The 'Language of Values' in Politics
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| Renowned cognitive scientist George Lakoff expounds on how moral and spiritual beliefs affect political beliefs and actions. |
Political theorist and cognitive
scientist George Lakoff.
As part of Tikkun’s Spiritual Activism Conference in Berkeley yesterday, UC Berkeley psychology professor George Lakoff spoke to the nearly 1,200 attendees about moral politics, spiritual beliefs, and some of the fundamental differences between right-wing and left-wing politics.
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| “Lots of people are partial progressives, and those are people that we can talk to,” |
Lakoff told the conference. He continued:
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| “The way to talk to them is to find out what they share with you, that is, what the nurturing parts of their lives are. What’s particularly interesting is communities. In the red states -- I lived in the midwest for 4 1/2 years -- one of the most striking things to me was Midwestern communities. They were nurturing communities. They were communities where they had leaders who cared about members of those communities, where people cared about each other, where there were projections of the nurturant family on the communities. And that’s always a place to start conversations, if you want to talk about values.” |
Lakoff went on to talk about progressive Christianity versus conservative Christianity, and how that too is informing not only today’s politics, but also many of our past struggles, including the anti-slavery movement, women’s suffrage and the fight for civil rights.
eorge Lakoff is the author of Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate' (Chelsea Green). He is Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley and a Senior Fellow of the Rockridge Institute.
how come no one focuses on the so called "values" of the republican party?
this is a group who constantly portrays themselves as religious, family oriented and moral people, yet, it's been obvious they can't find it within themselves to be spiritual enough, or moral enough, or just plain man enough to stand up and take responsibility for their actions.
i'm talking about the karl rove issue. these people cry of morals and values, yet shrug them to save their own asses. i expect a criminal to deny his guilt, i expect a child to deny they did something wrong, but someone should be man enough, (or moral enough) to stand tall and accept what comes their way. instead, it's deny, lie, deny and lie.
this is a group who constantly portrays themselves as religious, family oriented and moral people, yet, it's been obvious they can't find it within themselves to be spiritual enough, or moral enough, or just plain man enough to stand up and take responsibility for their actions.
i'm talking about the karl rove issue. these people cry of morals and values, yet shrug them to save their own asses. i expect a criminal to deny his guilt, i expect a child to deny they did something wrong, but someone should be man enough, (or moral enough) to stand tall and accept what comes their way. instead, it's deny, lie, deny and lie.
| QUOTE (mga @ Saturday, 23 July 2005, 5:08 am) |
| how come no one focuses on the so called "values" of the republican party? this is a group who constantly portrays themselves as religious, family oriented and moral people, yet, it's been obvious they can't find it within themselves to be spiritual enough, or moral enough, or just plain man enough to stand up and take responsibility for their actions. i'm talking about the karl rove issue. these people cry of morals and values, yet shrug them to save their own asses. i expect a criminal to deny his guilt, i expect a child to deny they did something wrong, but someone should be man enough, (or moral enough) to stand tall and accept what comes their way. instead, it's deny, lie, deny and lie. |
I believe one must be careful about generalizations.
We've all seen the antics and heard the stories of the extreme right wing conservative religious fundementals in politics.
That doesn't mean all conservatives are of the same cloth anymore that we can assume every liberal practices the occult!
The fabric of political beliefs is a tapestry that weaves through so many other values. Things such as, urban or rural? northern or southern? Race, sex, sexuality, economics, age, etc etc.
Though it is quite understandable what with so much conservative crime against our society today, It is a mistake to make broad assumptions, and it is a mistake to rely on insults to make your case. It is also a mistake to assume all conservatives to be bad because they voted for GW. (This one is hard to accept)
Again I remind, if we were to travel to say, rural Kansas and have dinner with "your average corn farming conservative," wether you liked them or not would most likely have NOTHING to do politics! Though there are always the extreme exceptions, we are all just people. On the inside we are all the same! In fact, most of us, red or blue, want the same things! We only disagree in how to accomplish these things!
One must make the effort to remove the 3 or 4 or 6 general stereo types that explain todays modern political society, not for a flat line of infinate points upon which everyone has their place between the extreme ends of left and right, but instead for a 3 dimensional sphere into which we all have our point, a point that is in constant flux or motion as we learn and grow.
Stereo typing and broad generalizations are for the ignorant, scared and morally weak.
We are progressive liberals. We are none of these things.
We are smarter than the beast we have learned to dispise.
We will walk our talk, and lead by example.
even if we lose!
If we do not, then we have lost even before we can begin!
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