Michigan State University Extension
Diversity and Pluralism - DP120304
12/95/
ERIC TITLE NUMBER: ED289189 AUTHOR: Gilder, Eric
TITLE: A Clash of Symbols: An Analysis of Competing Images
and Arguments in the AIDS Controversy.
YEAR PUBLISHED: 1987
NOTE: 38 p.; Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
Speech Communication Association (73rd, Boston, MA,
November 5-8, 1987).
ABSTRACT: Efforts to contain the spread of Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) have been slowed by numerous
arguing factions, political, religious, and medical, all of
which perceive the AIDS epidemic through a different set of
symbols. The images can be more easily understood using
Kenneth Boulding's Threat, Integry, and Exchange (or TIE)
model. The triangular model suggests that interactions
based on threat images are destructive, founded on one
group subjugating another. Groups who base their actions on
threat images include Christian fundamentalists, who
conclude that the disease is an act of divine retribution;
the medical community, which sees AIDS as a threat to its
authority and ability to cure disease, and some gay groups,
who see AIDS as a threat to their political autonomy and
sexual freedom. Action based on exchange images are more
productive, including spending tax dollars on AIDS
research, while action based on integrative images is the
most productive, encompassing the acknowledgement of
identity in relation to others. Churches that have welcomed
gays into their membership and groups that have been formed
to deal specifically with the AIDS issue fall into this
category. It is held that Boulding's concept of integry
provides the best model for a pragmatic and thoughtful
response to the "situational exigence" of AIDS, and the
public should attend to those in the AIDS debate who
articulate this unifying image. (Four pages of references
are included.) (JC)
KEY DESCRIPTORS: Communicable-Diseases; Conflict-; Current
Events; Medicine-; Moral-Issues; Political-Issues; Problem
Solving; Religious-Conflict; Scientific-Research; Social
Change; Social-Discrimination; Traditionalism-; Values-
KEY DESCRIPTORS: *Acquired-Immune-Deficiency-Syndrome;
*Models-; *Social-Problems; *Symbolic-Language
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