C Wright Mills The Promise Summary

Response paper to “The promise” “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both”. This quote means a person cannot understand the life of an individual or the history of society unless they understand both of it. I choose this quote to summarize the reading because the main point of the reading is about the connection of individual and society. The author, C. Wright Mills talks about how humans are like trapped in bubbles and within these bubble humans cannot solve their problems. There are problems with jobs, family, neighborhood and etc. C. Wright Mills talks about “The sociological imagination” which is the ability for people to see things in society and how it interacts with
the life of individuals. He also talks about how there is a difference between troubles and issues. Troubles are problems within an individual that are usually personal matters and C. Wright Mills gives an example on unemployment to show what a trouble is. In a city with a population consisting of 100,000 people and only one human is unemployed than it is consider as a trouble. That one human have personal problems that makes him unemployed. However, if a nation contains 50 million people and 15 million are unemployed then that is an issue. An issue is a public matter which affects individuals and their life. Issues are usually something that involves with crises in a nation, for example economic crisis. I agree with C.
Wright Mills on human are being trapped in a bubble and the theory of “the sociology imagination”. First of all, I believe humans are literally trapped in a bubble. There are always problems and they can’t overcome it. Let’s look right now on how companies hire people. Many companies look at job experience, where people graduate from college, if you have a master or a bachelor’s degree and see how fit you are for the job. College students these days always need some job experience in their field before they apply for a job in a company. College student needs to intern at a company before they apply for a job. Some colleges now require students to complete some sort of internship before they graduate. Many companies prioritize Ivy League colleges than other colleges. They are most likely to hire someone who graduated from Harvard than someone who graduates from John Jay College. Many college students come out of college and they can’t find a job. This is an issue that is happening around the world right now and students can’t overcome it. Then there are also problems with social class which consists of the upper, middle, and lower class. There is a saying where the nation is divided into two parts, the 99% and the 1%. The 99% is the poor and the 1% is the rich. As the 1% gets richer the 99% gets poorer. The quote “the rich get richer, the poor get poorer” really stands in our society. The rich person only cares about money and they don’t care about other
people. The rich can use their money to help the poor, but they don’t because they are so greedy and selfish. What if everyone starts thinking using the theory of sociology imagination? Would the world be a better, stable and safe place? What if everyone get together and try to solve the problems that are happening throughout the world? Maybe if the rich gives the poor some money so they can live a better life then will world will be different?