Heres one for my academic friends.... So I checked email and looked at the weekly stats from academia.edu and was surprised to see 1042 hits coming from freerepublic, a website for conservative activists. It turns out that someone (SamAdams76) posted a link to my paper on Waffle House waitresses and it seems a lot of people looked at it. Most of them hated it because: 1. it was an academic paper so it had theory and footnotes and stuff like that; 2. I was obviously a stupid elitist northerner (someone corrected them by saying dont blame this on us Yankees- hes from California!) who just didnt know how things are done in the South. Uh.... yes.... that was the whole point of my essay. What does it mean when you dont understand the taken for granted cultural codes of language? And sure, I spent more time thinking about the language of Waffle House waitresses than, well, anyone out there, but this was merely an example of how taken for granted speech patterns can be a bit perplexing to those who were not socialized with such codes. Also, I think that they would be surprised if they were to meet me, since I dont even own a tweed jacket with elbow patches, which seems to be the impression that they had of me. Bless my heart. It got me thinking though - I wonder what the people at Free Republic would think of the work of: those who study early republic rhetoric, like Jeremy Engels or Stephen Lucas; those who study freedom of speech issues like Stephen Smith, Katie Langford, Rebekah Huss Fox, or David R. Dewberry; public memory scholars like Kendall Phillips and Brad Vivian; or those that have studied events that would be near and dear to their hearts, like Mike Hogans books on the nuclear freeze campaign and the Panama Canal or the Voices of Democracy project that he spearheaded. I get the sense that they would hate Jason Edward Black, Chuck Morris, and Dana Clouds work for other reasons. And Joshua Gunn? I dont even know what they would make of his stuff! But all of these scholars have important things to say to those invested in a free republic. Of course this depends oh how you view the idea of freedom and America - so were back to rhetoric. All of us study the use of language and how others employ that language to move people to belief or action. This is incredibly important if we are to keep this thing called democracy going. In 1822, James Madison wrote, “A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or tragedy; or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” (James Madison, “To W. T. Barry, August 4, 1822,” in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison, 4 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1865), 3:276). I am still convinced that knowing how rhetoric works is a fundamental element of democratic practice (and demagoguery, but thats another post). Anyway, it is rare that I see so many peoples reactions to one of my articles all in one place. Anyone have similar experiences?
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 18:51:57 +0000