George Lakoff on Reframing Issues and Linguistic Labyrinths

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I went to a lecture by George Lakoff on Saturday night as part of the 21st Century Democrats training I attended over the weekend. George Lakoff is a Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at U.C. Berkeley (go bears) and is most famous for his ideas about the centrality of metaphor to human thinking and society ~~ i.e., in the simplest terms, that metaphors aren't just linguistic tricks we use to maximize the effect of our words, but rather that metaphors are a fundamental part of our conceptual development, even complex reasoning. Check out his book, Metaphors We Live By, which explores how the human mind deals with the world ~ how we strive to understand things through structural metaphors. Lakoff is also one of seven founding members of the Rockridge Institute, one of the few progressive think tanks in existence in the U.S. On the Rockridge Institute's website, Lakoff deconstructs some of the major speeches from the Republican National Convention. Lakoff's analysis of the speeches by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Laura Bush, entitled "Pull Yourself Up by the Bootstraps, If You Have Boots," is especially compelling in that Lakoff summarizes:

The basic assumption of conservatism is that there is a hierarchy of merit, and that merit is based on whether you are disciplined enough to succeed. So, social programs are immoral because they give people things that they haven’t earned and therefore make them dependent. If you don’t make it, it’s your own fault; the idea of cycles of poverty does not exist.

Lakoff's lecture on Saturday night, and his most recent articles and interviews, highlight the importance of framing issues ~~ HOW an issue is framed, and WHO frames it, is vital because that then sets the tone for the debate around the issue. The most glaring example of this is how Conservatives have successfully framed the "tax" issue in this country as "tax relief" so that tax-cuts are seen as "good," no matter how devastating the consequences are, and any form of taxation is seen as "bad or evil." As long ago as October 2003, Lakoff was interviewed by Bonnie Azab Powell to discuss how Conservatives use language to dominate politics. The following are a couple of highlights:

How does language influence the terms of political debate?

Here's another example of how powerful framing is. In Arnold Schwarzenegger's acceptance speech, he said, "When the people win, politics as usual loses." What's that about? Well, he knows that he's going to face a Democratic legislature, so what he has done is frame himself and also Republican politicians as the people, while framing Democratic politicians as politics as usual — in advance. The Democratic legislators won't know what hit them. They're automatically framed as enemies of the people.

Why do conservatives appear to be so much better at framing?

Because they've put billions of dollars into it. Over the last 30 years their think tanks have made a heavy investment in ideas and in language. In 1970, [Supreme Court Justice] Lewis Powell wrote a fateful memo to the National Chamber of Commerce saying that all of our best students are becoming anti-business because of the Vietnam War, and that we needed to do something about it. Powell's agenda included getting wealthy conservatives to set up professorships, setting up institutes on and off campus where intellectuals would write books from a conservative business perspective, and setting up think tanks. He outlined the whole thing in 1970. They set up the Heritage Foundation in 1973, and the Manhattan Institute after that. [There are many others, including the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institute at Stanford, which date from the 1940s.]

And now, as the New York Times Magazine quoted Paul Weyrich, who started the Heritage Foundation, they have 1,500 conservative radio talk show hosts. They have a huge, very good operation, and they understand their own moral system. They understand what unites conservatives, and they understand how to talk about it, and they are constantly updating their research on how best to express their ideas.

Read the entire article particularly to learn about Lakoff's thesis of the "Strict Father" and "Nurturing Parent" worldview models. I'll write more about that, and the lecture, later, but for now I bring this up because, as I learned at the training over the weekend and as I discovered last night chatting with people at a Bar, progressives simply do not know how to debate these issues without alienating swing voters. We need to know how to do this ~~ FAST. To that end (and I know I sound like an Info-mercial these days for progressive campaign tools, but it will all make sense in a couple of days), Lakoff has just released a 25-minute DVD designed to help progressives more effectively understand and communicate Democratic political ideals. More importantly, the DVD will help you recognize how the use of language is shaping political opinion in our country. In the DVD, you will learn the following:

• What "framing" is and how to frame from your point of view.
• What the Democratic/progressive values are and why values influence voters.
• How to debate a conservative (a look at four issues).
• How to influence a swing voter.
• The importance of patriotism.
• How to "frame" President Bush.

The DVD is called, "How Democrats and Progressives Can Win: Solutions From George Lakoff." You can see a clip from the DVD and/or buy it (for only $15), here. Even if you are not working on a campaign, you should buy this DVD and watch it with friends to learn more about the framing of the political debate around us ~~ see if you can use what you learn from the DVD in discussing the issues with your friends, neighbors, co-workers, and family; see if you can swing a vote! :) Remember, One Friend at a Time, One Voter at a Time. I was there, I was at his lecture, and I saw Lakoff work through his points in a coherent, thoughtful manner ~~ he was amazing, inspiring, and made me realize I can do this....I can talk to people, and swing votes and make a difference. More about that later, maybe late tonight or tomorrow morning, since I am waiting on a telephone call about this very issue, the "other big news" I mentioned before....... ~~ (yes that's more teasing here) ~ :)

Comments

[DailyTexicanl]

cool. I'll vote for you! Nombre, I'm still waiting.