The Political Mind Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain Hardback - 2008

by Lakoff, George

In What's the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank pointed outthat a great number of Americans actually vote against their owninterests. In The Political Mind, George Lakoff explains why.

As it turns out, human beings are not the rational creatureswe've so long imagined ourselves to be. Ideas, morals, and valuesdo not exist somewhere outside the body, ready to be examined andput to use. Instead, they exist quite literally inside the brain andthey take physical shape there. For example, we form particularkinds of narratives in our minds just like we form specific musclememories such as typing or dancing, and then we fit new informationinto those narratives. Getting that information out of one narrativetype and into another or building a whole new narrativealtogether can be as hard as learning to play the banjo. Changingyour mind isn't like changing your body it's the same thing.

But as long as progressive politicians and activists persist inbelieving that people use an objective system of reasoning to decideon their politics, the Democrats will continue to lose elections. Theymust wrest control of the terms of the debate from their opponentsrather than accepting their frame and trying to argue within it.

This passionate, erudite, and groundbreaking book will appealto readers of Steven Pinker and Thomas Frank. It is a fascinatingread for anyone interested in how the mind works, how societyworks, and how they work together.