The peace movement has begun a difficult task: reclaiming the language of patriotism and loyality from the Right’s monopoly. The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
An underground public relations campaign has begun to introduce patriotic language into left-leaning groups, said George Lakoff, a UC Berkeley linguistics professor and author of “Moral Politics.” Conservatives have “pretty much commandeered patriotic language,” said Lakoff, who has been working with peace activists and others to craft a new strategy for progressives.
I’ve mentioned Lakoff, whose work I was introduced to via Doc Searls, in this weblog: on the nation as family metaphor, and metaphor and war.
Update: See Shelley Powers’ Burningbird for a discussion of the “metaphor and war” article. Several people were disappointed that it did not propose a concrete program for ‘reframing” debate on US policy, it would appear that the Chronicle article notes that such a program would be underway.
