Max Weber
Max Weber was a German Philosopher often quoted along with Karl Marx and Emile Durkheim. Max Weber thought that capitalism would increase inequality. Additionally, he believed that capitalism would lead to a new way of thinking, society would change the way it thinks because of new technology that was designed to help build things faster. One key idea Max Weber was concerned about was rationalization. Rationalization is society’s way of replacing traditions, values, emotions, and culture towards a particular topic. For example, people today have a different idea of pop music in America then they did in the 1970s. Pop music in America has been influenced by many different singers from various countries. However, before the relative ease of internet access people would see pop music in America dominated by male American born singers, while today it is seen that pop music is dominated by artists from different countries.
The video above displays a woman that is popular on YouTube for her family. This video in particular displays the story of the woman giving birth to her twin daughters, nothing odd, until we learn that her daughters are not biologically her’s. The woman gave birth to her twin daughters by way of IVF (in-vitro fertilization). IVF in its self is already a radical difference of what it means to conceive a child in the twenty-first century. Max Weber was right that industrialization would change societal views on huge aspects of human life. The woman in the video has not only adopted the majority of her children but has given birth to adopted embryos. Adoption has been criticized by biological parents of children as having a lack of attachment to the child because one was unable to carry it or be present in the first few weeks of the child’s life. However, because of new technology and a new way of applying its capabilities it has radically changed the idea of creating a family. What was once thought to be a simple concept of a married couple creating a family essentially free, has become a business in which people can pay to be artificially inseminated and carry a child that is half theirs, or carry a child that was is not biologically theirs but be able to give birth to and carry.
When thinking of Sociology, Max Weber, and Rationalization I tend to think about big social changes, such as the view of race and intelligence of the lower class. Knowing that industrialization has changed society so much that it gives opportunities to those without regular means, and it has touched sacred human connection such as family is very eye-opening as to how much it will continue to change and the potential for future innovations in other fields of human connection.
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