Essay On Granovetter's Theory

¨Granovetter's Theory¨

Gladwell has a strong argument when proving Granovetter’s Theory with the use of claims, ethos, pathos, logos, including a combination of other methods and by comparing it to school shootings that has said to be a modern phenomenon. In his perplex, but subtle article, Gladwell goes on to prove that school shooting have become so common and ingrain into our society, that they have evolved into a coterie of people joining into this whole fiasco. Gladwell goes onto state, “Granovetter took riots as one of his main examples, because a riot is a case of destructive violence that involves a great number of otherwise quite normal people who would not usually be disposed to violence” (Gladwell, Pg 6). Believing in this theory, Gladwell proves how the more people

join into these behaviors more are bound to join this festivity of a killing spree. Additionally, the theory states, “An early theory was that a crowd cast a kind of intoxicating spell over its participants, then the argument shifted to the idea that rioters might be rational actors: maybe at the moment a riot was beginning people changed their beliefs” (Gladwell, Pg 6). During this “intoxicating” spell cast over one’s self, you’ll find yourself either to join because nobody ever wants to be behind on the action that will occur in the riot defects and if you do not participate in the event, you are most likely going to be engulfed by those around you and be forced to act.

First, Granovetter's theory a riot or in this case a school shootings have the ability to evolve over an extended period of time. Granovetter goes on to say, “But rioters are not homogeneous, if a riot evolves as it spreads, starting with the rockthrower and ending with the upstanding citizen, then rioters are a profoundly heterogeneous group ” (Gladwell, Pg 7). Gladwell uses this theory because he believes school shootings have evolved to the point even the most unexpected people are killing people. In this case, Darion Aguilar is a perfect example of an outstanding young man who said to be a “non-violent” person, but fell through the cracks during the post-Columbine shootings. Furthermore, Granovetter goes on the explain what happens to those that don’t unite with the posse by stating, “But group interaction was such that none could admit this without loss of status; in our terms, their threshold for stealing cars is low because daring masculine acts bring status, and reluctance to join, once others have, carries the high cost of being labeled a sissy” (Gladwell, Pg 7). By not entering or participating in the occasion, oneself can be branded by the others as “sissy” or cowards because they refused to be one of them. And this is why most choose to join rather than be left behind by the herd.

Furthermore, examples such as Larkin and Paton’s go on and support both Granovetter and Gladwell’s ideals about how humans have an impact and a greater reaction to other’s lives that may have been affected just by observing their one another.

Ralph Larkin appears into an argument, “Harris and Klebold laid down the “cultural script” for the next generation of shooters, they had a Website, they made home movies starring themselves as hit men, they wrote lengthy manifestos” (Gladwell, Pg 8). With Larkin’s vast knowledge he displays while others tend to imitate Harris and Klebold.

In addition, Gladwell goes on to support Larkin and Granovetter by stating, “Larkin and Paton are describing the dynamics of Granovetter’s threshold model of group behavior” (Gladwell, Pg 8). If you were to conclude why shooters have such a range of people good or evil, it is because overtime the “riot” evolves and brings all who stand near or far to associate themselves with people they never dreamed of being with. La Due and Darion are the anomalies in the equation because they are said to be genuine good people, but at the end these “good” people ended up being absorbed by the riot around

them.

Correspondingly, La Due is the most unorthodox of all the known shooters that have been interviewed. During the interviews he said to be calm in all situations and unusually formal to whomever spoke to him and because of that it stunned all who had to speak to him. What is more amazing is the fact he would kill his family after saying, “But he likes his parents, he sees them as good people, loving him, caring about him” (Gladwell, Pg 12). Majority of all shooter have a low threshold which holds them accountable for having powerful grievances and it is easy to assume why they would kill a loved one, but Ladue is an anomaly in this case. Ladue has love toward his sister and parents and why he would kill them seems to be why he is separated from the average school-shooters. Additionally, the article states, “But he has to take their life, according to his manifesto, to prove that he’s up to the task, to prove he has no human feelings anymore, that he’s scrubbed out” (Gladwell, Pg 12). Ladue has to prove his philosophy and views to the world by taking another human's life which brings him right back to the Granovetter’s Theory because he is the 99th, high threshold human being who has merged with the riot.

Moreover, many of these situations have grown and evolved to the point of no return. Gladwell believes, “Between Columbine and Aaron Ybarra, the riot changed: it became more and more self-referential, more ritualized, more and more about identification with the school-shooting tradition” (Gladwell, Pg 9). This quote means if it continues around the nation it would become a hazardous chain reaction that will scar our nations for generations to come. The article supports these claims by saying, “Larkin says six were plainly versions of Columbine; of the eleven cases of thwarted shootings in the same period, Larkin says all were Columbine-inspired” (Gladwell, Pg 9). As the flow of time ellipses the human race, this cycle of murdering one another by copying the past actions from another will devolve humans as a peaceful race, but evolve humans as a savage race. Lastly, with all the first hand evidence and carefully selected people such as La Due, Darion, Larkin and other professional psychologist for examples, Gladwell effectively proves Granovetter’s Theory and how they are a modern phenomenon.
In conclusion, Gladwell uses Granovetter’s Theory highly effective by all the precisely gathered evidence and displaying it in an organized fashion in the forms of logos, pathos, F.I.R.E.S and claims. Furthermore, his use of ethos is perfectly done by stating very acclaimed and respected people in their profession to support both his and Granovetter's argument.