SumBlog5

Harriet Martineau was an important social thinker and felt that sociology should be shared with the public. One the things she wanted to share is the thought that the law of social life is to be happy. Human happiness is most important. Despite her stress on this point, her definition is quite vague. Perhaps creating happiness to her means avoiding anomalies. An anomaly is when there is a disruption between morals and manners. Morals are society's collective ideas and shared norms, such as personal space or waiting in turn for something. Manners are those actions based on morals - like a lot of personal space in the United States and forming a line. 

For example I can think of an anomaly that occurred in my life. An Israeli friend of mine had an Israeli friend visit us (in the United States). Here, we value those things like waiting in a line at a store; whereas in Israel they don't. When the friend walked past all the people waiting in line in front of us and starting shouting to be next at a store I was appalled and embarrassed. On the other hand, it was not only completely normal for them, but she thought we were the odd, regimented ones doing this arbitrary line-forming. Our mutual friend ending up explaining the difference to us. I was enlightened and intrigued.

In the United States, sociologists have found we need a lot of personal space and are okay with telling others about our space. When morals (personal space given) and manners collide we have problems. Here's a video not only of a social experiment about personal space but etiquette of how to tell people they are too close! Very interesting on two different levels!