[ via Doc Searls ] I’ve been reading a facinating essay by philosopher and cognitive scientist George Lakoff. He identifies and describes the metaphors at the core of Conservative thought that explain such seeming paradoxes as being anti-reproductive choice, yet pro-death penalty.
He argues that both the Conservative and Liberal worldviews share the “Nation as Family” metaphor, but their politics arise from conflicting views of how families ought to function.
I wonder if the Strict Father model, which, Lakoff argues, is the governing metaphor of the Conservative worldview, is an artifact of mating stragtegies. If you’re a selfish gene, and replication is your only goal, hum… I’m going to have to sleep on that notion.
Lakoff pointed out a feature of both Liberal and Conservative worldviews that I’ve never liked, “Nation as Family”, because it enables bad things like the “Nanny State” or “My Father the Brown Shirt”. I’d like us to develop “The Nation is an Apartment Complex” metaphor that acknowledges some shared values, but realizes that people have different goals and desires, and that you have to compromise (so you know to wear headphones after 10 at night, and everyone strongly encourages the lady in 3B from doing her step aerobics at 4 in the morning.)
