When thinking about deviance, one might be drawn to think of examples where deviance is considered bad, yet it is characterized by any deviation from the norm. An extremely short person is as much a deviant as an abnormally tall one.

Putting it into my words: Medicalization of deviance is a way of defining deviance with medical terms and explanations, it is used as a way to gain more control over deviants and minimize the possible damage they can do to a social structure.

In regards to:

Humans thriving: Throught the movie it becomes clear that the kids were able to thrive in nature yet not in society. From my personal understanding the message is that, people will thrive in places and among groups they are familiar with. When the family takes the road trip it shows that no matter how much theoretical knowledge one has, to thrive in society coexistence is needed so that one knows a variety of things, but most of all social norms. When one doesn't have practical knowledge of coexistence in society, they will become deviant.

Being Removed from Society: It is clear that Ben tries his best efforts to live outside of society with no aspects of it in his life, yet the movie shows to what lengths people have to go to if they wish to be free of Capitalism. Despite his best efforts, there are still things he depends on the system to do. A simple example of this is when he fills his van up with gas, he is giving money to a corporation. This reminds me of a common misconception which I was able to clear up in philosophy class which is that if someone is unhappy with capitalism they should simply deny what it offers and distribute income. Throughout the course of philosophy classes, I understood that it is much more complicated, that one cannot live like a communist in a capitalist society. Which is why according to many philosophers including Marx, communism in order to be achieved must be the consequence of a long adaptation process that involves many steps one of which is socialism.

The Cash family due to their extreme anti-capitalistic views were labeled lunatics, irresponsible, and the father more specifically unfit to care for his kids. Considering that the family challenges general social standards and ideas, treating the family as crazy is a way for their disruptive opinions to have less effect on a system, and basically to discredit this family's ideas and way of living. This assumption is based on the text which explains that deviance is categorized by people acting collectively. 

Some clear examples of when this family was treated as crazy are: 

• The father's forcible removal from the church due to his views on death that disrupt those of christian religions, which was the religion followed by the social group in the scene;

• When Ben was criticized for gifting knives to his children, and the grandfather threatened to sue for custody of the children;

• Ben's family questioning his ability to teach his kids like a school would;

• The children being mistreated and made fun of by their cousins due to them not knowing famous clothing brands. 

The church scene exemplifies how deviance is relative, since they were viewed as deviant for defying the norm of the majority, yet in a scenario where people in their majority saw death as Ben did he would not be considered crazy.