Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how conservatives use language to dominate politics

[Alkistis Fleischer]

The interview with Lakoff is available at the Berkeley web site:

Framing the issues: UC Berkeley professor George Lakoff tells how
conservatives use language to dominate politics

By Bonnie Azab Powell, NewsCenter | 27 October 2003

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml


----- Original Message -----
From: "John McCreery" <mccreery at gol.com>
To: <anthro-L at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU>; <EASIANTH at LISTSERV.TEMPLE.EDU>;
<linganth at cc.rochester.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 10:04 PM
Subject: Why can't progressives talk tough?


> The following paragraphs were written as part of a political
> discussion, but also partly as an exercise in applied anthropology. Any
> and all thoughts are welcome.
>
> ===========
> On the demsjapan blog, a friend has posted a bit about one of my
> favorite authors, George Lakoff. She quotes Lakoff as saying,
>
>    "...the progressive worldview is modeled on a nurturant parent
> family. Briefly, it assumes that the world is basically good and can be
> made better and that one must work toward that. Children are born good;
> parents can make them better."
>
> I feel that Lakoff is basically right about how many progressives
> think. I also feel, however, that progressives need to think again.
> Nothing in my reading of history suggests that the world is basically
> good or that children are born good. If anything, the indifference of
> nature to the destruction that natural disasters cause and the long,
> bloody record of human affairs supports other conclusions.
>
>
> The good news is that there is no need whatsoever to assume goodness to
> justify progressive stances on issues like building a strong social
> safety net, protecting civil liberties, or regulating markets and using
> progressive taxation to preserve and grow a strong middle class.
>
> The authors of the Federalist Papers got it right. They didn't assume
> that greed, envy and the lust for power would disappear from human
> nature. In a manner consistent with Christian theology, they assumed
> original sin and created a system of checks and balances. In a totally
> tough-minded way, they assumed that evil will always lurk in human
> hearts and asked themselves how best to keep it from getting out of
> hand.
>
> In the process, I believe, they laid the foundations for a powerful
> case against both market and religious fundamentalism, a case that is
> infinitely more realistic than any based on the illusion that the world
> and our children are inherently good.
>
> It is also a case with strong roots in the Christian tradition. When
> scripture says, "For God so loved the world...." the miracle is that He
> loves his children in spite of their sins, not because their born a
> bunch of goody two-shoes in a world that is still Eden. A progressive
> can point with conviction to "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and be
> talking about tough love, when tough love is needed.
>
> ===================
>
>
> John L. McCreery
> International Vice Chair, Democrats Abroad
>
> Tel 81-45-314-9324
> Email mccreery at gol.com
>
>  >>Life isn't fair. Democracy should be. <<
>
>