on self-interest.  One way that I plan to do this is by using 
Joe Dominguez' book called "Your money or your life" which is based on 
bringing your economic expenditures in line with your values (de-alienating 
your economic life).  I also want to include writings by Durkheim 
discussing the important contributions of community on the well-being of 
the individual and the society.  I am also interested in showing some of 
the negative effects of "rampant" individualism in the world.  I have 
also thought about including some works on how the media influences our 
conception of the world and who controls the media.

In summary, the class would be focused on de-alienating the individual 
from each of the previously mentioned areas: nature, other people, their 
economic lives, and essentially from her/himself.  I am extremely 
passionate about having people adopt a collective consciousness, not in 
the Durkheimian sense, but in the sense that they consider their impact 
on the collective as a criterion of behavior.

I have already received some suggestions about implementing some symbolic 
interactionist works into the course. I am excited to hear from anyone 
who would like to share their insights.


brett

bjohnson@sobek.colorado.edu


"The revolution is just a t-shirt away."
			
			Billy Bragg

"It's so easy to love, it's so easy to hate; but it takes strength to be 
gentle and kind"
					morrissey