Our World, Our People. :)

As I close my eyes and drift away to a land where there is love, joy, peace, and blessings. I wanted to take the time to think and reflect. 

The truth is that I have been grappling with the learning of difficult knowledge. Not in the sense that the concepts are not understood, but it is actually what has been learned. Did you ever wish that you didn't learn some new knowledge? Or that you were just better off not knowing this knowledge? I have many times. In times of doing readings  - I remember going for walks straight after to digest the content of these readings. Often these walks were accompanied with tears. This is exactly what I have felt this week.

I was actually intrigued by re - visiting my thoughts about rhetoric. These were learned about a lot through my undergraduate studies.

​What is rhetoric? What does it mean? 

Definition of Rhetoric - Mirriam - Webster Dictionary

There are also there types of rhetoric appeals. These are modes pf persuasion that are specifically designed to appeal to an audience. The mode that is used will depend on the type of message that you want to deliver. The three modes are ethos, pathos, and logos. Please see: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos website for more information.

How we speak, and how we say things can directly affect those that listen to our message. This is the power of words, words are very powerful. During the election race, and just observing the languages that are used by political leaders, I began to wonder: what is the importance of 'we'. The 'we' was being used both by Democrats and also Republicans. I began to wonder that there must be more to the importance of this word. We can specifically think about the phrase: "We the people". 
In one sense this word is inclusionary because it suggests the involvement of more that one person. But it is exclusionary because the 'we' is a formulation of a group. For example: Anyone who belongs to the 'we' group is included, and anyone who is not, in not included. 

These thoughts are transcended through the philosophical lens of wonder. They can also be supported by empirical evidence through the in - group and out - group studies. Through a social psychological perspective where there are these group formulations, there will be some types of prejudices. We can even think about this in terms of racial minorities, and racial majorities. 

Intellectual Interruption
As I was reading my thoughts, I came across the following quote: 
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"The constitutive outside means in this context, that identity of an established 'we' gets its precise definition from the 'they' from which it distinguishes itself. In this respect a 'we' and a 'they' are always interconnected and mutually dependant on each other at the same time as this relationship requires a genuine difference" (Todd & Säström, 2008).

What I liked about this quote is the fact that the authors have recognized human difference, but also acknowledge the space of interdependence. But it must also be said that the 'we' is a politically charged word, that stems of radicalized democratic perspectives. There is a suffocation that is associated with this politically charged 'we'. (Todd & Säström, 2008). Without a negation of this word, I thought about how this word could actually lead to a much more inclusionary lens. 

Model of Inclusion - Rhetorics. Shazia S. Hussain.

Whilst we now know what these binaries suggest, and whilst we work in these realms, we should always be striving to reach towards a macro inclusion. For example: I think that if we have grown as an intellectual society, we have a wealth of knowledge that shows the consequence of exclusions, or the effects on communities such as the LGBTQ populations, women, girls, racial  minorities, disabled groups etc. If we simply live to ignore these effects, and have not grown as intellectuals, it is simply understood as remaining ignorant to the problems. 

What is the point of growth if we begin favouring or ignoring? Knowledge is powerful, it is a type of currency. How we use this knowledge is also very important. We must be mindful about how we use our words. There are physical walls, and doors that we use to shut out specific individuals, but there are also walls that are put up because of our word choices. "borders themselves are understood as political" (Biesta, 2011).

To end my thoughts I wanted to leave you with the following quote. I ask you to think about this with respect to the work of the teaching and learning processes. 

​"... for authentic deliberation to happen the requirement is that the reflection on preferences should take place in a non - coercive manner (Dryzek 2000, p. 2). This requirement, so he explains, "rules out domination via the exercise of power, manipulation, indoctrination, propaganda, deception, expression of the mere self - interest, threats ... and attempts to impose ideological conformity" (Biesta, 2011). 

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Dedication: The thoughts are this being are dedicated to all beings. With love & kindness! :)

Notes: these thoughts were originally hand - written on February 9th, 2017.​
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