Third Persona - Resolution Versus Acknowledgment

Resolution Versus Acknowledgment

Some argue that it is not until those of the third persona enter into the sphere of the second persona that they will be heard and their interests attended to. For example, those who are seventeen years old will soon be old enough to vote and their unheard and unconsidered voice as part of the political Third Persona will automatically enter into the Second Persona once they are old enough to vote. Others, however, might argue that simply becoming part of the Second Persona does not solve the problem nor make the perpetual ranks of Third Persona disappear. A Third Persona will always be present in organized society and thus the problem cannot be solved; perhaps it needs to be foremost acknowledged.

Philip Wander suggests an emancipation from third persona through an ideological turn, or via criticism. As a theory the third persona "is a challenge, a rebel yell, of sorts, for critics and audiences to change criticism, to lay new groundwork for a system whose structure only serves to isolate itself from the social realm. Although derived from the social – the world of schoolchildren and politicians, most criticism is removed from its context through language and text and pondered irrespective of the people it affects or is affected by." Wander hopes to incite scholarly examination of the "rules for producing discourse (criticism) about discourse (rhetoric). Ideally, it should go beyond "claims of morality and the bonds of compassion;" "properly understood, it involves the unity of humanity and the wholeness of the human problem." In this light it shares similar interests within some social science fields for "radical change" scholarship.