A Sociological Take on Violating Folkways Sanctions and Reactions

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Violating a Folkway

The norm that I have chosen to break is to discuss a subject that is related to politics and religion, which are two subjects that people tend to avoid discussing in polite society. This is a folkway that has consistently been brought to my attention in the past: at my work, our team leader has told us that two things he never talks about with clients are politics and religion, and while he may have strong views about both, he makes it a point to avoid these topics as they can quickly lead to tension in a relationship. On a separate occasion, my mother-in-law also made this point when at a family dinner she noted that the two subjects that are not allowed at the dinner table are politics and religion. I could also add "money" to this folkway as, according to Folkways Nowadays, the three things that one should not discuss in polite society are religion, politics and money (Atkins, 2015) -- and the subject I came upon that I concluded would be a violation of the first two would also be a violation of the third. Thus, I decided to break this folkway by bringing up a subject that I determined would make just about everyone uncomfortable: that was the Jewish Holocaust. Now, just bringing up the Holocaust wasn't likely, I considered, to make anyone upset because it is something that virtually everyone agrees was a horrible tragedy. So, I decided that I would bring it up and then deny that it ever happened and see how people reacted to this violation of the folkway of not discussing politics, religion or money -- in this manner, by provoking a reaction.

The Jewish Holocaust plays a part in the American political spectrum because it is viewed as the greatest evil ever perpetrated. It plays a part in religion because it was Jews who were targeted, and it plays a part in the subject of money because of the gold that was said to be confiscated. Some revisionist historians claim that the Holocaust is a hoax and that there has never been any proof of its actually happened (Cole, 2015).

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Now, while I could have just broken this folkway by bringing up politics, such as something about Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton, I wanted something that would really be provocative to almost everyone (and since I don't know any Holocaust Deniers, I believed this would be a safe and perceivably rude way to make sure of violating this folkway).

The first time I broke this folkway was at family dinner. Present were my mother, father and brothers and sisters and a couple of their kids. I said that I'd been reading and that I'd found out that the Holocaust never happened, that 6 million Jews did not die in gas chambers and that Hitler was not the evil man he has been made out to be. The response from my father was instantaneous: he was visibly shaken and stated that he knows a man whose mother was a prisoner in a German concentration camp. His voice trembled and he was emotionally upset by my comment. A sister made a snarky comment that I was a "Holocaust Denier" and dismissed my assertion as absurd. My brother, on the other hand, stated that he had also read things about this subject that made him question the official narrative. My mother had no reaction and made no comment but she did seem disturbed that this was a conversation that we were having over dinner.

The next time I attempted to break this folkway was with a group of friends. We were gathered at a bar -- there was six of us -- and I asked everyone, "So what do you guys think about the Holocaust?" There was blank staring. One said, "Uh, it was bad?" I pushed it and said, "Yes, well what would you say if I told you it never happened?" Another said, "I'd say you were retarded." Still another said, "Pretty sure it happened there. I think that you can go see the camps and all that." "I've seen photos of dead bodies," another said. I attempted to make arguments to see how far I could push it and since I had….....

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