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| “The political divide in America is not just a material divide, as in the "two Americas." Nor is it just a religious divide. Nor is it just a matter of who controls what power. The divide is located in our brains—in the ways Americans understand the world.”6 |
It is truly frightening what is happening to our country. And even more alarming that most people aren't noticing. Much of our democracy and freedom has already been lost. The president has assumed unprecedented powers:
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It all stems from the conservative ideology that Obedience is Freedom:
This is a very different concept of the word "freedom". About the opposite of what our founding fathers had in mind, and the opposite of what the rest of the world thinks is freedom. To me the whole concept is completely foreign. It's the opposite of what I believe. By their logic, wouldn't slaves be the freest people on earth? They have to obey absolutely. How could "free the slaves" have any meaning to a southern conservative mind?
But this is what conservatives truly believe deep down in the their core of their very being. All conservative thought stems from this axiom. This is the core difference between Progressives and Conservatives. There are two very different concepts of what "freedom" is. When a conservative talks about freedom, they aren't talking about "The condition of being free of restraints," they are talking about freedom from the demands of individually and independently trying to "figure everything out" (See Lakoff Whose Freedom? The Battle over America's Most Important Idea)
Conservatives unconsciously want our country to return to the pre-18th century dark ages where authority figures ruled absolutely, the authority figure was always right, by definition, and people obeyed the authority, because in an oligarchy, and in conservative thought, "Obedience is Freedom."
Progressives are losing elections because they still believe the 18th century philosophy that people are rational and will vote according to their best interests. However, poor people in conservative states consistently vote against their own self-interest. How is this possible? Simple; people aren't rational.
George Lakoff is a cognitive scientist and professor at UC Berkley.
In his latest book,
The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain,
Lakoff talks about how the brain really works, how people really make
decisions, and what we need to do to literally change people's minds:
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"Imagine a conservative who is biconceptual, already having partial progressive views. That means that he or she has both worldviews, mutually inhibiting each other, but with the conservative worldview generally stronger—with more receptors at the synapses, which makes the conservative worldview more likely to be bound to specific issue areas. If his or her general progressive worldview is activated more and more, then its synapses will grow stronger, and it will become increasingly likely that the progressive worldview will start binding to more issue areas.
"How do you activate a biconceptual's progressive worldview? By getting him or her to think about those issue areas where they are already progressive! That is, by finding areas where they already agree with you and talking with them about those areas, casting progressives as heros, and by implication, conservatives as villains. Conservatives have been doing the equivalent for decades." |
The rest of the book is about the emerging 21st century Enlightenment as we begin to understand how people really think and make decisions. Progressives have been running their election campaigns all wrong. Progressives are still using the 18th century idea that people will make rational decisions, which is why we can govern ourselves.
Conservatives don't believe in this 18th century idea. Conservatives believe in the dark ages philosophy that "Obedience is Freedom". Just always obey the authority figure, whether it be King, Pope, or President, and everything will be fine. Obey, and you will be free. Because conservatives don't believe in the 18th century idea that people make rational decisions, they don't run their campaigns based on that philosophy. And that's why they are winning elections.
Which way should we go?
We shouldn't continue with our outdated 18th century philosophy, nor should we
return to the pre-18th century philosophy of the dark ages that conservatives
are unknowingly steering us towards. We should instead learn how the brain
really works, and move forward into a new philosophical enlightenment of the
21st century. Hopefully we can salvage the remains of our shattered democracy.
The greatest threat to freedom is and has always been
one's own government gone awry with power. This is the very danger that
democracy was invented to counteract.
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