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Transcription
In this podcast episode, Jordan Coombs explores the movie "Contagion" and its relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film depicts a society coping with a viral outbreak and explores various social issues that arise from such a crisis. It shows how quickly a virus can spread and how it affects people's behavior, sometimes leading to unethical decisions. Jordan shares his personal experience with the pandemic and discusses societal opinions of the film. He also analyzes the social issues through different sociological theories, including de-individualization, functionalism, conflict theory, and interactionalist theory. He presents contrasting articles that discuss the impact of crises on behavior and the importance of following societal norms. Based on his research, he concludes that the main social issue represented in "Contagion" is the collective reaction to loss of identity and societal norms during a crisis. Hello everyone, my name is Jordan Coombs and I would like to welcome you all to this podcast examining the contagion film. My hope is for you all to join me on a remnant journey regarding the social experience we all faced in some way during the COVID-19 pandemic that was introduced a few years ago, bringing out an isolating time of our lives and thus explaining how adversity was necessary to overcome those obstacles. Officially released in 2011, much prior to the current social pandemic we face today, Contagion portrays the process of a society coping with a newly discovered viral outbreak that wipes out millions of individuals in the human population. Given that this movie occurs throughout multiple regions of the world as the disease spreads across the globe at unprecedented rates, the main locations of this film follow suit with a woman named Beth Emhoff, who has been identified as the first patient to contract this virus. Throughout the film, an array of distinctive character groups symbolizing social classes exhibit a real-world scenario that causes immense chaos and confusion, which in time may lead to some unpredicted actions that would never occur if it were not for such an historic event taking precedence over our rationality. Multiple social issues are symbolized in Contagion. The first in this film was how quickly the virus spread unnoticed or without concern. Furthermore, the film manifested just how quickly a virus can spread, as fast as handing a cashier a credit card, touching elevator buttons, trail railings, or bus seats. Concisely, anything we do on a common basis socially had only caused the spiral to deepen in terms of an epidemic brewing ever so swiftly in their society. The second primary social issue highlighted in this film was the change in behavior multiple people expressed because of the pandemic, blocking their ability to apply logic and ethical judgment during shared difficult experiences. Some actions that high-valued members of our society, such as doctors, politicians, and business people, made unethical decisions that in any other moment would have had drastic consequences to their livelihood, but from the time of mourning, their on-the-spot choices either saved them or cost them their lives. Personally, this film has a deep resonation with me because of my personal experience when COVID-19 took over what I considered a normal social life. At the time of this virus being introduced, I was supposed to come back to my senior year from spring break to finish off the last few months of my high school life and look forward to graduation. As many of you may have experienced as I did, school never resumed and online school was strictly implemented, as well as hardly leaving the house or seeing friends. In the blink of an eye, prom, graduation, and all social events were canceled. Societal opinions of Contagion included that of the once-renowned critic of Chicago's Sun-Times, Robert Egbert, an elderly Concasian male who was 79 years old when he wrote his private opinions of this film back in 2011, shortly after the film released. He believed that Contagion was a realistic ideology of how germs can spread within humanity, marketing the scenes he viewed as thrilling, frightening, and potentially disturbing to what humans could experience in real time. It is likely Egbert's old age had a large factor in how he perceives how this movie is effective on society. Given he had seen multiple illnesses cause chaos among society throughout his life, this film integrated his notion that all viruses originate from somewhere and will run through the number of hosts necessary before it dies off. Not much else can be done but to do what is always recommended with germs, which is to wash our hands and to stay sanitized. Sociological analysis of these issues will illuminate what obligates an individual to break the society code and how successful or not these people are when they do something that is unimaginable of their nature. As our journey develops amongst this podcast finale, I hope that I will be able to answer what drives our rebellion from what is considered normal behavior, and if that decision is scientifically successful or not. With my assumption of the film being so educational and inspirational to my similar experience that is shown in the film, Conflict Theory specifically implements that I ensure to observe any exploitation characters may exhibit that I may otherwise miss without staying mindful of other viewpoints and perspectives. In the case of a viral outbreak causing the ascendancy of the exhibited changes in human behavior during a time of difficulty in a chaotic society, the phenomenon term best suited for this circumstance would be de-individualization. The term de-individualization is defined as a behavioral process that implements individuals losing their sense of identity as a member of society, resulting in isolated demeanors and avoidance of responsibility. In Contagion and in the COVID-19 pandemic, we see this phenomenon take place during at the stampede of community members desperately ransacking pharmacies and grocery stores to retrieve a homeopathic medicine or supplies they believed was treatment for the deadly virus, losing all sense of their judgment and morals to the other people around them that they would usually behave quite cordial with. Theoretically, I find that the functionalism perspective or the lack thereof, so to speak, is the main viewpoint of both my selected social issues that behavior societal members inhabit and the social phenomenon societal members de-individualized of themselves because of said event taking place. According to Herbert Spencer's perspective of functionalism, three universal needs that create a functional society are A. securing and circulating resources, B. producing useful substances, and C. regulating and integrating internal activities through power and symbols. Without these universal needs being met, de-individualization is bound to occur abundantly from the lack of nourishment and necessities required for sustainability and progression from the external obstacles society faces, only leading to unpredicted and potentially violent behaviors. My classical theory of choice related to contagion would be the conflict theory, beginning with sociologist Karl Marx. His take upon conflict in society tells us that it is derived from the human temptation of exploiting others less fortunate than the wealthy group during an historical epoch, further enabling the superordinates control over the lower members of the hierarchy. Out of anger of alienation during a time where organization and collaboration is needed most, many society members during a time of isolation choose to act out as a last resort. They no longer feel they identify with themselves or are involved in the environment surrounding them. Meanwhile, those who work in higher levels of societal status lose themselves corruptly by living lavishly, allowing chaos to ensue underneath them for their decisions, and willingly avoiding societal laws for their sole benefit. As more historical events in our society lead to opportunities for exploitation, conflict theory shows that in society a repetitious battle ensues between the affluent and the beggarly is inevitable for resources when there is clearly a prejudice on balance of resources spread amongst the community. A more contemporary theory that implements the relationship between my social phenomena and social issues is interactionalist theory, a belief that from the interactions we have with other people or society enables and entices our own self-evaluation. Intellectually, when an obstruction is restricting the structure of a society, this theory researches how a person is going to react amongst a plethora of others who are interacting with the same problem. However, often those who have undergone the social phenomenon of losing their identity tend to act out on how others are behaving to gain some sense of belonging in a time of desperation, like how people began to steal food rations from army trucks after running low in the contagion zone. Opposing perspectives are always important within a research analysis not only to ensure an avoidance of biases, but to also include various inputs in conversation that I may have not noticed otherwise. My first controversial opinionated article is called How Many Times of Crisis Serve as a Catalyst for Creative Action? An Agentic Perspective, an article suggesting that a crisis provides the essential tools for an individual to discover innovative solutions to the problem rather than the typical forms of reasoning we would utilize normally. My secondary article that opposes my social issue explains the study they conducted that resulted in a positive change in behavior during a viral pandemic and affects using descriptive norms. Within both contradictive resources, interactionist theory is the most present towards their opinions. For instance, in my second article, Following the Crowd in Times of Crisis, Descriptive Norms Predict Physical Distancing During COVID-19 Pandemic, interactions with other social members who followed societal rules regarding the pandemic resulted in an overall positive change in behavior that was better for the environment. On the contrary, my first article also displays the interactionist theory in the sense of an individual's mind having the ability to switch into creative action after seeing other individuals' behavior. Although a crisis is not something that is desired by society, experiencing how one can affect a person instills an inspiration to stop that issue. Gathering the amount of supporting theories, social patterns, and differentiating opinions from the multiple articles I have researched throughout this episode of our podcast, I can infer the social issue represented in Contagion is the phenomenon of an entire society reacting to the loss of their structure that has upheld them for as long as they knew. In other words, a combination of corruptive conflict within the hierarchy of the social system and our human tendency to react in accordance with most of society creates potential for a higher number of people falling victim to de-individualization, which leads to unpredictable consequences. Compared to my own experience of COVID-19 throughout high school and college, Contagion does an incredibly respectable job of accurately relaying what a pandemic looks like in a real-world situation. The scenes that were most suitable to realistic circumstances I have witnessed in a society overtaken by a virus was the intense rioting of different grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, and food stops, with people behaving erratically out of pure desperation to help themselves and loved ones through a challenging time in life, no matter who else may be affected by their decisions. I found this behavior to occur often in many public places for the little appearances I did make during the peak of the pandemic. Moreover, the social issue of the human behaviors exhibited in real-life situations regarding a pandemic taking place in a community are co-existent with the classical and contemporary theories presented in the plot of Contagion, conflict theory, and interactionalist theory. I chose to use the same theories to decipher real-life circumstances we experienced because of the eerie accuracy of a pandemic being recorded on film so efficiently as Contagion does in this production. In our lives, those who have abundant finances and resources in society have the power essential to exploit community members who do not share the same title social class. Careers such as doctors, political members, and law enforcement often can exhibit power amongst others for their personal gain as told in the conflict theory. Citizens such as you and I, who are fighting to have the most quality life possible, notice the maltreatment during a time they need the same resources in less amounts, which results in a continuous cycle of a mass amount of people in society struggling to survive and receive any sympathy or results from the members above in the social hierarchy. Furthermore, with an increasing number of individuals enduring the same prejudiced fate, more so than not, they are going to bond together and behave in the same way to hopefully gather enough attention to terminate the issues, interacting with each other in theory to advocate for a solution for all members of society to overcome not biasly selecting those with more money or status in the world. Throughout this film analysis, I have noticed the sociological theory of conflict is the most implemented to alter the behavior of civilians to survive during a time of in-depth struggle to a point where their senses of humanity have been lost. At one point, it became challenging personally to show any sort of empathy for the characters in the film that exploited their status in society for their own personal gain, although, in truth, these members were exhibiting trauma responses equally as much as citizens struggling to find resources for themselves and for their people. Without the emotional intelligence to exhibit awareness of this change in thinking, my personal interests could have very well obstructed the research perspectives that have been discovered thus far. As someone who would consider a career in sociological medicine in the future, conflict theory highlights the proper ethical skills that an individual must uphold with the high status they have resembled in our society. In any sociological career, applying theories is incredibly important to properly conduct my work equally to each person I interact with, as I will encounter a mass variety of conflicting cases of individuals who need my undivided assistance. Resources are always going to be scarce, especially in a time of crisis, which is why nothing personal can be applied to a social job. It's important to realize that everyone has someone personal to them, which is a valuable reminder as a strategy to avoid any biases in future jobs within my career, helping others to improve themselves and heal from their difficulties. From all the research of the articles we have discussed today in this podcast, I am most closely aligned with the opinion of the functionalist perspective, meaning that what I need as an individual to function in society are the materials I utilize daily, the ability to reproduce or access to said resources, and regulating my activities through the power I hold amongst myself. Having these three fundamental aspects in a community of others allows for an abundance of functionality not only for myself, but for those who interact with my life when I am among them. On the contrary, without the fundamental necessities a person needs to thrive in society, chaos is imminent due to the loss of identity and purpose someone once had with having the control to dictate their lives. Contagion was able to illuminate the stereotypical result of a society of human beings simultaneously losing their identity due to a viral outbreak, causing not only a decrease in the population, but also a decrease in comprehension and ethical behavior in a communal setting. As more people began to exhibit mental instability, they all collectively reacted in unison by ransacking stores, trucks, pharmacies, or anything else that they could have the slimmest chance of stopping the virus from spreading as exponentially as it was. Furthermore, while the ordinary people were occupied with gaining supplies from public stores, conflict was still apparent from doctors who decided to mourn only their loved ones of the virus before it was released in the public, as well as exploit the vaccine for themselves and their people instead of areas of the world who need that medication to lower the death rate and begin recovery processes. In all, contagion was a film that makes a positive difference to today's society, as it educates the current generations how the behaviors of people around them change during historical phenomenons such as a pandemic. A tough lesson is learned when considering the people we are supposed to trust the most as a society often crack under pressure and therefore make envious decisions during such a drastic change of events as we do. Only the trusted already know the risk of such a high-stake career and are aware that the position they hold is for the betterment of our society and never for themselves. Therefore, conflict theory is such an important theory message across this film because it shows the cycle of exploitation and suffering for those who cannot escape it. The hard truth is everyone is human, even those who we expect to not behave human. So when society is in a position of chaos and is purported to retain our emotions and our judgment for society to stay cohesive and overcome its problems.
