naming, ethics and the terministic screen

1. 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.

2. What is this?

3. 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.”

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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?

9. objects, events, people don’t “have” names, rather, naming is a disruptive and creative act that has “real” effects ex. “violence” enables:

10. "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."

11. “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.

12. to review: - humans cannot not use symbols - naming is an ethico-political act; never innocent - always a reflection, selection, deflection of reality