Revised controlling purpose statement 1.3

In Charles Baxter’s “Shame and Forgetting in the Information Age”, he argues how forgetting has become an art form; called strategic amnesia. “. . . the desire to create and destroy personal histories.” He seems convinced that if taken away you are removing a treasured part of their identity. We need that! He then goes on to state where he consistently notices where this anxiety lies. He noticed these signs of anxiety turning up in newspaper ads, commercials, at work, with pop stars, political figures, and even at the office. “People seem to believe that remembering is a matter of willpower.” How do we combat the phobia of forgetting? That is a great question! “Against a shame you cannot bear, your mind detaches itself from its own memory and sails off. . . it is the strategic amnesia of everyday life, both voluntary and willful.” We all have our source of shame about forgetting, it is who we are, and it is what defines us. I think Baxter could have left out the story about his brother to prove his point.