While studying for the GRE I came across the word which had been on the tip of my tongue to describe Mills’ tone about research technicians. Acerbic. Biting, yet bitter.
However, far from acidity characterizing the second half of The Sociological Imagination Mills is hopeful, returning to his vision for the future which he outlined in chapter 1. He restates his purpose on page 134 saying the sociologist must always define reality, discern meaning, study comparatively, and avoid arbitrary specialization along department lines. Absolutely, do not DO NOT break up data into small units which are ahistorical.
(As I read this, I wondered what Mills would have said of this project I’m undergoing, for it was my goal to attempt a theoretical Sociology 101 class, but he smartly decries the “101” class in this chapter.)
Which brings Mills to the point of study, to define where we are now, and to look forward to where we are going without losing sight of the structures which anchor a person squarely to this time. There is a popular Christian phrase, “the already but not yet” referring to the future and heaven, but for Mills, I believe a slight modification to, “the already and has been” suffices quite well. Man may well be troubled, and facing issues, but he arrived there not in a vacuum, but from tremendous social upheaval, the marches of time to speak more poetically. And he can’t understand where he is, if he does not understand where he has been. To cap this off, he discards the notion of the “nature of man” and says there is only this man now, that has been made by the past, not what will be man’s nature in the future.
Ultimately, the point of these studies is to promise more self consciousness, more reason, which shall provide more choice. And not the paltry choices offered
The Sociology Project 