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Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
Viking Adult
June 2008
On Sale: May 29, 2008
304 pages
ISBN: 0670019275
EAN: 9780670019274
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political
In What’s the Matter with Kansas?, Thomas Frank pointed out
that a great number of Americans actually vote against their
own interests. In The Political Mind, George Lakoff explains
why. As it turns out, human beings are not the rational creatures
we’ve so long imagined ourselves to be. Ideas, morals, and
values do not exist somewhere outside the body, ready to be
examined and put to use. Instead, they exist quite literally
inside the brain—and they take physical shape there. For
example, we form particular kinds of narratives in our minds
just like we form specific muscle memories such as typing or
dancing, and then we fit new information into those
narratives. Getting that information out of one narrative
type and into another—or building a whole new narrative
altogether—can be as hard as learning to play the banjo.
Changing your mind isn’t like changing your body—it’s the
same thing. But as long as progressive politicians and activists persist
in believing that people use an objective system of
reasoning to decide on their politics, the Democrats will
continue to lose elections. They must wrest control of the
terms of the debate from their opponents rather than
accepting their frame and trying to argue within it. This passionate, erudite, and groundbreaking book will
appeal to readers of Steven Pinker and Thomas Frank. It is a
fascinating read for anyone interested in how the mind
works, how society works, and how they work together.
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