About book Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea (2007)
This is a book about language. Specifically, it is a book about the language of Freedom. It is also a book about competition and moral obligation.George Lakoff readily admits that in the U.S., conservatives are much better at using language than are liberals, and have been for a very long time. Why is this important? Why should you care? The author, a linguist, informs us that language can change our concepts; concepts change the brain; which affects our free will. If a conversation is framed incorrectly, the outcome will be incorrect; even dangerous.Freedom, he says, is progressive and includes such things such as the freedom to compete in business - and in ideas, as well as freedom of speech, workers rights, voters rights, consumer protection, public health, and others. He also makes the argument that conservative freedom is regressive… and the resulting actions are regressive. "They want to go back to before these progressive freedoms were established." They have framed the idea of freedom in such a way that many conservatives now conclude that it is acceptable to deny ["those other people"] their voting rights, worker protection, even their health."The great ideas [and ideals] of our Founding Fathers are those that expand freedoms."The idea of freedom as progressive is, after all, consistent with the ideals introduced in the Declaration of Independence, as well as in the Preamble to the Constitution: Justice, domestic Tranquility, defense, promotion (i.e., improving, not reducing) the General Welfare, and Liberty “to ourselves and our Posterity” [again, a progressive idea of constant improvement]; “the unalienable Rights [of] Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” [not reduction or removal of these values].Conservatives have also framed the concept of the commonwealth such that we no longer even think about it in the context that the Founding Fathers had in mind. "The idea of pooling the commonwealth for the common good so that individuals can have the resources to be free to pursue their individual goals is an idea as old in America as the colonies... the idea that the central role of government is to use the commonwealth for the common good to make individual freedom possible. The commonwealth builds the infrastructure for freedom," Lakoff tells us. [The commonwealth belongs to the people, not the corporations.] "When we give up control of the commons, we are at the mercy of corporations who control it… we have lost these benefits to large corporate interests." (1)The right wing manipulates language in two ways: first, via words and idioms, like "death tax," "tax relief," "judicial activism," "war against terror," "liberal elite's," "defending freedom," "pro-life," "tax and spend," "legislate from the bench," "cut spending," "up-or-down vote," "homosexual lifestyle," "ownership society," "cut and run" an so on; second, via arguments, such as "it's your money. You earned it. You can spend it better than the government can." These are clearly meant to lead to regressive actions.Two of the most important points made in this book are about competition, and about moral obligations: "Competitions are governed by rules. If you are free to enter the competition, there is no abridgment of freedom. If you lose or are eliminated on the basis of the rules, their is no abridgment of freedom." [Like boxing, chess and the Olympics, the realm of ideas is governed by rules of competition.] "The basis of competition [of ideas] is clear: the amount of evidence, convergence of independent evidence from many areas, coverage [and analysis] of data, crucial experiments, degree and depth of explanation [peer review]. The judges of the competition are distinguished scientists who have spent their careers studying the scientific evidence." Advocates of intelligent design [for example, as well as deniers of Climate Change] refuse to accept the rules governing competition. They frame science merely as belief. Their "theory" is as good as anybody else's. In matters of beliefs, there should be no prejudice. Freedom here is freedom of expression. [They have the right to their beliefs; they have the right to compete in the realm of ideas; they do not have a right to impose those beliefs on others. These beliefs are not factual, or even probable.]"Normally, freedom comes with the moral obligation not to impose on the freedom of others. But in [economic] competition, this moral obligation is lifted... the free market is thus about [regressive] freedom - the freedom to make money without qualms about interfering with the freedom of others. From this perspective, government, which imposes regulations and taxes and in whose courts lawsuits take place, is interfering with freedom… Framing the choice in terms of the market removes the moral responsibility. The market is seen, via metaphor, as both natural and moral - moral because the invisible hand (its natural mechanism) guarantees that it will maximize benefits for all." "Transfers of wealth are transfers of freedom."He concludes with a call to action: "it is time for progressives to integrate progressive ideas of freedom and liberty into our everyday thinking and into our language." I couldn't agree more.This is a very important book. I highly recommend it to people of all political ideologies. Perhaps it will help us all to realign our concept of Freedom, with that of the Founding Fathers. 1) per Thom Hartmann: Thom Hartmann Explains the Commons; http://on.aol.com/video/thom-hartmann...
"We were raised to think that words are transparent, that they have single simple meanings hat directly fit reality. We were not raised to think in terms of contested concepts that have uncontested cores an virtually opposite extended meanings. We were not raised to think in terms of frames and metaphorical ideas. And we were not raised to think in terms of alternative worldviews – that our countrymen and even our next-door neighbors might see the world in a radically different way. In short, we were not raised to see certain deep truths that are essential to our freedom. Transcending the ideas that we were raised with – growing to see more – is the cognitive work of achieving freedom."
Do You like book Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea (2007)?
Very much a politicsly biased book. Progressive vs Conservative. This being the pro-Progressive stance. Makes a lot of assumptions. Glazes over important ideas. Main points have to do with the “Freedom From Need” and the idea that not only do you have the freedom of movement, but should also be given the capacity to move, i.e. roads. Empathy with responsibility. If you see another suffer, you are responsible for them in a way. Focused a lot on the Republican thought pattern as a strict father figure and the Progressive pattern as a nurturing parent.
—Kevin
I've only gotten through the introduction, but even though it's pretty much cognitive linguistics lite, I cannot put this book down. Lakoff goes through the invisible way in which the right has hijacked the idea of freedom and used it to make a great deal of headway in the culture wars. Of course, all of this happens while what he calls "progressives" (and I call Democrats;) sit around on our asses wondering why nobody sees what's going on. I'll have more to say about it when I'm done, but so far I'd recommend it to anyone interested in the subtleties of language and anyone who believes that words are a lot more than ink blobs on a page.
—Shana
