Background

When you’ve visited the course website, you’ve been exposed to a piece of anti-propaganda propaganda, an “adbuster” (see left).  It is adapted from a poster created during the Chinese Cultural Revolution—a period in China during which the control over information was absolute, freedom of thought was banned, and intellectuals, professionals, and critical thinkers were regularly exiled to farms and factories for “re-training” essentially as non-thinkers.   On this poster, the original message has been replaced with the central argument of this course: "think for yourself or others will think for you," the underlying assumption being that those who think for you will make decisions that are not in your interest or in line with your ideals.  Thus, the two earnest idealogues portrayed here have been transformed into uncritical, thoughtless advocates for critical thoughtfulness. Do you join them in their enthusiasm?

We’ve reached a point of the term at which we have studied the basic tools of writing, critical thinking, analysis, synthesis, and persuasion and sought to understand them in our study of the context of pervasive distortion and manipulation--linguistic, political, and commercial--in our information environment, and it is time to reflect.  What does it mean to think for youself?  To what degree are you free to do so?  How does language (and your ability to use it in written and spoken form) affect your ability to think freely?  What forces in society (e.g. media, governmental, commercial, cultural, or other) inhibit your power in a democratic society?  How finally can you (and I mean YOU specifically!) take more control in the Information Age? 

What are the reasons for and the challenges to thinking for oneself we've encountered in this course?  We've considered the extent to which we are actually free, the value of (and challenges to) democracy, hierarchies, power, language, identity, the corruption of media messages, the art and science of persuasion, the sophisticated technology of mind control (in the The Persuaders), the righteous call for action against bigotry, the ethics of torture, and the rhetoric of the presidential candidates.  With the information environment being so cluttered with false claims, unscrupulous agendas, opinions disguised as facts, and "authorities" soliciting our trust, how can we possibly find our way?  Do you, as a thinker, reject thinking altogether, claiming that ignorance is bliss or that one just can't believe anything out there?  Or is it possible to plunge into the complex battleground of words, images, and ideas and somehow survive and even prevail, to think for yourself?.  

The Prompt

In an essay of at least four pages, develop an honest critical response to being commanded to "think for yourself or others will think for you," making direct reference to The Persuaders and at least three of the readings you have been assigned in this course as well as your own experience as both a critical and uncritical thinker,

How to Write the Essay

Your purpose in this essay is make a clear and convincing argument for your answer to the prompt after establishing the issue for your audience.  After establishing ntroduce the issue in your own words, and then assert a clear thesis that makes a clear claim (your response to the above prompt).  Underline your thesis.  Consider why your audience should accept your claim, then illustrate, explain, and support it your reasoning, using specific evidence from your own experience as a writer, a voter, a consumer of information, and as a voter, as well as from The Persuaders and any of the readings assigned to you in the course (AT LEAST THREE OF THESE), from lecture, and/or from your media monitoring work. There are no right or wrong answers, but unsubstantiated opinions and vague generalizations do not meet the goals of this assignment.