Cynthia L. Selfe Summary

Cynthia L. Selfe talks about three popular American narratives and their relation to modern technology in her essay "Lest We Think The Revolution is a Revolution". One of the narratives that Selfe brings up in her essay is the "Land of Equal Opportunity" and how we feel that technology is allowing everyone to have an equal playing field through its wonderous glory likening it to the early American landscape full of oppurtinity, but Selfe ends up turning that narrative up on it's head and says that in reality technology is causing a "Land of Difference". Selfe brings up many advertisments that play on the optimisim from the 50's. According to Selfe we like these ads because they make us remember the Golden Era when everything was good and happy, and we recall as she states," the down-home, no-nonsense comfort associated with a good dog, a good pipe, a warm fire, a comfortable pair of shoes, and the other very American comforts accruing from a good salary and hard work in a culture where effort is rewarded with capital gain, regardless of race, color, creed, or class." What she means is that we have these fond ideas of the nice happy era of the fifties when everything was supposedly just peachy and that it was the pinnicle of the mantra of the American Dream. However, Selfe brings up the issue that in these ads really only one people group, the white happy family, is presented, and that they don't really show other people groups. She states that in reality only a privilged few in America really get to have equal opportunity and that we don't see all the other people groups such as the poor, illegal immigration, and the contrast between minority education in this country. Selfe argues, "in that Land of Difference narrative, if technology is to improve the lives of al Americans regardless of race and class and other differences, our collective ability to envision such a world is not evident in these images. According to Selfe if we are really going to allow technology to give us an equal playing field we need to include all people groups in America and show how technology can help then, and not only focus on the privilged few.