Rodney's Countering Blogpost

In the article, “Lest We Think the Revolution is a Revolution” by Cynthia Selfe. Selfe states that “This landscape, Americans like to believe, is open to everybody – male and female, regardless of color, class, or connection. It is in fact, at some level, a romantic re-creation of the American story and the American landscape themselves – a narrative of opportunity in an exciting land claimed from the wilderness, founded on the values of hard work and fair play. It is a land available to all citizens, who place a value on innovation, individualism, and competition, especially when tempered by a neighborly concern for less fortunate others that is hallmark to our democracy.” In this statement Selfe is talking about technology and how we as Americans like to think that it is accessible to everyone. We like to think that everyone has access to technology and that anyone has the ability to use it properly and effectively.

While most Americans choose to believe in this vision, it does not exist in our day and age. There are many people in this world and even in America itself that do not even have access to modern technology, much less the ability to use it. There are countries that do not even have running water. As Americans we buy into this myth for selfish reasons, we like to believe this because it makes us feel good, we like to believe that that every one is as well off as we are, that everyone has all of the things we have. The thought of starving families, and sick and dying children sickens us. So we have created this “illusion”, this “alternate reality” in which everyone lives the same way we do.

I used the uncovering values method of countering. My paragraph demonstrates this method because I used some information that was left out of this passage in order to show the faults and flaws of this statement.