One of the overarching themes present in Chapter One was the idea of consensus, or rather a lack thereof, within the current era of communication. This is something that I'm particularly interested in and would argue is completely and utterly true. Just as Arnett et al. state on page one, communication today has little to do with reaching consensus about what is right or wrong. There are so many definitions and beliefs about what those things truly are that arguing and debating over nuances would be counterproductive and entirely destructive. What's more important is the idea of negotiating difference together. We need to get over this idea that difference is bad and that being different has horribly negative consequences. Like the chapter says, we live in an era of postmodernity wherein disagreement runs rampant. There is a lack of confidence in one universal sense of "good". Right and wrong or good and bad are no longer a given reality. There is a fear that nonconformity will damage the world we choose to live in, that people who don't match our definition of good or right will somehow wreak havoc on our personal reality that we've created for ourselves. In all honesty, it ends up being us that wreak the havoc out of fear of the "oncoming storm" of difference. I would agree wholeheartedly with Arnett et al. in that we must learn about and from diversity in order to live harmoniously within our shared world because it is, after all, shared.
On a side note, I found that Arnett et al.'s theory of habitues (taken from Aristotle) sounds familiar to bell hook's idea of "habits of mind". Just a thought.
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