Book

Lakoff, George.

The political mind : why you can't understand 21st-century politics with an 18th-century brain / George Lakoff.

New York : Viking, 2008.

x, 292 pages ; 24 cm

This volume attempts to harness cognitive science to rally progressive politicians and voters by contending that conservatives have framed the debate on vital issues more effectively than liberals. According to this book, conservatives comprehend that most brain functioning is grounded not in logical reasoning but in emotionalism, and as a result, huge portions of the citizenry accept the Republican framing of the war in Iraq and supporting the troops rather than liberal appeals and phrasing of the occupation in Iraq and squandering tax money. The author feels that if citizens and policy-makers better understand brain functioning, hope exists to lessen the effects of global warming and other societal disasters in the making.

Liberalism -- United States.

Progressivism (United States politics)

Political culture -- United States.

Conservatism -- United States.

Communication in politics -- United States.

Thought and thinking.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : brain change and social change -- How the brain shapes the political mind -- Anna Nicole on the brain -- The political unconscious -- The brain's role in family values -- The brain's role in political ideologies -- Political challenges for the twenty-first-century mind -- A new consciousness -- Traumatic ideas : the War on Terror -- Framing reality : privateering -- Fear of framing -- Confronting stereotypes : sons of the welfare queen -- Aim above the bad apples -- Cognitive policy -- Contested concepts everywhere -- The technical is the political -- Exploring the political brain -- The problem of self-interest -- The metaphors defining rational action -- Why hawks win -- The brain's language -- Language in the new enlightenment -- Afterword : what if it works? -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description

2008010990

9780670019274

0670019275

213466226

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320.01 Lakoff