"Despite his being inorganically appended to it, the stranger is still an organic member of the group. Its unified life includes the specific conditioning of this element. Only we do not know how to designate the characteristic unity of this position otherwise than by saying that it is put together or certain amounts of nearness and of remoteness." Georg Simmel had a very unique prospective of the sociological construction of society. The Stranger, according to Simmel, is someone who conforms to a group without question, yet is still distant from those within the same group. He references "nearness" and "remoteness" I felt this was his definition of the two. The Stranger is an interesting theory to me because I think it is especially applicable today. If you think about all of the groups and cliques, even politically, in our society today, we are able to see that people blend together as one; yet they may be very distant or alone within that group. I think sociologists have been trying to break down the social construction of society for centuries because it is not an easy thing to do. I think Simmel did a great job looking at the big picture and realizing that even though we are "one in the same" we are all very different and strangers at the same time.
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I choose this cartoon because I think it does a good job demonstrating these ideas. Society is not something that can easily be picked apart and explained, but we are able to see that groups, or hierarchies are formed within all societies; which to me is a very interesting trend that should not be overlooked. Sadly, within a society, someone has to be at the bottom- the Stranger.
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