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Loading... Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives (original 2004; edition 2004)by George Lakoff, Howard Dean (Foreword), Don Hazen (Introduction)
Work InformationDon't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by George Lakoff (2004)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Of the three books I've recently read on political messaging and tactics, this is by far the best. It doesn't have the snarky cynicism of Frank Luntz's book, and avoids the "Ends Justify the Means" attitude of Saul Alinsky. Instead, Lakoff recommends that progressives focus on values they truly believe in, and stop responding to the debates in ways that conservatives have framed. He believes that progressives have "lost" the culture wars because of their inability to properly frame their arguments, and instead have only responded with truth and facts. "It is a common folk theory of progressives that 'the facts will set you free.' If only you get all the facts out there in the public eye, then every rational person will reach the right conclusion. It is a vain hope." Instead, progressives should do four things to win the culture wars: "Show respect. Respond by reframing. Think and talk at the level of values. Say what you believe." It is interesting in that it mirrors much of what Jonathan Haidt argues in "The Righteous Mind." But where he loses me is in defining which moral models of the family progressives and conservatives adhere to. Progressives use the nurturant family model, where they believe "the world can be made a better place, and our job is to work on that. The parents' job is to nurture their children and to raise their children to be nurturers of others." But conservatives use the strict father model, where "what is required of the child is obedience, because the strict father is a moral authority who knows right from wrong." He does an effective job at explaining how these models define adult world views, but a less than adequate job of proving these moral models to be true. His idea that "preserving and extending the strict father model is the highest moral value for conservatives" is a bit of a straw man. Overall worth a read, though, as it does give a different perspective of why people cannot seem to agree about important issues. A short and quick read. The best parts from it in my opinion: the “strict father” model that conservatives use versus the “nurturing family” model that progressives use – very enlightening. Also, how thoroughly conservatives have been able to frame a lot of issues – for example, the concept of tax relief (instead of looking at what you get for your money). “Frames trump facts” and “the private depends on the public” are two another good points from the book. However, I had hoped that it would contain a lot more practical advice on how to use framing to your own advantage. There is a very good chapter at the end, with a lot of examples of how to respond to conservative talking points. But I would have liked more on that. Still, good and eye-opening. I was interested in this book as I was reading it, but looking back, having already read Moral Politics, I wonder if I got much new out of it. I suppose I would recommend this to progressives new to Lakoff's theories, who just want a concentrated primer on why framing matters so much. As for me, I would be more interested in seeing the results of the new think tank to get concrete examples of ho to reframe current political issues. no reviews | add a review
Author George Lakoff, who has become a key advisor to the Democratic Party, asserts that the Republican Party has enjoyed recent success because of the way it expertly "frames" the issues. Using carefully chosen terminology like "tax relief" and "family values," conservatives have cast themselves in a positive light and convinced many Americans to vote against their true beliefs. Now Lakoff shows how progressives can beat conservatives at their own game. No library descriptions found. |
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He also explains how the right has a father figure world view, while progressives have a nurturant parent world view. The father figure/authoritarian male world view description helped me understand how people can rationalize their hypocritical positions on various issues more than any other explanation I have encountered thus far. ( )