Realistically, how many of us have time to inspect every single rhetorical force we encounter each day? At the checkout counter, magazines hawk the fashions and practices of the day in the guise of "advice;" newsstands frame our understanding of world events; the sides of buses put must-haves on parade; clothing companies charge top dollar for the privilege to be a walking advertisement; terms of agreement are blindly accepted. The general public is in constant over-load and, unfortunately, most of us respond by tuning out and going with the flow. As we become increasingly reliant on autopilot, we remove ourselves from the rhetorical process. We allow our role as the audience to be undervalued. We lose our ability to accept or reject the argument before us -- so that in the event an issue surfaces that does evoke a response, we feel powerless to join the discussion. Team Random is experimenting with introducing small breaks from the norm as a way to remind us all that, as the audience, we are already part of the discussion. We need to reclaim our voice!
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