In this post I will compare and contrast the three modes of rhetorical thinking: narrative, dialectic and rhetoric. All three disciplines require us to reason in different ways. I will also briefly discuss symbols. Narratives are stories, traditions, legends which transmit the accepted, agreed upon norms in any given society. A social narrative transfers, maintains […]
On December 6, 1982, more than twenty Guatemalan soldiers stormed the tiny village of Dos Erres, looking for rifles which they claimed had recently been stolen by local guerillas. They searched homes for the “missing weapons” and systematically killed all the men, women and children they could find. According to the few surviving eyewitnesses of […]
Despite all that we’ve learned about the pre-WW II environment in Britain, it is still hard to make a reasonable case for appeasement without the benefit of hindsight. Some historians feel that appeasement was a direct cause of World War II because it allowed Hitler to grow in power and confidence. This is simply not […]
How did the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement affect mainstream media (MSM) and vice-versa? In this post I will examine how MSM affected the ability of the Occupy movement to reach – and appeal to – a broader public. By analyzing negative media frames regarding OWS scholars argue that media framing influenced the representation of […]
The Cambodian genocide follows many of the same inevitable patterns established by previous genocidal regimes, like the Ottoman Empire against the Armenians during the First World War and Nazi Germany in World War II. According to Gregory H. Stanton, President of Genocide Watch, genocide is a process which develops in eight predictable stages. The process […]
The Rwandan genocide should have been avoided, and it easily could have been. This horrible crime was made possible not simply because of global indifference to the plight of this tiny central African country, but through the outright cowardice and willful lack of action by the United Nations and its member states, especially the USA. […]
The Pew Research Center’s annual State of the Media Report underscores recent developments which suggest that American journalism is in the midst of a seismic transformation. Much of the discussion surrounds the ways in which people consume news, and the need for news producers to be able to respond to increasing consumer demands if it […]
It’s depressing that women in America are the target of hate and suspicion simply because they possess wombs. Suppressing the rights of women is morally wrong — whether it’s the Taliban or Christian fundamentalists doing the suppressing. America appears to be entering a new dark age where women’s reproductive rights are once again a political […]
Are we heading for Judgment Day? Whether you believe it or not, some very powerful people are doing everything they can to bring about the end of the world. It might come sooner than we think if recent events in the Ukraine and the Middle East are any indication. Do we need to prepare for […]
My wife and I have been married for 32 years, and we have remained childless by choice. We decided long ago that we did not want to bring any children into this world. I realize now that not having a child is one of the most radical acts of defiance one can commit in our […]
Jason Darensburg's Blog-o-rama 