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"Don't Think of An Elephant" posted October 4, 2004 at 07:44 PM

I have just finished reading the most important book I've read in years. If you're looking for a little theme-reading this election season, this is the book to go get.

Elephant.jpg

Don't Think of an Elephant by George Lakoff. This guy is a world-renowned linguist, he teaches at Berkeley, and he's been becoming more and more influential in progressive politics. He has brilliantly boiled down the far right-wing's agenda and processes they use to advance it, and describes in layman's terms the philosophy behind it. But even better than that, he offers ideas of how to counteract the right-wing and bring progressive values back into American politics. All through the power of language. Linguistics is, of course, a brilliant starting point to think about politics, because how our leaders talk about things is how we learn about them and form our opinions about them. Only after they're elected do we see if their actions match their rhetoric. But Lakoff's point is how language can allow politicians to not have their deeds match their words--if they just keep saying the right things they will keep getting elected no matter what they actually do. This is why some people still support Bush, even though it's completely clear he's a shameless liar.

If you've ever had the sensation of reading something that is dense and difficult and then suddenly the light bulb above your head goes on and you see the world with new clarity, then you know the kind of power this little book may have. Personally, that feeling of revelatory recognition usually comes when reading poetry or Shakespeare's plays. It's like that feeling at the end of "The Sixth Sense" when you suddenly realize what's going on and the whole movie just falls into perfect sense--except in this book it's about something important!

The book is a collection of essays and talks Lakoff wrote for other occasions which have been edited together here. It's a mere mortal's version of his more scholarly book, Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. After I read Don't Think of An Elephant again, I intend to tackle that one, too.

Another good political read I just finished is Howard Dean's new book, You Have the Power. It's more of a populist approach to progressive politics. It's not particularly earth-shattering, but the last two chapters confirmed for me that Dean is a serious politician, and a leader with integrity whose time is still ahead of us.


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