RR #1

The introduction of, Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing written by Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, presents ideas about our culture and society.  The concept of “cultural myths” is introduced to the readers.  Cultural myths are ideas and beliefs that are ingrained in our brains as we grow up in this society.  Certain things like the “American Dream” make people believe that there is always hope to succeed regardless of the current situation because there is always a chance in America.  Although this has a slight bit of truth to it, the vast majority of people in poverty are not able to beat the system and come out on top.  This is an old idea that has had great staying power because we continue to talk about it.  Cultural myths help us all conform to the same beliefs.  When we all share similar beliefs we don’t easily question them.  As it is put in the book, the myths help us, “make sense” of the functions of our society.  The book talks about the need to critically think about and challenge these myths and not accept them as truth before understanding them.  The writing is directed towards college students who are encouraged to take different perspectives and approaches to these accepted ideas of our society.  They say that the reason cultural myths have so much power is because they become a part of our thinking before we are even aware that they exist.  From the time we are toddlers these ideas are part of our upbringing and we can’t tell a myth from the truth.  This information is being written in order to bring awareness to us as students and as a society.   We need to be conscious of our subconscious thoughts that have been ingrained in our heads since we were little.  Even if we aren’t going to challenge the myths we must, at least, become aware of them and critically think about them.

The authors of this section use Logos or, Logic, as the main appeal for their argument.  The reader is encouraged to critically think by, “getting outside your own skin and seeing the world from multiple perspectives”.  This is presented as a logical idea because we are not exercising our ability to think critically and it only makes sense to examine our thoughts and processes.  On the other side of the argument, they say how it makes sense that these myths exist.  They have existed in other cultures for example, Ancient Greece, in order to give reason to their societal ways of life.  It is normal to have certain uniform beliefs throughout a society but it doesn’t make sense to accept them as true and not challenge them at all.  The authors make it seem like an unintelligent idea if you are not challenging ideas that you have always believed.   I agree with the ideas presented in the introduction of this book.  It is true that we need to always be aware of what we believe and to critically think about our daily beliefs so that we don’t live unconsciously.