RP2: Culture as an Argument

Everything is an argument. 

           I heard this in high school as a part of my junior-level AP test prep. It’s was supposed to encourage our skeptical investigation of texts and symbols, but I’ve noticed that it’s a generally fair understanding in general. All that we see, hear, read, and watch is arguing something—and we have, I think, the responsibility to evaluate those claims. These arguments are part of both quotidian experiences and expansive cultural narratives and productions as well. Just like a stop light argues you should stop here, and the Ten Commandments of the Judeo-Christian Tradition make their arguments for and against behaviors, books argue themes, media argues values and politicians argue anything they have to in order to get your attention. Everything is trying to convince us of something. However, this argument is not one-sided. In responding to these forces, stories, structures, we are given a part in a dialogue in which we must evaluate the other side and respond appropriately. Without a response, these other arguments are meaningless; they evaporate.

In order to respond though, to join the dialogue, we have to acknowledge the arguments being presented to us. Our evaluation leads us to action. Interpret and react. This is where I see agency and how I’ve been making connections between Lowe’s Immigrant Acts, Roque Ramírez’s Claiming Queer Cultural Citizenship, and Manalansan’s Migrancy, Modernity, Mobility: Quotidian Struggles and Queer Diasporic Intimacy. The state makes an argument about who the immigrant is, about who is and is not included in some established ‘We’. Those who are then assigned this status, immigrants, aliens, must evaluate these arguments about who is and is not and then react. Those included in the ‘We’ have this same opportunity—every individual has a degree of autonomy to either accept or challenge the arguments presented to them in some capacity. There is always a give and take from both sides and it takes place on several scales.

These arguments play out in both our daily interactions with other people and the forces, images and structures they have created.  Cultural productions, as described by Roque Ramírez, host these discussions on a more public stage, but simple things, whether or not to follow that stop light, comply with a law, challenge a stereotype, are a part of the same cultural dialogue that we’re all a part of. As much as these arguments shape our world, we are shaping them back. All those arguments are dependent on our reaction to them, so we have the responsibility to be very conscious of what power we give them. We're all cultural agents, so we must decide what we're arguing back.