George Lakoff
<p>Feb 24, 2010 10:37 PM
 
I heard him tonite at Stfd, Cubberley School of Ed.
 
Framing is normal;  every word involves framing;
 
Contrast the Enlightenment view of reasoning and language in which everyhting was
pure logic  (a la Descartes) and emotion had nothing to do with it.
 
Don't think of an elephant!  (the frame is already activated by the word).
 
Nixon "I am NOT a crook"  )activates the frame.
 
Tony Damasio...  emotion is intimately tied to reason.
You cannot think without emotion ... it colors everything.
 
Damasio studied pts with lesions affecting emotions... they cannot think  (eg like autism);
 
Democrats have not adopted his work cuz they're afraid of being accused of
propagandizing...  they believe in absolute truth.
 
Love relationships as TRAVEL:  this relship has hit a dead end!  we're going down the road
together;  we hit a bumpy patch;  spinning our wheels; spinning out of control.
 
It's all downhill from here  (two metaphors)...  it's getting easier  VS
things are getting worse  (where UP is always better).
 
PRIMARY metaphors are ones we learn b efore  age 3 or age 5;
being held affectionately while bottle is warmed up or fed on warm milk;
emotional WARMTH;  she is COLD;
 
More is always UP for you.
 
Nations, schooks, churches are like families;
 
Mutual inhibition of templates.
Can keep two standards in one head... contrast ethics on
Saturday nite  vs  ethics on Sunday AM.
 
There is no ideology of the moderate or the middle.
 
Obama identifies with the NURTURING parent  (vs the STRICT parent)
 
see Edwin  Rutsch Obama documentary clips qv on empathy... core value of democrats.
 
(Nurturing parent);
Fairness and Freedom for everyone;
Govt  provides  PROTECTION and EMPOWERMENT for everyone
 
empowerment and protection of food, water, consumers;
 
taxes provide infrastructure; education; judicial system; fxn stock mkt, roads..
want no taxes and no govt go to Haiti or the Congo.
 
The unconsc assumption behind every progressive;
 
Conservatives say "  Let the market decide"
Its the decider the  STRICT FATHER in the family;
most conservatives are not mean or greedy.. they think their position is moral;
just difft than progressives.
All politics is moral on both sides ... just difft morality.
 
Conservative Populism  ( a new phenom)  like the Tea Party...
 
in the sixties being a conservative awas a dirty word;
so Nixon recrafted it to include family values,  law and order;  spoke abt the
liberal elite and Hollywood liberals;
appealed to patriotism .  How come u never hear abt
patriotic liberals and valient liberals.
 
LAKOFF  californians for democracy.
 
the top 5% of Calif.  own 95% of the property.
 
mirror neurons   basis of empathy;
 
STRICT father explanation for  how conservatives like
pro-life ...  "u played around and had a baby, now suffer the consequences"
same as  pro-dath  "u killed, therefore we'll kill u"
 </p>