Bilan
20th March 2009, 04:23
The distinction Mills makes between private troubles and public issues reflects the manifestation of social issues on a personal level, and personal issues on a social level. The two are inseparable, but can only be understood in their separate manifestations. The contradiction reiterates the inherent alienated nature of the separation, and that of, the faade which covers the social relationship between people, and is only understood on a personal level, or on a social level, but never as both. Or, as said by Guy Debord, What binds the spectators together is no more than an irreversible relation at the very center which maintains their isolation.(1967:22)
Mills states that, personal troubles are values cherished by an individual (that have been threatened) and that these troubles are relative to their immediate surroundings, as are their solutions, whilst Public Issues have to do with the organization of many such milieu into the institutions of a historical society as a whole, (and the interrelationship which) forms the larger structure of social and historical life. (1959:8)
Mills characterizes the two well, but goes on to ignore the negation of the relationship between the two, by saying the resolution lie(s) within the individual as a biographical entity. This is fictitious, because the Public issues existence necessitates that its felt on an individual level, as a personal trouble; Personal troubles reflect, in the most basic form, a public issue. Hence the unity of separation (1967:22) between the two is inseparable.
We can look to unemployment as an example. Its predicted by the end of this year that an additional 50 million people will be unemployed if the global economy continues to deteriorate (ILO:2009). This is a public issue: it is caused by the antagonisms within the mode of production on a global level, and is thus social or public, and its solution requires us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society (Mills, 9). The current Crisis of the Global economy cannot be solved by a personal response, but only through a questioning of the real nature and origins of the crisis and the validity of the mode of production itself.
This crisis, like others, from Terrorism, to Divorce rates, to decreases in tourism caused by Climatic or Political issues, reiterates the necessity of a Social response for personal troubles. The crises of individuals represent the personal manifestation of the conflict between the dominant ideologies of society, with that of the material reality.
Mills addresses the alienated form of society in the text, illustrating that Mans chief danger today lies in the unruly forces of contemporary society itself, with its alienating methods of production, its enveloping techniques of political domination, its international anarchy in a word, its pervasive transformations of the very nature of man and the conditions and aims of his life (1959:13).
What Mills discusses here has not changed: the mode of production, the chaotic nature of the global economy, the political domination, despite it appearing to be different, remains the same. The difference is only in the appearance. The origin of public issues and personal troubles remains the same, as does our subordination to it. The entrapment which Mills describes remains unaltered in substance, but different in appearance.
References:
Debord, G. (1967), The Society of the Spectacle, Practical Paradise Publications, Compendium Books, London.
Mills, C. W. (1959), the Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press, Oxford
The International Labor Organization, http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_101462/index.htm (http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_101462/index.htm) Downloaded 20th of March, 2009.
Mills states that, personal troubles are values cherished by an individual (that have been threatened) and that these troubles are relative to their immediate surroundings, as are their solutions, whilst Public Issues have to do with the organization of many such milieu into the institutions of a historical society as a whole, (and the interrelationship which) forms the larger structure of social and historical life. (1959:8)
Mills characterizes the two well, but goes on to ignore the negation of the relationship between the two, by saying the resolution lie(s) within the individual as a biographical entity. This is fictitious, because the Public issues existence necessitates that its felt on an individual level, as a personal trouble; Personal troubles reflect, in the most basic form, a public issue. Hence the unity of separation (1967:22) between the two is inseparable.
We can look to unemployment as an example. Its predicted by the end of this year that an additional 50 million people will be unemployed if the global economy continues to deteriorate (ILO:2009). This is a public issue: it is caused by the antagonisms within the mode of production on a global level, and is thus social or public, and its solution requires us to consider the economic and political institutions of the society (Mills, 9). The current Crisis of the Global economy cannot be solved by a personal response, but only through a questioning of the real nature and origins of the crisis and the validity of the mode of production itself.
This crisis, like others, from Terrorism, to Divorce rates, to decreases in tourism caused by Climatic or Political issues, reiterates the necessity of a Social response for personal troubles. The crises of individuals represent the personal manifestation of the conflict between the dominant ideologies of society, with that of the material reality.
Mills addresses the alienated form of society in the text, illustrating that Mans chief danger today lies in the unruly forces of contemporary society itself, with its alienating methods of production, its enveloping techniques of political domination, its international anarchy in a word, its pervasive transformations of the very nature of man and the conditions and aims of his life (1959:13).
What Mills discusses here has not changed: the mode of production, the chaotic nature of the global economy, the political domination, despite it appearing to be different, remains the same. The difference is only in the appearance. The origin of public issues and personal troubles remains the same, as does our subordination to it. The entrapment which Mills describes remains unaltered in substance, but different in appearance.
References:
Debord, G. (1967), The Society of the Spectacle, Practical Paradise Publications, Compendium Books, London.
Mills, C. W. (1959), the Sociological Imagination, Oxford University Press, Oxford
The International Labor Organization, http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_101462/index.htm (http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Press_releases/lang--en/WCMS_101462/index.htm) Downloaded 20th of March, 2009.