The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
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The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73  ·  rating details  ·  235 ratings  ·  68 reviews
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...more
Hardcover, 304 pages
Published May 29th 2008 by Viking Adult
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David Robins
This book is a poisonous screed. I felt sick to my stomach reading it. I had hoped to learn something from what the author had to say about how the brain works, but there was so much propaganda, lies, leaps of illogic, and smug assumption of unsupported and unsupportable statist political theories that I couldn't get through it. It presents the state as the only moral agent and individual rights as worthless except to be subverted. American history is rewritten from whole cloth on every page.
...more
Christine Theberge Rafal
This important book furthers the ideas from _Don't Think of An Elephant_ but has a little more to say about what to do about it. In brief, the idea that much of the way we think is based in metaphors that are activated by things that typically co-occur in our lives, especially our early lives (p. 256 finally gives a more satisfying discussion of this than either Elephant or _Metaphors we Live By_ had). He claims the American nation-as-family metaphor yields distinctly different thought systems: ...more
Steven Peterson
This is one of those books that sets off conflicting emotions and thoughts. The application of knowledge of the brain sciences to political debate is absolutely fascinating, and much good information is presented. Another part of the thesis--that "progressives" or liberals use an "Enlightenment" model of discourse (emphasizing the use of logic and reason to advance their points) whereas conservatives use a more powerful approach, wedding emotion to thought. Hence, conservativ...more
Blayne
Blayne rated it 5 of 5 stars
Shelves: read-at-library
Lakoff, a cognitive scientist, looks at 30 years of scientific research on the human brain, and asks some political questions. What he finds is the political divide is “not just in geography, religion or even power”, it in our heads (no pun intended).

Our country was born from the age of Enlightenment when reason was king, and emotion was irrelevant. Emotions were seen as just cluttering the issue at hand. The idea an educated, well informed, rational society will make rational,...more
David
This is a very important book for progressives to read. Cognitive sciences are showing how our brains organize concepts results in consequences for politics. Most people's brains have developed in ways that can respond to terminology in a way that can activate emotional responses either consistent with conservative attitudes or progressive attitudes. The more times one version is activated by terminology, the more the strength of the structures supporting that view become. Therefore, the termino...more
Johanna
(audio book) First off, I can't recommend this book as an audio book. Its densely academic writing style requires way too much brain power to process, especially while driving. But if I hadn't been listening to the audio book, I probably wouldn't have finished the book. What the book has in academic writing style, it seems to lack in academic proof. Perhaps the print copy has citations, but mostly what I heard was a complex narrative based on unproven axioms.

Here's what I did get out ...more
Bob
Bob rated it 3 of 5 stars
The psychology of the mind and how we operate is always a fascinating subject, but I suppose I was expecting more. Lakoff is clearly a "progressive," and it shows. Not that that's a bad thing, but I think the book would have benefited from being more balanced and accessible from a wider variety of political perspectives. But maybe that's what he wanted - this should only be a tool to be used by progressives for furthering their agenda, since he believes that conservatives have alrea...more
Mike Edwards
Lakoff argues that the brain is hardwired to favor emotional and moral appeals over intellectual or rational ones. He applies this to modern politics to assert that the GOP has done a much better job of framing issues in emotional or moral ways, and that this explains how they have been dramatically more successful than their Democratic counterparts over the last twenty years or so. The book does an excellent job of explaining why humans have difficulty in changing their minds in response to i...more
Julie
Julie rated it 5 of 5 stars
You know, I think I lost this book. I was about 7/8 of the way through it, and I think I left it somewhere. It's either on an airplane or in my childhood bedroom in MN where I spent a night in April.

Oh well, I hope someone else reads it because it was great! It was helpful for understanding how and why people vote the way they do(often against their own economic interests).

I studied metaphor in professional writing for part of my thesis, and this book helped me understand how...more
Terry Heller
Political books tend to age very quickly and very poorly. Through no real fault of its own, this book, which was published prior to the 2008 presidential election, acutely discusses the parties' mindsets in very broad terms, but, in late 2011, the reader is left wondering how the rise of the Tea Party, and particularly the split between the Tea Baggers and the mainstream Republican party, relates to their different view of the world.

Other than that, the book is fine. If I have one sub...more
Todd Martin
If you’ve read other books by George Lakoff, you’ll be familiar with much of the material found in The Political Mind. Lakoff first describes philosophical theories of rational thought developed during the enlightenment and describes why facts and figures often fail to sway public opinion (I would add that this seems particularly true with those whose critical thinking skills are undeveloped … i.e. most people). He then revisits the concept of framing and how proper use of frames can trigger ass...more
Marty
Marty rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: non-fiction
Here is a sampling of the provocative ideas in this mostly readable, occasionally inscrutable, book: words matter in politics; repeated exposure to political metaphors actually changes the brain chemistry; humans are hard-wired for empathy and cooperation; there are two uber-metaphors that distinguish conservatives (father as authoritarian) from progressives (family as protective and nurturing); conservative thinkers in particular have waged successful "cognitive campaigns" that preda...more
Asher
I really enjoy this book so far. I think it gives some very good incite into cognitive science as well as the nature of American politics.
Through the book the author George Lakoff repeats the point that the old enlightenment way of seeing rationality as mathematical and objective is wrong, and that all acts of rationality and logic have an essence of subjectivity. Being that every mind sees the world in a different frame.
What he means by mean a frame is the narrative we pu...more
Adam
Adam rated it 3 of 5 stars  ·  review of another edition
Recommends it for: Young politicians, Progressive thinkers, Constitutionalists, Debaters
It is no shocker that fear mongering has become an all too acceptable part of our American Political system. Yet, as Lakoff explains in A Political Mind, the rousing emotions that scare tactics shoot for and have been so successful for conservatives in recent years can also be applied to progressive arguments, albeit without the element of fear.

By explaining how our brain perceives arguments, especially those which we process unconsciously, Lakoff demonstrates that our political min...more
Russell
This book changes everything. It's about language and politics and how the brain's structure shapes and structures morality. It gives tools to rethink everything. And it explains how politics is not based on rational arguments and positions, but on comprehensive, unconscious and differing visions of society as a family, which is the brain's basic frame of reference for authority. Bush acted as a strong paterfamilias that knows best and acts without consulting his "children," who we...more
Todd
Todd rated it 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed the neurolinguistic elements of this book and the political bits were insightful, though often unsubstantiated and sometimes unfounded. Nonetheless, I'll probably re-read this at least once to learn the language and concepts of neurolinguistics more deeply. I agree that framing concepts and reinforcing key associated ideas is a powerfully persuasive technique – maybe something we can use to change the world for the better.
Margaret Sankey
So the 18th century thinkers assumed, and structured a government around the idea that people were rational and would vote in their own interests. Modern neuroscience, and any cursory political ad watching would seem to suggest otherwise. Laskoff spends 200 pages explaining rudimentary framing and argumentation, which used to be come standard on an elitist education. This may explain why I've been wandering around muttering Cicero's Philippicae all day.
Billie Mulcahy
Lakoff does a great job of explaining why liberal ideas don't do so well presented in a rational, dispassionate (enlightenment) fashion. He uses information on how we process political ideas, using insights from neurobiological research, explaining how ideas activate frames subconsciously. Political decisions, he maintains, are made largely through emotions and later rationalized by the most convenient set of facts.
Natasha
Natasha rated it 4 of 5 stars
Shelves: non-fiction
Lakoff does a fine job outlining the framing used by the political right that gives them an edge in media over the left - and how progressives tend to undermine their own arguments by using the right's frames.

Using a foundation of cognitive neuropsychology, Lakoff explains what happens at the level of neurons when we hear phrases like "war on terror" repeatedly, and how other neural pathways (like perceiving 9/11 as a crime necessitating police action, as it was originally ...more
Elizabeth
The book was overall good. It demonstrated the importance of frames, metaphors and language in modern political thought along with the need for "New Enlightenment" thinking. The book was, however, repetitive. Lakoff presses the need for a new way of thinking and how it applies to a progressive America which, while important, makes parts of the book seem like a PSA for liberalism. When his ideas become more complex the repetitiveness of Lakoff's message makes it easier to understand so ...more
Lynn
Lynn rated it 1 of 5 stars
I don't give many books 1's, but this was well deserved. I thought it was rambling, illogical, specularive, and purely emotional. I'm not sure why I even finished it, but the 4 star rating on Amazon made me think I would miss something if I didn't. It's outlandish claims by progressives like Lakoff that makes Feynman's claim about Social Science resonate.
Vicki
Vicki rated it 2 of 5 stars
The concept is logical. But Lakoff is preaching to the choir. Do I think all those voters who dont vote in their own self interests will read this book? Almost none will. The only hope for the premise of this book is that some of the politicians will read it and perhaps alter their thinking and campaigning.
Gwen
Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars
This book begins at the neuro level of the brain and then works its way out to political discourse. Written by a linguist who studies the inner-workings of the brain, The Political Mind provides insight as to how framing a conversation can really change the course of history.
Nelson Chung
Rantings of a flaming liberal. I didn't expect this to be an agenda-driven book. I've finished two chapters, and I guess since he's addressing a liberal readership he doesn't feel much of a need to defend his beliefs. Plus he doesn't believe in the universality of logic (outdated, First Enlightenment assumption) he thus doesn't use logic to make his case, he just structures the debate in his own favor.

So he is practicing what he is preaching. He cherry-picks Adam Smith (he is the rev...more
Kostina
liked reading it - discusses an interesting idea,and Lakoff is an established cognitive linguists, but sometimes I felt he goes too far with cognitive framing when he applies it to politics and language. But everall - a very enjoyable reading.
Apex Communications
Lakoff's book sets out the difference between Progressive and Conservative ways of political thinking and how this effects both Government and election campaigns. A must read for people interested in political communication.
William
This book blew my mind. For the first time in forty years that I finally understand why the American people have been so bamboozled.
This is a must READ for every progressive thinking person in the USA; probably England too.
Kevin
Another great book by Lakoff, refreshing and reworking his take on the manner in which our unconsciously coded metaphors affect the manner in which we think about (and, for that matter, experience) politics. A great primer on how progressives can take back the political discourses from conservatives that have altered the very meanings of freedom, equality and democracy to such an extend that the Founders would likely be amazed, were they to see things now.
Heather Denkmire
Wow, I wish everyone in the country could read this book. Or, at least about 3/4 of it. Some of it I'll admit got a little Charlie Brown adult voice on me (game theory, and Chomsky's linguistics). But truly, I think this is the key to saving our Democracy. Reframing and not hiding from the progressive values of empathy and empowerment. Amazing stuff. It also helped me understand some people I know who think in the strict father model (as I'm about 100% nurturing parent model). I loved learning a...more
Llew
Llew rated it 3 of 5 stars
Shelves: couldn-t-finish
Another book that starts off tremendous and eye-opening ideas about emotion driving all decisions and then gets buried in vague neuroscience. When did social sciences give up and just try to explain everything in firing neurons and nerve binding?
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The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics (Paperback)
The Political Mind (ebook)
The Political Mind (Hardcover)
The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain (Audio CD)
The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain (Audio CD)

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George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC Berkeley and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is author of The New York Times bestseller Don't Think of an Elephant!Moral Politics, Whose Freedom?, and many books and articles on cognitive science and linguistics. "
More about George Lakoff...
Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate--The Essential Guide for Progressives Metaphors We Live By Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, Second Edition Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things Philosophy In The Flesh