My message was meant to go to the entire list. I'm curious why
you thought otherwise. And I have no problems at all with differentiated
rhetoric. I get concerned when it appears that we start to believe our
overstated claims as if they were truth or reality. And I am as prone to
it as anyone. Hyperbole gets people's attention. But much of the time
the significance of an argument gets lost in the enthusiasm of the moment.
This result has profound effects on what actions are later taken.
I gotta get, but will try to ellaborate later.
cheers,
jrg
On Sat, 31 Aug 1996, Michael J. Salvo wrote:
> At 05:11 PM 8/31/96 -0400, Jeffrey R Galin wrote:
> > We find new ways of
> >accerting our positions. I just wonder if this meant that we will always
> >be trapped by these binaries. If so, isn't it likely that none of our
> >expectations will ever be fulfilled? Isn't it likely that the ways we
> >pose the problems determine teh possible solutions we can imagine, and the
> >solutions never achieve what the radical rhetoric hoped to achieve? Isn't
> >it also true that whether we are trapped linguistically or ideologically
> >into our positions, we still ACT on a daily basis based on sets of
> >institutional constraints that don't really match our politics? And,
> >since we all know that the educational system is less than perfect and
> >that it needs major reconceptualization, none of us are willing to allow
> >the status quo to go unchallenged.
>
> i find it interesting to find messages that were intended to go off-list
> appearing on-list with mention that off-list participants wanted to continue
> on-list. a curious email-list practice ... one in which i often find that
> the best of messages often are threatened with audiences of two or three.
>
> jeff's message, quoted in part above, falls into this catagory, but i don't
> want to belabor that point now. instead, i wanted to address part of what
> is contained here.
>
> of course we take positions that contrast with the situation and with our
> rhetorical opponents -- take jeff, nick, and marcy here as rhetorical
> opponents which in no way implies that they should be enemies. if there
> were some *objective* truth or reality to which we responded, which we fit
> our ideas into, we would need to sharpen our razors and find the place our
> ideas "belong" in some great chain of being. but we do not argue like that.
>
> like our legal system (though not nearly as corrupt nor as stylized), we
> engage each other as adversaries, comparing and contrasting our statements
> against each others'. there is no "truth" to which we compare ourselves
> (although claiming this is a rhetorical strategy that works for some), there
> is no existing form into which we try to fit our values. instead, we're
> engaged in relative discussion -- comapring each idea to each other idea,
> seeking similarity and difference.
>
> seems to me that we must always turn up the contrast on difference,
> particularly in a fast-paced, temporal medium like email. state a case,
> read response, clarify one's position, move on to the next issue. there
> seems little opportunity to develop minescule difference.
>
> so contrast and difference is over stated -- and unlike jeff, i don't see
> this as a problem at all. as we find fractures -- places where we disagree
> -- we closely examine and over-develop the argument that makes distinction.
> it's a temporary exaggeration of a site of inquiry.
>
> like a topographical map's mountains and valleyes, our differences are
> increased tenfold for contrast so that the audience, the map's readers, can
> see the differences between a mountain and a valley. scale is important here.
>
> there is so much we agree on we must cafefully consider our differences.
> overstatement -- as jeff calls it -- seems to me to be a necessary part of
> an adversarial debate. we state our cases as strongly as we can, and try to
> reach a compromise with which the community can survive.
>
> under such constraints, and i'm saying this as someone who often finds
> himself arguing the left-radical perspective, compromise doesn't seem a bad
> thing. otherwise, we'd be unable to function as a community ... and we do,
> because we continue to have insightful discussions.
>
> mike
>
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