Thursday, October 30, 2003

Political Framing 2 QUOTES OF THE DAY "Honestly, it's a little tougher than I thought it was going to be. If we have to, we just mow the whole place down, see what happens." - - Senator Trent Lott (when asked recently if he favored any policy changes in Iraq) http://www.thehill.com/news/102903/gopunity.aspx "Here is a cognitive scientist's advice to progressive Democrats: Articulate your ideals, frame what you believe effectively, say what you believe and say it well, strongly and with moral fervor." - - George Lakoff  (from today's BOTTOM LINE) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - OCTOBER 30th 1948 -- US: 20 people die & at least 6,000 more are made ill by smog in Donora, Pennsylvania. An early wake-up call for the environmental movement. 1967 -- US: Martin Luther King, Jr., is arrested & jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, on charges stemming from demonstrations 4 years earlier. 1980 -- Iran: Negotiations with President Jimmy Carter over hostages abruptly halt. Carter is severely criticized for negotiating at all. His successor, Ron Reagan created a shadow government to illegally trade weapons for hostages. RHINO HERE: Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE was recommended by Peter Coyote saying, "This article hits the nail on the head as to how political issues get "framed" in ways which make us lose from the get-go. Pete" It's called "Framing The Dems" & was written by George Lakoff, a cognitive scientist. He is senior fellow at the Rockridge Institute & the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the U.C., Berkeley. He's also author of "Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think." In his essay from The American Prospect, Lakoff examines the multi-issued belief systems of both Conservatives & Progressives, and pin points what he believes are the over arching principles in each. In just a few pages, he shows that how something like taxes are spoken about, how they are "framed" in the context of the national discussion, can determine much more than will there be less taxes or more, it can also determine who the electorate believe are the heroes, and who the villains. But first - and briefly - MoveOn's political TV ad contest : MoveOn.org Voter Fund is launching Bush in 30 Seconds, a political TV ad contest to help them find the most creative, clear and memorable ideas for ads that tell the truth about George Bush's policies. You don't have to be trained in the art of filmmaking to participate, you just need to be ready, willing, and able to turn your clever ideas into a real 30 second ad. We want to run ads that are of the people, for the people, and by the people. Joining us in this effort is a great panel of celebrity judges, including Jack Black, Michael Moore, Donna Brazile, Gus Van Sant, Michael Stipe, Margaret Cho, and Moby (there's a full list on the site below). MoveOn members will pick 15 finalists; the panelists will pick the winning ad and help generate some good press coverage for it. The prize? Just in case getting your work seen by our judges and thousands on our web site isn't enough, we'll put the winning ad on TV during the week of Bush's State of the Union Address. Learn more about the contest and get the complete guidelines at: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/ If you have an idea for an ad, but not the time or the equipment to shoot it, you can post your ideas on our discussion board at: http://www.bushin30seconds.org/ideaswap.html 7:33:57 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Framing The Dems Framing the Dems How conservatives control political debate and how progressives can take it back By George Lakoff, The American Prospect,  vol. 14 no. 8, September 1, 2003 On the day that George W. Bush took office, the words "tax relief" started appearing in White House communiqués. Think for a minute about the word relief. In order for there to be relief, there has to be a blameless, afflicted person with whom we identify and whose affliction has been imposed by some external cause. Relief is the taking away of the pain or harm, thanks to some reliever. This is an example of what cognitive linguists call a "frame." It is a mental structure that we use in thinking. All words are defined relative to frames. The relief frame is an instance of a more general rescue scenario in which there is a hero (the reliever), a victim (the afflicted), a crime (the affliction), a villain (the cause of affliction) and a rescue (the relief). The hero is inherently good, the villain is evil and the victim after the rescue owes gratitude to the hero. The term tax relief  evokes all of this and more. It presupposes a conceptual metaphor: Taxes are an affliction, proponents of taxes are the causes of affliction (the villains), the taxpayer is the afflicted (the victim) and the proponents of tax relief are the heroes who deserve the taxpayers' gratitude. Those who oppose tax relief are bad guys who want to keep relief from the victim of the affliction, the taxpayer. Every time the phrase tax relief is used, and heard or read by millions of people, this view of taxation as an affliction and conservatives as heroes gets reinforced.  The phrase has become so ubiquitous that I've even found it in speeches and press releases by Democratic officials -- unconsciously reinforcing a view of the economy that is anathema to everything progressives believe. The Republicans understand framing; Democrats don't. AN IMPORTANT READ, AT: http://www.prospect.org/print/V14/8/lakoff-g.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:39:57 AM    comment

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