Michael Moore's Film Sicko and Jane Addams, Description of Addams' Social Theory

General description of Addams’ social theory.
Addams’ social theory is comprised of many points of view, a few of which are particularly applicable to the notion of universal healthcare. First is Addams’ concept of the neighborly relation. This idea is best defined as, “the condition in which the sociologist attempts to understand a social world not as an outside observer but as a participant living side by side with the people whose lives are her or his concern” (Patricia Lengermann and Gillian Niebrugge, “Class Notes Jane Addams as a Critical Social Thinker, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.,” Page 1). The application of this perception is best tied into the varying concepts of belated ethics that the issue of healthcare brings out in people. Belated ethics is best defined as, “rules of right relation among people suited to an early mode of societal organization of material production and now out of harmony with the present organization” (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Addams,” Page 5). The two types of belated ethics most clung to when it comes to healthcare are the Family Claim and the Individual Ethic.
If a person works hard and earns enough money to provide for her/his own healthcare, then why, some ask, should these people need to provide any assistance to anyone else in obtaining their healthcare? The individual ethic provides a mental qualification for successful individuals who can provide for themselves, not to provide for others. Like being ethical if one care’s for one’s own self, the family claim provides that one is ethical if s/he cares for her/his own family. People who believe and act on these forms of inappropriate ethics, Addams follows, are not following the social ethic. The social ethic is achieved when “orientation to right relationship with others” is gained, assuming that “each individual actor identifies with the large, heterogeneous, even anonymous community of which he or she is a part” (Lengermann and Niebrugge, “Class Notes Addams,” Page 4). This ethic is already followed by many countries, in terms of access to healthcare. What the United States lacks, and what Michael Moore emphasizes, is that the social ethic in this country is different, or deficient, to an extreme which limits our citizens’ abilities to see through issues to the greater good inherent in change.


References
Addams, Jane. 1902. Democracy and Social Ethics. Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Lengermann, Patricia and Jill Niebrugge-Brantley. 2005. “Class Notes Jane Addams as a Critical Social Thinker, Spring 2008 American University, Washington D.C.” (https://blackboard.american.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_43370_1%26url%3D).