A little bit of a sad love song, but also a musical statement on our society; the song "Cruel Cruel World" by Ezra Furman I believe has a couple of really good sociological statements, and one that specifically relates to Medical Sociology.

The song opens up with the line "Lost my job, lost my money in a flash. Watching my old life turn to dust and ash." now this may not be a sociological statement by itself, but the idea behind it certainly is. It speaks to a fear that all of us may have or have had at one point in time- losing our jobs. This is an underlying stress in many people's lives because so many other factors in our lives rely on the money we make at our jobs. Ezra went very quickly from losing his job to his life being over, "watching my old life turn to dust and ash", when in fact it may not always happen that quickly or at all. But when we lose out jobs we may feel that way right away. We may jump straight to "my life is over". I think that this stress is even greater on people that are financially responsible for others. A great example is a single parent, many single parents may work two jobs and losing one will put even more of a stress on them than having both jobs and taking care of their children.

From there we move to the next impacting line, which I believe is, "Took the bus on the highway tangled up. Felt the billboard's images fuck me up. Buy and sell yourself awake. Fall in love with a new thing everyday". I think this line speaks to how society affects the choices that we make. We see so many advertisements just on a daily basis and some of us may not fully realize how seeing those ads change us and sway what decisions we make about what. Billboards, advertisements and commercials influence us on things to buy or things to not buy, "buy and sell yourself awake, fall in love with a new thing everyday". And it is not just cosmetic ads or ads about clothes, but ads about healthcare, or who to elect for what position, what measure to vote for or not to vote for. These ads may affect a society as a whole negatively or positively ( Ezra seems to think negatively) either way they are impacting our society.

The last line I want to discuss I believe relates to Medical Sociology specifically, and happens to be my personal favorite line in the song; "Out of work like a true American. Got real sick with no healthcare benefits. Everything turned black and blue. The government says 'We can't take care of you'". This part of the song I feel is really relevant to our country right now. The first part, "got real sick with no healthcare benefits, everything turned black and blue", this is what happens to many people in our country, when we get sick we hang on for as long as possible and hope it gets better because many of us cannot afford to go to the doctor. But inevitably as Ezra says, "everything turned black and blue" the condition you may have will get worse and worse and in some cases may lead to death. This also plays to preventive medical care. There are many tests that are recommended for certain people at certain ages depending on your gender, age or family medical history. These tests are put in place to try and find "something" and treat it before it gets too bad. Well when you cannot afford it and "the government says we can't take care of you" the condition may be overlooked until it is too late.

Take a look at the song, tell me what you think. And even if you don't think it relates to Sociology at all then hopefully you will just flat out enjoy it like I do!