Holes in Gladwell’s Theory
In the chapter, “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime,” Malcolm Gladwell argues that the streets we walk down and the atmosphere and surroundings that which we are exposed to impact who we are and who we will become. Gladwell asserts that his argument is "environmental." He states that a person 's environment is all the situations, conditions, and influences surrounding and affecting the development of that person and that depending on the atmosphere in which a person is placed, it will have a determining effect or be a “tipping point” for the choices and actions of that person. The notion of little events or “tipping points” triggering violent acts is expressed through …show more content…
The surroundings of a person 's situation can easily shift that person 's lifestyle. Gladwell also argues that when it comes to individual behavior “the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your actions” (161). However, there are constraints to perceiving an individual’s attitudes, thoughts, and acts based on their immediate surroundings, because it is impossible to foresee an individual’s behavior, “social construction” and “culturally predetermination” cannot determine how a person will react to a situation and crimes cannot be observed as contagious. Changing the immediate details of a person’s situation can affect their behavior greatly, regardless of their backgrounds and past occurrences. Individuals can also be agents-of-change and participate in selecting what a situation’s end result is. The conditions regarding a situation cannot be based on anyone’s racial background or stereotypes that surround a certain ethnic group since people have different characters and other defining factors. Similarly believing that crime is like a fashion trend, and that people can be influenced to partake in criminal activity by just witness others doing so is preposterous. Crime rates would be much higher if in fact this were true and anyone of any age, gender or race would be contributing to crime worldwide. But this in fact is not true due to everyone having different experiences, education, backgrounds, and beliefs that shape who they are and those factors determining how they would react to a given situation. This is not saying that if the police didn’t crack down on criminality, crime would not be a colossal problem, but not everybody, like Gladwell is suggesting, would
In the chapter, “The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime,” Malcolm Gladwell argues that the streets we walk down and the atmosphere and surroundings that which we are exposed to impact who we are and who we will become. Gladwell asserts that his argument is "environmental." He states that a person 's environment is all the situations, conditions, and influences surrounding and affecting the development of that person and that depending on the atmosphere in which a person is placed, it will have a determining effect or be a “tipping point” for the choices and actions of that person. The notion of little events or “tipping points” triggering violent acts is expressed through …show more content…
The surroundings of a person 's situation can easily shift that person 's lifestyle. Gladwell also argues that when it comes to individual behavior “the convictions of your heart and the actual contents of your thoughts are less important, in the end, in guiding your actions than the immediate context of your actions” (161). However, there are constraints to perceiving an individual’s attitudes, thoughts, and acts based on their immediate surroundings, because it is impossible to foresee an individual’s behavior, “social construction” and “culturally predetermination” cannot determine how a person will react to a situation and crimes cannot be observed as contagious. Changing the immediate details of a person’s situation can affect their behavior greatly, regardless of their backgrounds and past occurrences. Individuals can also be agents-of-change and participate in selecting what a situation’s end result is. The conditions regarding a situation cannot be based on anyone’s racial background or stereotypes that surround a certain ethnic group since people have different characters and other defining factors. Similarly believing that crime is like a fashion trend, and that people can be influenced to partake in criminal activity by just witness others doing so is preposterous. Crime rates would be much higher if in fact this were true and anyone of any age, gender or race would be contributing to crime worldwide. But this in fact is not true due to everyone having different experiences, education, backgrounds, and beliefs that shape who they are and those factors determining how they would react to a given situation. This is not saying that if the police didn’t crack down on criminality, crime would not be a colossal problem, but not everybody, like Gladwell is suggesting, would