Past, Present, and Future

ACRS - Ch. 4 

“However, our experiences, and especially our memories of them, are influenced by prevailing cultural attitudes to such an extent that it is doubtful that anyone ever has a totally original idea” (Crowly, Hawhee 98).  I think that this important and goes back to what was covered during the last class about the need for discussion.  In order to really unpack something we need to look back at the past and evaluate it. We may feel so strongly about an ideology that our cultural has adopted that our own views become heavily rooted in what was passed down to us from somewhere. However, discussion itself is not enough; as mentioned in chapter four of Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students, we have to ask ourselves questions about the past “How did things used to be?” and also “What was impossible in the past?” Specifically, I think it is important to ask the latter question because this allows us to recognize the limitations that we faced in the past and hopefully how we were able to overcome those limitations. If we were able to overcome something that our culture once thought was impossible, this suggests that changes occurred and that they can also occur again. For example, during a speech or even just a discussion among friends for peers, if we are able to show how we have progressed from the past (in regards to a certain subject) we invented a topic, “any procedure that generates arguments, such as definition and division or comparison and contrast” (Crowly, Hawhee 89). By doing so, we have set the foundation to discuss how our current situation compares to the past and/or how it can be redefined and therefore requires a new approach or way of thinking. Additionally, we have created kairos, an opportunity or need to address the topic to induce some type of change.

A recent even that comes to mind is the WSU professors who indicated that in their syllabus that certain words would be banned, while at least one of the terms I did understand their reasoning, for the most part they were going against an ideology or way of thinking and using words that has long been accepted in our country. And, although there is kairos that exists, they did not address all sides to the topic that they invented, including students rights to freedom of speech. They only addressed part of the topic and only briefly at that. Moreover, choosing a class syllabus did not provide them with the platform needed to really address not only the past and how we have progressed as a country in a way that we need to ban these terms and why it is important for the future of our country.