I, like so many others, have known for too long that it's time to get out into the world, engage with it, and make things better.

But I, and a lot of other folks, simply had not ventured out. Why? Why do we hesitate and miss moments of critical opportunity? For the longest time, for me, it was because I didn't feel I was capable. Concerned? Yes! Capable? Not so much. And, so it is, I believe, with most of us.

And then I discovered sociology. In sociology we find a whole new tool kit for making positive change. I discovered, to quote Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., that "True Compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar." Flinging that coin might be self-serving pity laced with a tinge of altruism, but it's not true compassion. I also discovered that there are no real common, social benefits to blaming victims or feigning help with Band-Aid solutions. I discovered that not I, but we, must awaken our collective sociological imaginations - that is, holistically grasp the true relationship between people and their social surroundings - and urgently put all of that accumulated wisdom into practice. 

This is why this website is committed to popularizing sociology. Because, collectively and cooperatively, we must come to a tipping point where the status quo shares in and executes the efficacy of the sociological imagination. To acquiesce is to risk either calamity or totalitarianism. Why should we settle for picking a poison?

- Mark Durieux, PhD