Linguist George Lakoff on Rationality and Politics

[ghitufe]

this might be the worst subtitling ever

[tstruss912]

Do I hear TYT think tank?  Why not?

[SuperSquid55]

This helped me out for my English essay!

[Hermy1138]

Just read his Philosophy in the Flesh. Blew my mind!!! Although, I'll admit alot of it was over my head. I'm no scientist nor an above average student (I think), but I get the picture and it's and impressive picture. 

[Cerulean0987]

I studied a portion of this book in political science class and it makes perfect sense. It explains many ideals that some hold such as why republicans are anti abortion yet support the death penalty- two seemingly conflicting positions

[RayDandy]

i always scrutinize anything in social science (linguistics), sometimes its seems there isnt much science in it

[WSWarthog]

That professor guy didn't convince me. We may analyze the world through metaphorical thought, but that's not to say that this is *reason*. Reason is the act of questioning a proposition, which means you have to undermine your own confidence in these 'frames'. But then again maybe this is only possible by using a separate which is not consistent with the first.

[SuperSithan]

The linguists' problem is not to notice that political leadership and language are not identical things. Who analyzes the great political leaders' speeches (as Péricles, Robespierre, Hitler or the Brazilian Getúlio Vargas) it discovers quickly that they didn't produce complex and sophisticated political speeches. They just knew how to manipulate the right emotions in the appropriate moments.

[Tradd9]

Why was Lakoff so difficult to understand? Are we sure he's not a professor of semantics? His capacity to explain his ideas to the layperson is terrible.

[dmproduction100]

Really like your videos, it has inspired us to do our website. If you get a chace check out ours, its called "Politics In Layman Terms" and if you like please subscribe. Thx.

[toosinbeymen]

This may be the most interesting and compelling interview I've ever seen. Prof Lakoff turns my ideas about thinking and reason on their head (very punny, I know).

Not at all surprising that Cenk Uyger conducted it. TYT Nation!

[dowling1981]

toos, please do not cuss Georgelette Lakoff

[styrofoamheart]

@toosinbeymen lakoff's book is amazing. couldn't put it down. now i know why it is so easy to get conservatives to vote against their own interests. they do it because it fits their morality -- so it's to actually the MORAL thing to do. to beat them libs have to find liberal arguments that fit conservative morality. it's the only thing that will work.

[winonatechie]

Republicans oppose science except when it helps their largest political donors so it isn't any surprise conservatives are making irrational attacks on Lakeoff.

[bestsnowboarderuknow]

george lakoff is a joke, don't be fooled people. Conservative values are whats best for this country.

[apks2004]

Right On the money Video!

[Tuppington]

since politicians don't communicate through semaphore.

[klard]

The tool of politics is language. Do you know what linguistics means?

[MrNobody47710]

@klard

It's funny how Orwell noticed the doublespeak of politics decades ago, and we've still got large chunks of what he mentioned.

[bohemond4]

This wacko is a hardcore socialist just like Chomsky. His Liberal Psychobabble is amusing!!!!

[sixbillionmorons]

Remember folks, it's all very, very complicated; nothing is what it seems at all. When it seems like republicans are screwing you to death, it's not what it seems, and you should just accept it. Don't question it; you're too dumb to understand. Take my word for it: I'm a professor (with republican funding).

[DEATHDEATHDEATHAHAHA]

If one were to be entirely rational, one would commit suicide. For only pitiful self-deception distracts us from the fact that we are all on an ocean liner headed for the seabed. Life is no more than a joke in appallingly bad taste.

[sugarpuddin88]

After this piece by TYT, I went out and got the book

It changed my understanding of "teaching"

I'm a physician and studied, inter alia, neurology -- His book is written in easy prose; however, I think some of it might appear esoteric to most

I have great diagrams and algorithms to refer too - I wish he had included them in his book

I must add that I am only on page 50! So more soon

[TheFrankFactor]

Great topic and deftly handled by Cenk. I second the riveting comment.

[KiwiTwist03]

This is riveting!

[8data]

all fat men are jolly

[asdffd]

I wish Cenk would get Chomsky on.

[subzeromind]

Yeah Chomsky basically invented linguistics.

[queeblogalina]

What a snooze! How ironic how he doesn't take his own advice and make his delivery more exciting. When was this thesis created? Certainly before the success of Obama!

[subzeromind]

It's complex stuff man, he had to dilute it for the layman. He's explaining that reality is not what we traditionally have thought, that even perception is a matter of our "personal" frames of references. Hence why an Amazonian who has rarely seen straight lines has difficulty seeing them when presented by them. I always had this suspicion but this is some confirmation.

[GrownupPhan]

My guess is that Obama has read several of George's books. His ideas are all over the way Barack constructs his speeches. But point taken about Lakoff communicating like a professor.

[daderone]

I love George Lakoff more than Cenk

[dustynbones]

Wooohoo!

Do you think that the DNC will heed?

[boringlyawesum]

yeah the second they started saying "surge" they lost. why didnt they just call it everytime by what it truely is an escalation of troops, surge sounds like a late 4th quarter "WIN"

[Tinils]

very insightful :)

thx :) :)

[beornborg]

The GOP is using NLP. This is not a big shock to me. There is a lot of repetition in talk radio of these catch phrases. This is nothing but brainwashing.

[DonkeyofHeaven]

This is a top ten TYT segment! Way to go!

[jorgedug]

I remember listening to Chomsky in Berkeley back in 2002. He was asked "how do your work and studies on linguistics affect your work and efforts in political activism?" He responded that they don't affect them, that in fact, they just get in the way. If Chomsky's theories on linguistics cannot link to explaining social reality, then there must be something wrong with them. Maybe they do need that beer.

[davidmjeong926]

@jorgedug Chomsky's linguistic works may not affect the world of politics, because it's a work of linguistics field. His theories actually influence a lot in social reality, in an linguistic way but not in political way. Just because something isn't politically influential, it doesn't mean it does not affect social reality.

[sixdigit]

wait; so in brief, dems are losing because reps brainwashing is more effective than reasoning? now that makes me sad

[schmiggen]

honestly, it's pretty obvious, if you've ever seen public reaction to brainwashing and to reasoning

[falsificationism]

To put a negative spin on it, yeah that's about right. Dems generally trust in the sensibility of their policies and trust the public to make a rational choice. Republicans are good salesmen.

Take stem cell research for example: A Conservative just needs to plant the picture of a fetus in your brain and say "life begins at conception."

Even though this is false and a blastocyst is nothing more than a cluster of 150 cells, the difficulty for the Dem is explaining the true nuances of reality.

[ezrabiggins]

Could we acknowledge the cynical framing of American politics and culture in the binarism 'republican' and 'democrat'? 'The Democrats' we're to deify as the source of all good are Pelosi, Clinton, Reid, Obama--all as beholden to Goldman Sachs, Pharma, agribiz, and the war machine as their manichean nemeses 'The Republicans.' You wanna be empathetic and cooperative? Grow food, make shoes and heal the sick so that people can be fed, shod and well, not to make a profit. Amen?

[seemoretube]

iron helps us play

[GrownupPhan]

Cenk, I'm so glad you did this interview!! But I think it's going to take a while before the Enlightenment view that you learned in law school loses its grip on you. You kept asking questions about reason and emotion as if they are separate things. ;)

Love Lakoff. I met him when he gave a talk at UCLA and all the professors from the linguistics department blew him off for lunch afterwards because they're all Chomskyians. So goes the pettiness of academic fueds.

[juliact]

that was awesome! i'm gonna get that book for sure!

[sugarpuddin88]

At 7yrs of age, you have already developed hundreds of metaphors

Which is how psychoanalysts interpret dreams - They try to uncover the metaphoric meaning of things-objects in the dream

Dreams, are an open door into the unconscious brain, speaks in metaphor - Which is a very high form of communication

Western religions, (those created in Babylon: Christianity, Islam, Judaism), are the only "anti-nature" systems known to man

[norbu2006]

Some esoteric fringe religious theorists claim that Buddhism originated in Ancient Egypt. For example, the metaphor of the lotus.

[sugarpuddin88]

Everything passes through the Thalmus:

pain senses

emotion

memory functions

physical functions

So emotion will figure into the content of all things we do

For example: if our emotion while studying is different from our emotion while testing, recall will be very very difficult!

[laura835]

That was very enlightening; thanks.

[norbu2006]

Buddhism is the religion of reason and experience, especially spiritual (meditation) experience.

[norbu2006]

Buddhism is not atheistic. Google "brahmaviharas," or the divine abodes -- compassion, loving kindness, equanimity, and joy in the happiness of others.

[norbu2006]

Cognitive science is primitive compared to Buddhist mind science. It simply cannot register the experiences of advanced meditation practitioners, guided by the unsurpassed reasoning flowing out from the Dharma.

[Mjhavok]

"Buddhist mind science."

Oxymoronic

[norbu2006]

Google: "mind science"

The Dalai Lama pops up in every link.

[Mjhavok]

I almost swallowed my tongue in laughter. You think Google is the arbitrator of science?

[norbu2006]

Be careful! I don't want people to choke on their own tongues, even if they are retarded.

[Mjhavok]

Well then, think before you type such ridiculously hilarious comments. You could hurt someone.

[ParisianHermit]

lol I thought that was hilarious too...maybe norbu should start practicing "Googlism"

[Mjhavok]

I can't watch this. It says the video in no longer available :-(

[Mjhavok]

Works now :-D

[dbdfan1]

WTF? Where's the Damn video?

[dbdfan1]

It's fixed. Yay!

[Rahab111222]

I farted.