Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate/Whose Freedom: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea

Public Relations Quarterly, 2009 by Culbertson, Hugh M

Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate, George Lakoff, Chelsea Green Publishing, White River Junction, VT., 2004, ISBN 1-931498-71-7, 124 pages, $10.00

Whose Freedom: The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea, George Lakoff, Picador, New York, 2006, ISBN-13: 978-0-31242647-7, 277 pages, $14.00

Much ink has been used recently in a debate about whether the two-way symmetric model should be viewed as a central part of ideal public relations. This approach requires listening carefully to publics, studying their needs, and convincing clients to change their views and actions as required to accommodate publics.

The widely discussed International Association of Business Communicators Excellence Study, by James and Larissa Grunig, David Dozier and others, purports to show that two-way symmetric communication does work to serve client needs. Further, various philosophical arguments have suggested symmetry should be viewed as a normative practice that serves society.

Recently, support for two-way symmetric practice as normative has come from several disciplines and theories:

* Communitarian thought, associated with Amatai Etzioni, Robert Putnam, Dean Kruckeberg, and Kenneth Starck.

* Analyses of the "permanent campaign" in American politics by Norman Orenstein, E. E. Mann, and J. Heclo.

* Discussions of liberal Christianity by authors such as Jim Wallis.

* Symbolic-interactionist thought in sociology as discussed by this reviewer and Ralph Turner, among others.

Recently, support has also come from George Lakoff, a linguist and cognitive scientist at the University of California in Berkeley and a progressive activist, in the books reviewed here. Lakoff founded the Rockbridge Institute, a center for scholars devoted to progressive politics.

He says we all use metaphors in thinking about and framing problems. Framing, an important concept in contemporary communication theory, has been defined rather vaguely and in various ways. Lakoff sees it basically as a set of beliefs that influence what elements need to be considered in defining a phenomenon and how to interpret these.

Writing in 2004-6, when conservatives occupied the high ground in American politics, he contended they, with the aid of several foundations and think tanks, had aggressively framed issues. Liberals had not.

Both liberals and conservatives are said to see the ideal family as a metaphor for the ideal nation. However, the two groups view dramatically different families as ideal.

Conservatives reportedly follow a strict-father model. In this paradigm:

* The male is seen as all-knowing, with unquestioned authority and the right to demand obedience from his wife and kids.

* He instills discipline and character by rewarding good behavior and punishing bad.

* Emphasizing freedom as a core concept, he and family members will thrive if left alone by evil government and other outside forces.

* Drawing on right-wing, fundamentalist Christianity, the father and his family members see unmitigated evil, as well as good, in the world. One has a duty to combat evil aggressively.

* Good is achieved by adherence to rules such as the Ten Commandments derived largely from the Bible and biblically inspired leaders.

Applying such ideas in politics, conservatives tend to:

* Favor privatization, as it frees individuals with good character and discipline to pursue their self-interest. This presumably leads to happiness and prosperity as assured by economist Adam Smith's famous "invisible hand."

* Oppose Gay marriage partly because it grants legitimacy to a family unit with no father figure seen as a leader over women and children.

* Be highly critical of the United Nations General Assembly. It places father figures, developed nations - presumably skilled in and knowledgeable about governing - on an equal footing with "developing countries" that are viewed as ignorant, often unruly young children.

In contrast, progressives view a nurturant-parent family as ideal. In this view, mom and dad have complimentary but equal status in the home. They discipline their kids on occasion. However, they emphasize teaching children while showing support and love for them.

To be sure, progressives feel good character requires following certain rules. But Lakoff claims it also involves two key elements largely ignored by right-wing conservatives:

* Empathy - the ability to understand and respect others' points of view, to feel and think about things as others - playmates, business partners, customers, spouses, etc. - do.

* A sense of responsibility for the whole society and community, as well as oneself and one's family.

In the political realm, this implies a recognition that no one can "go it alone" in this world. We all need roads and other infrastructure that only governments can provide well. Businesses even require government bail-outs to stay afloat as financial institutions and auto companies have discovered recently.

To a progressive, what really counts in family life is love, support and faithfulness - not gender. Gays often have these attributes. It follows that gay unions, whether called marriage or not, should be respected and granted legal status equivalent to that accorded traditional married couples.