#1: Things Will Remain as They Always Have.

In Micheal Ryan's "An Introduction to Criticism," he talks about the depth and complexity of society as we know it today, and the ideas and beliefs that help shape the world. These ideas and beliefs have grown over time into how society works and functions on a day to day basis. But while reading, it had me (and I'm sure others as well) questioning whether the way society works today is fair, and whether or not it based upon what is best, or simply based on fables that we have come to know and accept as "right."

Michael Ryan compares people's roles in society to a "social pyramid," on pages 169-170. The upper class (people of wealth/those who own industries/people of power etc.) are at the top of the pyramid. Those who have some power etc. have their place in the middle, and those considered lower class (those who work for those in power) have a demeaning spot at the bottom of the pyramid. This analogy really stood out to me as I read it. I work hard for every dollar I make, I have nice things, but there is always something lacking.

Without people such as myself to work for those in power, no one would hold it. Ryan explains power, as something so intangible, but yet it holds so much value and meaning. If those of us at the bottom of the pyramid were to stop working for those at the top, those in power would no longer hold it. However, Ryan also compares the working class to slaves, though we are not bound nor shackled, we are trained enough to continue to work, because it is what society tells us we should do.

Social order is of vital importance to us as well as wealth. Money in the world today can also translate into power. Yet it is just a piece of paper. People put meaning behind things, but if no meaning behind such simple things like paper money was given in the first place, the "pyramid," as Ryan describes it, would look more like a flat rectangle. Doesn't this seem like a far more fair society for the people who live in it? Why is society like this? It's all about social order.

We base our opinions of how society should be on mere stories told and passed down, that we establish as truth and believe. Doesn't it seem completely ignorant to base something as large as our society on a story? Reading what Ryan has written has changed my entire perspective of how society is based. Our entire social order is based upon power, false meaning, wealth, and class.

Ryan describes how history has determined how our society works today. Have we lived in the middle ages? Have we actually experienced any of these historical events that shape our entire society as we know it? No. Seems a bit crazy to me. However, we as the people do not strive to change it, since it is what we know, and change is often unwelcome. It would become disruptive to social order, so we continue to do the same thing that we've always done, while things remain as they always have. Those in power maintain it, and those without it, struggle trying to climb the steep walls of the pyramid.