Family as Metaphor for Politics: George Lakoff

[xocolatl]

I posted this old George Lakoff article on the
RFID thread, but I think it's worthy of its own thread:


Metaphor, Morality, and Politics,
Or, Why Conservatives Have Left Liberals In the Dust


We may not always know it, but we think in metaphor. A large proportion of our most commonplace thoughts make use of an extensive, but unconscious, system of metaphorical concepts, that is, concepts from a typically concrete realm of thought that are used to comprehend another, completely different domain. Such concepts are often reflected in everyday language, but their most dramatic effect comes in ordinary reasoning. Because so much of our social and political reasoning makes use of this system of metaphorical concepts, any adequate appreciation of even the most mundane social and political thought requires an understanding of this system. But unless one knows that the system exists, one may miss it altogether and be mystified by its effects.

(snip)

To understand what metaphor has to do with conservative politics, we must begin with that part of our metaphor system that is used to conceptualize morality -- a system of roughly two dozen metaphors. To illustrate how the system works, let us begin with one of the most prominent metaphors in the system -- the metaphor by which morality is conceptualized in terms of accounting.

(snip)

The resulting picture of the priorities of the Strict Father and Nurturant Parent moral systems is as follows:

* Strict Father Morality (Basic Conservative Morality):
o The Strength Complex
o Moral Self-Interest
o The Nurturance Complex

* Nurturant Parent Morality (Basic Liberal Morality):
o The Nurturance Complex
o Moral Self-Interest
o The Strength Complex

Here one can clearly see the opposition in moral priorities.


...more...

Shorter CBS News article, also interesting...

(snip)


"We have a metaphor of the nation as family," Lakoff explains. Within that family are two types of parents, two models. Lakoff views the conservatives as the strict father model and the progressives as the nurturing parent.

"The strict father family has a background assumption," Lakoff says of the conservative approach. "The world is a dangerous place. It's a difficult place. And kids are born bad and have to be made good." The strict father model, to offer just one applied example, would not allow for social programs because they offer unearned rewards. Within this model, the very notion of such a program – an unearned reward – would be immoral because it would not serve to raise the "child" to be self-reliant.

The nurturant parent, on the other hand, Lakoff writes, believes "that children are born good and should be kept that way." The two core ideas to the nurturing parent are empathy and responsibility. Lakoff emphasizes that the empathy component within the nurturing model should not be interpreted as weakness:

"The nurturant parent is neither permissive nor weak in being empathetic. Rather empathy-carried-out requires responsibility, both personal and social. Responsibility implies strength, competence, and promoting the value of both personal and social responsibility in others."

The key factor of these two models, as it applies to Howard Dean, is that according to Lakoff, "Most Americans have versions of both worldviews … many people use both models – in different parts of their lives."


(snip)

[virgdem]

1. I'm in the process of reading Moral Politics by Lakoff...

It is a great book. It really helps to explain why each side thinks the way they do. Lakoff speaks of values as winning the day for liberals and I do agree on that point. I have noticed a decided shift recently in the Kerry campaign from policies to values, and it probably is due in large part to books like Lakoff's. Thank God they are paying attention to the concept of values - something the Gore campaign completely missed back in 2000.

[Joy Anne]

2. Lakoff

I recently read some of his essays as preparation for joining a libDem Yahoo list on framing so I could apply the concepts in my RapidResponse work. Unfortunately, the group disappeared before I got around to doing the prep work for joining it. I'd love to discuss and apply Lakoff's work here, but I must admit I haven't read the book yet.

Values are the basis for any argument or persuasion. They rule what givens you (and your partner/opponent) accept.