Myers' Marxism

Re: Myers' "Reality, Consensus, and Reform in the Rhetoric of Composition Teaching" (1986).

Though perhaps I could be persuaded to agree with Myers' assertion that "rhetorical appeals" to "consensus" and "reality" are problematic (155), I could never be convinced by his reasoning. His assertion is based upon the assumption that these appeals are necessarily ideologically based, an assertion that is, by Myers' own admission - and, paradoxically, ideologically-based itself. Moreover, Myers ironically engages in the very thing - "reproducing ideology" (156) - that he encourages us to combat, while the ideology that he's "reproducing" (by the way, all ideology is inherently ideological) is no less destructive of the very thing - critical thinking - that he purports to promote.

That is, admittedly, I may indeed think that what I think "is free and progressive thought," and that, in doing so, I may also be "perpetuating a[n ideologically-based system], " (156) but in "reality," so is Myers. His assumptions are just as ideological-based and biased, and his ideology is just as liable- arguably more so, to committing "injustices" as any other, particularly considering the fact that it is founded upon the (modern or postmodern?) presupposition that "our social system constructs our view of the world" (157), and therefore any notion of justice is just as arbitrary and capricious as societies are supposedly themselves, ultimately denying the notion of individual exceptionalism, such that each individual truly is just a another brick in the wall. And remember: bricks are disposable. So are you with this view. To the contrary, my "worldview" sees the individual as exceptional, uniquely valuable, and therefore indisposable.

So, where Marx denies any spiritual component to human existence, I confirm it: we are - including our human consciousness - essentially spiritual beings, and life is determined by consciousness, not the other way around. How do I know this? How do we know anything? I don't know.

But I do admit that the assumptions I make are just as ideologically based as everyone's. Mine are grounded in the notion that there exists an objective reality, one that, despite our respective positions of existential subjectivity, can and will be discovered. I also believe that rhetoric and composition can and will play an important part in this discovery process.