The All New Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

by George Lakoff

There are still other nurturant values. • If you want your child to be fulfilled in life, the child has to be free enough to seek and possibly find fulfillment. Therefore freedom is a value. • You do not have very much freedom if there is no opportunity or prosperity. Therefore opportunity and prosperity are progressive values. • If you really care about your child, you want your child to be treated fairly by you and by others. Therefore fairness is a value. • If you are connecting with your child and you empathize with that child, you have to have open, two-way communication. Honest, open communication. That becomes a value. • You live in a community, and that community will affect how your child grows up. Therefore community-building, service to the community, and cooperation in a community become values. • To have cooperation, you must have trust, and to have trust, you must have honesty and open two-way communication. Trust, honesty, and open communication are fundamental progressive values—in a community as in a family.