Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives

Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives

author: George Lakoff

name: Steev

average rating: 3.87

book published: 1905

rating: 5

read at: 2010/04/10

date added: 2010/04/11

shelves: own-it, politics

review:
This book is really great, and quite simply is THE book that every progressive should read, at least if they're interested in how to communicate about their causes to those not already converted to that cause.



Lakoff brilliantly describes, in simple lay terms, how it is that people believe or don't believe, and how it's not enough to just present "the truth" to people in order to persuade them to change. Basically, people subscribe to ideas based on their identities and worldview. So if you speak to them within the "frame" that matches their identiy and worldview, you have a much better chance of getting through to them.



The two biggest frames at work today is the conservative "strict father" model of politics, and the progressive "nurturant parent" model. All the positions on the all the issues being debated in the modern political sphere flow from those 2 basic models of how to look at the world, Lakoff says.



I find this an extremely useful book - it explains what conservative values are how conservatives got the power they have today, and how progressives might take back some of that.