November 26, 2012

Screens

Burke's idea on terministic screens is an ideal that is practiced in our everyday interactions. we unconsciously place ourselves and others into specific categories that essentially determine how open we will be with them. in the case of Burke this means that we assign people terms and based on those terms, appoint specific stereotypes based on what we have heard, seen, or encountered with the group, which ultimately determine if we identify with them or not.

This idea of reference and recollection is consistent as humans because our brains store most new encounters as a extension of our previous encounters with any given person place or thing. this is why word of mouth is believed to be the most reliable form of spreading information or learning about a new place. while our minds love to naturally build  memory and refr to these memories whenever possible, this is actually crippling and limits our level of acceptance of other people and consequently makes humans closed off to certain people or prejudice.

Any given person will generally fall with in multiple screens at any give point. Like a Caucasian woman from Georgia. She will be able to identify with women, Caucasians, People from Georgia and the of course her age range. So she ultimately determines which screens that she wants to fall with in at any given point and time. this allows her to identify with a larger group of people based on the situation.

1 comment:

MeganW said...

I agree with your comments about once we put someone or something in a predefined file it is hard to get them out of that. Your right about how this cripples us. It no longer allows us to break a stereotype but, instead, tends to feed the stereotypes we hold.

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