Night view of Santa Monica Third Street Promenade
Day view of Santa Monica Third Street Promenade
This week, I
decided to explore one of the most well-know streets in Southern California---
Santa Monica Third Street Promenade. This is also one if the most famous
shopping destinations. By using the Google map, the shopping
area starts from the intersection of 3rd Street and Broadway to the
intersection of 3rd Street and Wilshire Blvd. Third Street Promenade
has its own distinct personality other shopping destinations don’t have that
make this place so unique than others. Want to go to the beach? Just two blocks
away from3rd Street, Santa Monica Pier is one of the best places to go. On 2nd
street and Broadway, there is a huge modern shopping mall Santa Monica Place that
completes with two different department stores (Bloomingdale and Nordstrom),
boutique stores (LV, Tiffany & Co. etc.), food court, market and some
stores that are completely different than those stores on3rd Street. Speaking
of the 3rd Street Promenade itself, the street is lined with lots of
shops (Zara, H&M, FROEVER 21,Victoria Secret, J. Crew etc.) AMC theater and restaurants.
The best part of
Third Street Promenade is that the sidewalk and the street itself are nicely
decorated. In the nighttime, there are light bulbs hanging on trees that
lighting up the whole street. Furthermore, Third Street Promenade is kept very
clean and well managed. There are also some street performers who show their
talents for visitors and for people who appreciate their performance. This is a
place for tourists, visitor. People from all over the world that are in a
vacation come to here to chill on Santa Monica Beach, to shop and eat on Third
Street Promenade.
santa monica pier
santa monica place
After visiting
Third Street Promenade, it is really easy to realize that even it just a block;
the formation of it is an organic solidarity. Based on the lecture in class, we
have learned that an organic solidarity is a society that based on division of
labor, which means it specialized individuals. Individual perform different
tasks and rely on other to fulfill different needs. Start from a single clothes
shop; for example, there are so many people in H&M, workers, cashier, and
customers. None of them designed the clothes and accessories. Designer who only
designed those stunning clothes but they do not have to stand in there and do
cashiers’ job to sell the clothes. And maybe, one of the customers who is
shopping in H&M, his or her job is owned a fabric company that offer fabric
to H&M factory to produce clothes.
And another example, any one of the restaurants on Third Street
Promenade, the chief didn’t grow the ingredients to make the food they want to
serve the customers. The farmers grew vegetables and wheat etc. and the chiefs
made them nice food to eat.
“Division of Labor”, As Adam Smith’s perspective,
it is also a concept of economic growth. It makes the whole society more
functional and advanced. Last but not least, as we discussed in class, the main
concern of the division of labor. How societies with high level of
differentiation can still remain moral cohesive? I think collective conscience and
respect others play an important role in this high level of differentiation. We have to respect people that doing all kinds of jobs, and gather everyone's conscience to make the whole society remain moral cohesive.
When you say moral cohesive, are you referring to cultural cohesion or ethic cohesion?
ReplyDeleteWhich part of collective conscience do you think plays the most important role in gluing the society together? As you have mentioned about respect to others, I’d say religion and education are the most important aspects of collective conscience that hold our society together. Religion imposes rules on morality which regulate one’s behavior in a way that law couldn’t. Lying, cheating and suicide are things that aren’t illegal but are immoral to do. I also believe that people don’t need religion to have good ethics, but for me it was my religion that embedded these guidelines. On the other hand, education can make people become more open minded, thus they are more likely to respect others and their occupations. Bias opinions often arise from misunderstanding or lack of understanding, and education is a window for absorbing information. Therefore, when one understands, he or she becomes more liberated and is more likely to respect others' disparities.