Tina Bell

5001

Commentary Week 6

26 March 2009

Terministic Screens

What is reality? According to Kenneth Burke, reality resides in the symbol system we use. Members of societies in various cultures and from various time periods have used particular sets of symbols to create realities. The use of the symbols is both literal and abstract. Today, we believe the sun is a reality. We also believe that since the sun rotates around the earth, man is not the center of the universe. If we look back in our history, our ancestors use of these symbols created an entirely different reality. All societies have used different sets of what Burke calls terministic screens to determine reality.

I read through Lisa’s commentary, and I completely agree with her (as well as with Burke). A terministic screen “directs our attention into some channels rather than others” (45). Although Martha Stewart, the subject of Lisa’s commentary, and her criminal actively came to Lisa’s mind, my own mind contemplated our beliefs in general. Last year in one of my classes, we discussed the philosophy of contingency. In this discussion, we debated our beliefs. For example, why might we believe that cruelty to animals is wrong? We needed to decide whether this was the “Truth” or whether this belief was contingent upon the fact that we were born into the twentieth century. As I look back on this debate now, I see that this was an example of a terministic screen. Because we were born in the twentieth century, our “given terminology is a reflection of reality, but its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality; and to this extent it must function also as a deflection of reality given the same characteristics” (45). We no longer personally slaughter animals to eat in order to survive. What was once seen as normal behavior might now be seen as cruelty. We have selected this reality and deflected what we do not wish to believe. Someone still has to slaughter these animals, and there is nothing kind about slaughter.

Reality with a capital “R” is much like truth with a capital “T.” It does not exist without people creating its definition. In the Presidential election of 2008, the first African American ran and won. Once the fact that Barrack Obama was indeed our new president, I saw how various people selected and deflected reality. I was absolutely shocked when an acquaintance told me how sorry I would be for voting this man to office. He e-mailed me a picture of a plane Obama spent squandered precious money to repaint with his campaign logo. This man had selected the refurbishing of this plane as reality and had deflected the reality that every other candidate had done the same. This man ranted and raved that Obama had a secret army just waiting on the sidelines to take over the United States and enforce law other than the constitution. This was a completely sane acquaintance who could justify his reality and therefore completely believed it. When an argument to the contrary was presented, he easily able to deflect it.

I guess given my set of symbols, I find it fortunate that so