naming, ethics and the terministic screen

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naming, ethics and the terministic screen
must we merely resign ourselves to an endless
catalogue of terministic screens, each of which
can be valued for the light it throws upon the
human animal, yet none of which can be considered
central? Burke p. 52.

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What is this?
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maybe Bush Visits L.A. 10 Years After Riots
Bush Sees Hope After L.A. Riots, Some See No
Change
maybe To this gathering at Nickerson Gardens,
what happened that April 29 was not a riot, but
political action born of outrage. Out of the
ashes came a renaissance, a revival.
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have it both ways? Careful to avoid the word
"riot," he drew parallels between the rebuilding
in Los Angeles and the spirit of harmony
nationwide after Sept. 11. "I fully understand
that 10 years ago this city because there was
some violence, a lot of violence saw
incredible destruction in lives and property,"
Bush said.
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what happened was
an outburst , a civil disturbance , unrest,
an uprising, hooliganism, a revolution, a
nonevent, a race riot, a free for all, etc.
etc.

it was (or could be called) all of these things
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how can this be?
"The dramatistic view of language, in terms of
'symbolic action' is exercised about the
necessarily suasive nature of even the most
unemotional scientific nomenclatures. And we
shall proceed along those lines thus even is
any given terminology is a reflection of reality,
by 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." KB,
Language as Symbolic Action (1966) p. 45.
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description is always prescription
what happened in L.A. in late-April 1992 COULD
be named several things BUT
to speak/write requires a choice to be made
for this reason, naming is always an ethical act
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Better yet, naming is an
ethico-political act, since it has political
effects
question is no longer is this name ethical? but
(since naming is always an ethico-political act)
what are its ethico-political effects?
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objects, events, people dont have names,
rather, naming is a disruptive and creative act
that has real effects
ex. violence enables
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"And yet out of this violence and ugliness came
new hope ... to show the rest of the country what
is possible, what can happen in America when
people put aside differences and focus on what's
best for all. Oh, I know there's pockets of
despair, that just means we've got to work
harder. It means we can't quit, it means we've
got to rout it out with love and compassion and
decency."
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political action enables
"Are all police bad? No," said the Rev. Richard
Byrd of KRST Unity Center. "Are there some bad
ones? Yes. And we are here to speak out against
their brutality." The same poverty that existed
in 1965 and in 1992 still exists today. "Where is
the infrastructure? Where is the beauty? Where
are the trees?" Byrd asked.
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to review
- humans cannot not use symbols
- naming is an ethico-political act never
innocent
- always a reflection, selection, deflection of
reality