Blog Post #4 Gamarra

Burke's theory of identification points out that in order for rhetoric to be successful the listener or audience must identify with some aspect of the rhetor. The listener must identify at the self-level and at a group-level, meaning aligning oneself to a common ideology while excluding alternate realities. Not only am I like the particular rhetor but I am also part of his group, my group. It is through this alienation that an audience member finds a home, thus can behave or think in accordance to the rhetor's agenda, since it is also the member's agenda. Identification can be an active process, but for the most part is is as natural and as undetectable as our heart palpitations.

Ratcliffe acknowledges this process of identification and highlights its negative aspects. Ratcliffe proposes listening that is accountable and responsible. Listening that is aware of the process of identification, thus alienation, and expands it by showing how becoming aware of this can create a more fair and informed society. "Strategic idealism implies a conscious identification among people that is based on a desire for an inter subjective receptivity, not mastery, and on a simultaneous recognition of similarities and differences, not merely one or the other." (p12) Trough developing the ability to listen beyond one's perspective and being aware that there is an almost priori filter we can logically begin to understand the less dominant perspectives and our role in denying them . Ratcliffe's proposal for this active listening allows us to understand how identification works as well as this idea of an identity which is made up of our social conditioning and the historical baggage behind our personal lenses. "Instead, we choose to listen also for the exiled excess and contemplate its relation to our culture and our selves." (p10)