I know that Burke's Burke's frames are not designed to produce "truth" in some empirical sense, but I wonder if in applying them if something like "untruth" or "less truth" can be one of the effects. The tragic/comic frames seem to apply mainly to agents; those who have agency and, more importantly in this case, intention. Intention is interpreted in two major ways: as well-intentioned but rhetorically "mistaken" or self-serving and rhetorically savvy. In an attempt to understand these frames better, been applying Burke's tragicomic frames to a number of "texts" I've encountered this week. The first is the ongoing "text" of the Brittany Spears saga. In this case, I'm positing the popular media as the agent. The tragic frame might suggest that the popular media is exploiting Spears to sell magazines (quite successfully). The comic frame suggests that the popular media believes that the Spears' life is "news" and that they are providing entertainment (a social good) by covering her every move. Another text I considered is the recent Blackwater scandal. I'm positing the agent as Blackwater itself. The tragic frame indicates that the corporation willfully indulged in slipshod hiring practices in order to get together a security force together quickly (if not cheaply); it suggests that Blackwater's motivation was greed and its effect irresponsibility. The comic frame would produce a view of Blackwater as a hapless victim of circumstance; Blackwater intended to produce quickly and under difficult exigencies a strong security force. The corporation should not be held accountable for the unfortunate decisions of a single employee.

I suppose what I'm suggesting is that the tragic frame may indicate a pessimistic auditor while the comic indicates an an optimistic one. Why, then, does the tragic view frequently appear more "right" to me? Am I conservative in the sense that I believe in "personal responsibility"? Do I invest more value in the agent's "agency" than is realistic? In other words, I wonder if we can judge ourselves by how we would apply or what we would see when we apply Burke's tragic/comic frames?