The existence
and availability of common place issues in our society demonstrates that there
are a wide variety of items that are in the consciousness of the public today.
The issues vary across a multitude of subjects, ranging from heath care issues,
the economy, illegal immigration, national security, veterans issues, foreign
policy, and the conduct of the Obama administration, just to name a few. These
issues are many and varied, and it would behoove a skillful rhetor to be
knowledgeable enough to speak on these topics. While many of these common
themes come forward in the national consciousness quite often, the context of
the arguments change as time progresses.
These
common place issues allow rhetors to use many of the common topics to argue
these points, such as the the topic of greater/lesser, past and future fact, and
possible/impossible. For the topic of past and future fact, which can also be
called “conjecture”, the argument lies in and educated guess in how can have an
effect in the future, or how something has had an effect in the current time,
or past. For the topic of greater/lesser, which can also be described as “degree”,
it is a topic to allow rhetors to discuss how something is relative to
something else. For example, a thing is more relevant to a current topic than
another thing. Another common place topic is the topic of possible/impossible. This
explores the possibility of if a thing is possible, could be possible, or was
possible.
These
topics can be used to discuss any of the topics that I listed in the first
paragraph. I must admit, reading this chapter was difficult due to what I perceived
as bias that stemmed from the authors of the textbook, although I do credit the
authors with the attempt to remain neutral. I believe that the authors of the
book, based on the style of writing and their analysis of some of the issues, possess
a left-of-center bias, and it shows in the textbook. I would contend that this
bias, however slight, does present an issue that a segment of the American
public take issue with: the perceived indoctrination of youth in liberal
thought.
As with
the previous chapter, some of my disagreements with the text stem from an
inability to argue about the same issue, which is the source of much contention
in our society. I would argue that the bias in the textbook is to a lesser
degree than it could be, it is not openly bias; rather I perceive that the bias
“leaks through” what the authors have published. Although I am aware that my
writing may show bias, when speaking to a mixed audience, I try to mitigate as
much bias as possible in my writing. While the authors of the book are free to
choose how they feel about a situation personally, educators have a
responsibility to remain as neutral as possible and show every side of an
argument so that the ones who are being educated have the ability to determine
for themselves how they wish to fall on the political spectrum; or any system
of belief for that matter.
Finally,
I believe that it will never be possible to eliminate all bias from authors of
textbooks, due to the fact that if a person has a deeply rooted system of
beliefs, then I believe that person will attempt to project that system of
beliefs, unconsciously, even if the author is making an attempt to stay
neutral. While I do believe that this is impossible, it is important for
educators to remain as neutral as possible and to present all sides of an
argument so that the students may develop their system of beliefs as they learn
more about, and are exposed to the world in which they live.
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