Transcendence?

Terministic screens is often defined as selection, deflection, and reflection. The idea of selecting while at the same time deflecting other aspects to reflect one's own view of reality makes for an individualized relationship to the world.

Terministic screens act like filters on Instagram pictures, the focus being on mental perception rather than visual ones. Many factors affect how each person views and interacts with the world around them. Society, family, setting, and experience all play a significant role is coloring our views. We are a product of our surrounding just as much as we are a product of our parents. There is no way to not look at life through a "filter" of some kind despite our best efforts. Burke identifies and defines Terministic screens as a fact of life without passing much judgement on their existence. It is clear that he wants us to transcend them in order to come to an understanding of neutrality or neutral view. But if we all create or construct realities separate from one another all of the time is it possible to arrive at a place of neutrality by ourselves?

Changing people's minds about things like politics, race, and gay marriage is difficult and sometimes impossible. People's view don't appear out of thin air. They are formulated and reinforced over time. Left to our own devices we wouldn't change our minds. It is often influence from other people that sparks the conversation that creates the possibility to see things from another perspective, yet another terministic screen. It is the dialogue between screens that shows that there is not only a singular perspective or right answers. The back and forth between multiple views can often times ends in new and/or "neutral" territory. This occurs many times between different people but it can also happen within different identities. 

We each have several different identities that become apparent at different times. I am a sister, daughter, student, manager, adult, and a women. Different roles demand different behaviors and sometimes are accompanied by different view or beliefs. My understanding of right and wrong could be slightly different as a manager than as a sister or student. Issues like abortion mean differently for religious women than nonreligious women. As a Christian someone might feel that it is wrong but as a woman they might feel that it is still a matter of choice. It is possible to arrive at a new terministic screen which would constitute a different reality but its not always easily down. In the end there is no way to escape terministic screens altogether.