Bradford Cantrill

Professor Huntsinger
Sociology 266- Wall-E storytelling
22 January 2020

1. What is the individualistic world view? What's an example of this in film?

The individualistic world view is essentially a society where everyone makes their own
decisions based on themselves instead of other social structures. Someone in an individualistic
world view doesn’t group individuals based on race, religion, or sexual orientation, but based off
of their actions and character.
A good example is this film is Wall-E himself. At the beginning of the film Wall-E is following
the path of least resistance by continuing cleaning up the city/world of trash until Eva, a much
more advanced scouting robot, came down from outer space to search for any signs of life on
earth. That’s when Wall-E goes off the path of least resistance and helps Eva instead of
continuing what he’s designed to do. From that point in the movie to the end I believe Wall-E is
operating from an individualistic world view.
2. What are social systems? What are some social systems that you interact with frequently?
Social systems are individual groups or institutions that each play a part in making a
complete society. For example, Gilbert, AZ is a society that has multitudes of social systems
whether its Schools, Fire departments or family units. Although some social systems are right in
front of them and are easy to identify under there are quite a few that we as people don’t realize
we take part in. For example, I interact on a daily basis with school and corporate social systems,
but one that I never realized I was a part of until I matured a little bit was the white privilege
social system. I never noticed until I looked back and realized that I’ve never gotten a ticket even
though I’ve been pulled over more than 10 times, I’ve never been accused of stealing or looking
suspicious, and I’ve never had a “random security check” at the airport.
3. Explain "paths of least resistance". How does this influence human behavior? When is a time
you or someone you knew veered off the path of least resistance? How did people react?
The Path of least resistance are rules or guidelines established to ensure that everything
within that society doesn’t fall apart. You can find these guidelines everywhere you go for
example the path of least resistance for this class would to follow the syllabus and do the
homework, but if you don’t follow that path your grades will drop until you start following the
path once more. This influences Human behavior in many ways it can cause people to fall in line
and listen which is good when were talking about Laws made by society, but going off the path
of least resistance has benefitted this world more than following it in my opinion. If Steve Jobs
didn’t drop out of college and make apple who knows where we would be at as far as
technology. I’ve veered off the path of least resistance more times than I could count largely
having to do with my time in the military. For example, everything you do in the military has a
very specific procedure/ regulation, but a lot of those regulation were made during Vietnam war
era and don’t make a lot of sense because with the technology we have now there are much
simpler ways to do these tasks. The only problem with that is the military wants you to do things
the way they say not what’s the that is most productive. The reactions were different based on
who saw it. Some higher ups love it and want that type of attitude and critical think versus other
people would make me do air squats for an hour for not listening.
4. What is the difference between an individualistic explanation of the passengers on Axiom and
a sociological one? Is one perspective more useful than another?
The difference between the individualistic and sociological explanation of the passengers
is that the individualistic explanation frames the passengers as fat, lazy, and self-indulgent
whereas the sociological explanation frames the passengers as people just following the societal
norms that have been around since they were born. If you think about it, they have been flying
around space, breeding and living for 700 years. The passengers on the Axiom don’t know any
other way of life so that why I believe that the sociological perspective is more useful in this
case.