"...Failure is not an option..."
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Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--English301.1002: (from the syllabus)--"This class invites students to reexamine argument through the lens of its democratic function. We will first explore classical rhetorical approaches as informed by Greek and Roman writers. Next, we will draw on interdisciplinary work to examine contemporary public discourse that is so often mired in demagoguery, fake news, and conspiracy theories. "...
Class Introduction:
Cited
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Incline Village, Nev. (EOC)--English301.1002: (from the syllabus)--"This class invites students to reexamine argument through the lens of its democratic function. We will first explore classical rhetorical approaches as informed by Greek and Roman writers. Next, we will draw on interdisciplinary work to examine contemporary public discourse that is so often mired in demagoguery, fake news, and conspiracy theories. "...
Class Introduction:
- What challenges and opportunities do you see with online learning? Progress goes hand in hand with innovation. America is a very diverse and resilient society with more talent per capita than anywhere else in the world. The challenge is the opportunity.
- Have you ever taken an online course before? In the Spring of 2020, all classes went to online sessions in the middle of the semester at the University of Nevada, Reno. Everyone adapted quickly as what was to be expected from a culture that is already far ahead of the rest of the world in technology.
- What was your experience with online education in high school?--When I went to Reno High back in the last century, Sputnik hadn't been in orbit over 10 years, a hit song by the Tornados was "Telstar" and transistor radios were the biggest thing on campus.. You could look up in the sky at night and see the Telstar satellite fly over. I would fall asleep with the transistor radio under my pillow listen[ng to
"Telstar." The Mercury project was just drawing to a conclusion and Gemini just beginning. Five years after I graduated, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
The Mt. Oread Manifesto--
The "Whereas," format, often used in United Nations Security Council resolutions, is meant to justify action to be taken in condemnation of some unjust or travesty of law. In the Mt. Oread Manifesto, the first Whereas relates to "citizen participation" other than voting or information consumption. It doesn't directly target specific groups, genders, ethnicities or other demographic variables that may make it either mandatory or just a plain inconvenience to participate more than casting a ballot or watching nightly news. Is it the responsibility of youth to be more vocal, is it legal for vigilantes and militias to take action against established authority? To what degree can that specific extroverted action become the albatross around the neck of those who participate? The Whereas immediately following the first relates to understanding "a problem from more than one position." Fair enough but still, in a fast-paced society where the decision become as important as the repercussions, even close scrutiny from just one perspective might be the fine line between success and failure. From the film "Apollo 13," (1995, dir: Ron Howard) mission director Gene Kranz (Ed Harris) faced with possible loss of ship and crew, responds by saying;
"Failure is not an option."
Kranz didn't have the luxury of exploring other positions.
Short History of Rhetoric, Roberts-Miller, discussion:
1.) The Enlightenment: exchange of the so-called "belles-lettres" possibly brought on by the number of style conscious writers of the period. There appeared an effort to over-achieve the next person in sheer volume due probably to the invention of the printing press. With respect to that, however, the volume itself became the enabler of the period as the exchange of ideas led to some great strides in science and mathematics, whereas what might be considered rhetorical speculation may have taken a back seat to discovery.
2.) "The extraordinary expansion of colleges, especially in the sixties, (to which the GI Bill, the space race, draft deferment, and feminism all contributed in their own ways) ;" the names cited appear to forget the contributions of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Wolfe and Kesey as vanguards of the Beat Generation just prior to the unsettled 60s.
Cited
The Mt. Oread Manifesto,
Short History of Rhetoric, https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/a-short-and-highly-idiosyncratic-history-of-rhetoric/
Apollo 13 image,
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