[SustainableTompkins] The latest from George Lakoff

[Daniel Roth]

  Published on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
<http://www.commondreams.org/>
 
  Reframing: Words to Reclaim
 
  by George Lakoff and the  Rockridge Institute
 
   
  Progressives are now approaching the home stretch of an all-out race to
elect representatives that share our values. We know that progressive
leaders need our support, and the netroots and grassroots are working
overtime for this vital election. There is also a more protracted contest
taking place, one that is less  visible, but equally critical. It is the
struggle to define our democratic  principles and values. The right wing has
worked for decades to alter the  meanings of concepts that define our way of
life. The Bush  administration's distortions of language are a culmination
of these  efforts. To restore the meaning of values such as respect for the
rule of  law and reverence for human life, we all must do our part. We have
many  strong progressive leaders who are working to reclaim these concepts,
but,  as in the election at hand, they can succeed only when we are all
fully  engaged in this struggle. In this excerpt of the new book, Thinking
Points: Communicating Our American Values and  Vision, A Progressive's
Handbook <http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints>  by George
Lakoff and the  Rockridge Institute, we identify several key concepts that
the right wing  has worked to redefine and introduce ways that progressives
can begin to  reclaim them.Reframing: Words to Reclaim
(Excerpted from  Chapter Three of Thinking Points. The full chapter is
available to  download for free at
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints.)
 Conservatives have worked hard to redefine our words--that is, change  the
frame associated with a word so that it fits the conservative  worldview. In
so doing, they have changed the meaning of some of our most  important
concepts and have stolen our language. Most notably, they have redefined the
word "liberal." They have turned  it upside down. What once was--and still
should be--a badge of pride is  now a label to run from. Consider the
differences between the conservative  tag on "liberal" and the real meaning
that we should hold near and dear to  our hearts. Conservatives:
Tax-and-spend liberals want to take your  hard-earned money and give it to
lazy no-accounts. Latte-sipping liberals  are elitists who look down their
noses at you. Hollywood liberals have no  family values. The liberal media
twist the facts. Leftist liberals want to  end the free market. Antiwar
liberals are unpatriotic wimps who can't  defend our country. Secular
liberals want to end religion. Liberals: Liberty-loving liberals founded our
country and  enshrined its freedoms. Dedicated, fair-minded liberals ended
slavery and  brought women the vote. Hardworking liberals fought the goon
squads and  won workers' rights: the eight-hour day, the weekend, health
plans, and  pensions. Courageous liberals risked their lives to win civil
rights.  Caring liberals have made the vulnerable elderly secure with Social
Security and healthy with Medicare. Forward-looking liberals have extended
education to everyone. Liberals who love the land have been preserving our
environment so you can enjoy it. Nobody loves liberty and life more than a
liberal. When conservatives say you're on your own, we liberals know we're
all in this together. "Liberal" is not the only example of the right's
framing larceny. Here  are other examples of words worth reclaiming--and how
conservatives and  progressives view them.Patriotism  Conservatives:
Patriots do not question the president or his war  policies. To do so
undermines our nation and its troops. Revealing secret,  even illegal,
government programs is treasonous. The Constitution should  be amended to
criminalize political dissent in the form of flag  desecration.
Progressives: The greatest testament to one's love of country is  when one
works to improve it. This includes principled dissent against  policies one
disagrees with and against leaders who promote those  policies. Times of war
are no exception. Our first loyalty is to the  principles of our democracy
that are embedded in our Constitution, not to  any political leader.Rule of
Law  Conservatives: Criminals deserve strict punishment for their  crimes.
If that means two million people are in U.S. prisons, so be it. If  police
have to step on a few toes or cross a few constitutional lines, so  be it.
Courts have gone too far in letting criminals go free on  "technicalities."
Strict sentencing constraints should overrule any  tendency toward leniency
on the part of judge or jury. As commander in  chief, the president is the
highest authority. He may choose not to  observe domestic and international
laws when he deems it necessary to  fight our enemies. Some civil liberties
are also subordinate to this  fight. Progressives: No one is above the law.
The president must abide  by constitutional limitations on his power and
follow laws passed by  Congress; police and judges must respect the
constitutional rights of all  citizens. Criminals must be accountable for
their crimes, but society  should temper its desire for retribution with
wisdom and compassion. In  civil matters, access to the courts should be
equally available to all.  Corporations and individuals must be accountable
for injuries they  inflict. The United States must abide by international
law and treaty  obligations.National Security  Conservatives: It's a scary
world. Fanatics wish us harm. We  must respond with every means available to
us, including torture and  indefinite imprisonment without trial of those we
suspect of acting  against us. We must take the fight to the enemy
regardless of the cost in  lives, dollars, strained alliances, and our
international reputation.  Military force is our greatest weapon.
Progressives: It's a scary world, but for reasons that go well  beyond the
threat of terror. We can deal with terrorism far more wisely  and without
invading foreign nations under false pretenses. Terrorism is  an
international problem; we can fight it more effectively in partnership  with
other nations than by going it alone. We should fight terrorism with  the
tools for fighting international organized crime, rather than with the
military. Moreover, we must recognize that our long-term security is also
threatened by climate destabilization and pollution, by our dependence on
foreign energy, by the growing gap between rich and poor, and by our
faltering public education system.Family Values  Conservatives: Obedience
and discipline are the core values of  the family. Sex education in the
schools, the right to abortion, and gay  marriage undermine obedience and
discipline. They are an affront to the  family. Progressives: Empathy and
responsibility for oneself and others  are the core values of the family.
Respectful, loving, and supportive  parenting promotes healthy families.
Health care, education, food on the  table, and social systems are essential
to the well-being of the family.  Loving, committed, and supportive
individuals define the family, not  gender roles.Life  Conservatives:
Abortion is the immoral taking of innocent life.  It must be banned.
Progressives: Promoting life means ending America's huge infant  mortality
rate through pre- and postnatal care. It means caring for  individuals
throughout their lives. It means affordable universal health  care to
improve life and life expectancy for forty-five million uninsured
Americans. It means improving the quality of the air we breathe and the
water we drink. It means improving schools and parenting so that every
young life has a chance to flower. It means finding ways to end the
violence in our society that cuts short so many lives. It means fulfilling
the promise of stem cell research, rather than destroying the hopes of
millions of suffering Americans for the sake of a tiny cluster of
undifferentiated cells that will otherwise be discarded. Taking back these
and other words is a long-term enterprise. The right  didn't snatch them
overnight, and we can't take them back quickly, either.  But they can be
reclaimed. They must be spoken often. And they must be  spoken in the
contexts in which progressives understand them. Consider progressives across
the country consistently saying something  like this: "I am for life. That's
why I support the right of all women to  receive prenatal care and the right
of all children to receive  immunizations and to be treated when they are
sick. That's why I believe  we must safeguard the planet that sustains all
life." Or perhaps this: "I am a patriot. That's why I am compelled to oppose
the government's spying on American citizens without court order and in
defiance of Congress." Repetition of such articulations is the key to
redefining these words  and reclaiming them. Progressives must say things
like this when they  speak to their friends, when they write letters to the
editor, when they  blog, when they run for office. Once this process begins,
continues, and  is repeated often enough, these words and the public's
understanding of  them can return to their traditional meanings. It will not
be easy, but it  must be done. Excerpted from Chapter Three of Thinking
Points. The full chapter is  available to download for free at
http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints


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