ideology
clock | September 18, 2008This is not a real review - I never got to writing it - but it is about a book I mention quite often in my blog posts and think is one of the most insightful about the conservative mindset. Written originally on October 21, 2004:
Whenever a big black SUV with a "W" bumper sticker passes me on I-40 going 90mph in the work zone, my first thought is: "What is this guy compensating for?"
While I argued strongly before that Nurturant Parent model is not feminine, and is only seens as such by people adhering to the Strict Father model to begin with, I have always felt that the childrearing process…
clock | September 18, 2008
I wrote this on September 21, 2004, as a reaction to the misunderstanding of Lakoff's term "Nurturant Parent". Slightly edited (eliminated bad links and such).
Discussions of Lakoff's theory are going on in several places in the blogosphere, including on DailyKos and many other places...just Google it and you'll be floored. Spend some times reading the comments - there is some good thinking there.
There is something happening in these discussions that really bothers me. There is a number of people, including some who claim to have read "Moral Politics", who object to the use of family-based…
clock | September 17, 2008Here's another topic seen through the Lakoffian looking glass (July 23, 2005):
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Why is there a widespread belief that the difference between patriotism and nationalism is one of degree: loving one's country versus loving it even more? I think that the difference is not quantitative but qualitative - the phrase "love for one's country" used by the two kinds of people (patriots and nationalists) is based on very different meanings of the words "love", "for", "one" and "country".
I am assuming that this confusion arises from the fact that…
clock | September 17, 2008A repost from July 6, 2006:
OK, today I'd like you to superimpose a couple of very different articles that all look at the difference between patriotism and nationalism, but each from a different angle and see if, and how, they inform each other. First, I'd like you to read one of my old posts (which I may decide to re-post here one day, but for now, check it out on my old blog) - Nationalism is not Patriotism. That would be a bare-bone introduction to political psychology of patriotism and nationalism:
Why is there a widespread belief that the difference between patriotism and nationalism…
clock | September 17, 2008When I posted this originally (here and here) I quoted a much longer excerpt from the cited Chronicle article than what is deemed appropriate, so this time I urge you to actually go and read it first and then come back to read my response.
From Dr.Munger's blog, an interesting article: Liberal Groupthink Is Anti-Intellectual By MARK BAUERLEIN, The Chronicle Review Volume 51, Issue 12, Page B6 (that link is now dead, but you can find a copy here):
Hmmmm, why was the poll conducted only in social science departments (e.g., sociology, psychology, philosophy, history, anthropology, perhaps…
clock | September 16, 2008
This post was initially published on September 16, 2004. It takes a critical look at some UCLA studies on brain responses of partisan voters exposed to images of Bush and Kerry:
Using M.R.I.'s to See Politics on the Brain
The researchers do not claim to have figured out either party's brain yet, since they have not finished this experiment. But they have already noticed intriguing patterns in how Democrats and Republicans look at candidates. They have tested 11 subjects and say they need to test twice that many to confirm the trend.
The Political Brain
Do liberals ''think'' with their…
clock | September 16, 2008 Before the days of Times Select, David Brooks used to provoke long rants twice a week. This post from October 24, 2004 is one of those.
David Brooks is so predictable. Every week or so, he comes up with a new scheme to explain the polarization of America. Each time he uses what seems to be different criteria, but are really just different terms. The funniest (and the worst) so far was the division into "spreadheet" and "paragraph" people (link: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9660863.htm?1c ). This week, he came up with yet another one (link: http://www.nytimes.com/…
clock | September 15, 2008 This post from October 21, 2004 laments the lack of spatial and temporal context for Lakoff's theory of political ideology.
As I have complained before, Lakoff's theory leaves me wanting for a spatial and a temporal context. In other words, I believe that current analysis will remain untested without a comparative study between USA and other countries, as well as without a historical study of changes in two forms of worldviews over the past couple of hundred years of history here, as well as the past couple of millenia around the world.
The only reference to any differences between the…
clock | September 14, 2008This post was first written on October 28, 2004 on Science And Politics, then it was republished on December 05, 2005 on The Magic School Bus. The Village vs. The University - all in your mind.
Eric at Total Information Awareness wrote two excellent posts on something that touches me personally, yet has much broader consequences on the country as a whole: the well-organized and well-funded assault of the Right on the University (check some links in the comments section, too): Freedom Fighters and Academic Freedom Fighters.
There were a couple of other articles on the same topic, e.g.,The…
clock | September 14, 2008...to revisit this discussion. Keep the current election in mind as you read all the posts.
clock | September 14, 2008
This is one a couple of posts about Creationism, written originally on May 1st, 2005.
Creationism Is Just One Symptom Of Conservative Pathology
I am not an "evolutionist". I am not a "Darwinist". I am a biologist. Thus, by definition, I am an evolutionary biologist. Although my research is in physiology and behavior, I would never be able to make any sense of my data (or even know what questions to ask in the first place) without evolutionary thinking.
As I am also interested in history and philosophy of biology, I consider myself a Darwinian. But not a "Darwinist" or "evolutionist" - those…
clock | September 14, 2008 This was an early post of mine building upon George Lakoff analysis of the psychology underlying political ideology. It was first published on September 04, 2004 (mildly edited):
I keep going back to George Lakoff's "Moral Politics", as I did "here"
and "here", because I believe this book provides very important insights into the psychological sources of ideology, or worldview, from which all political stances logically follow. As I stated "before", it is not a perfect book. First, it is written in a pretty dry academic style. Long lists, in my opinion, should be taken out of the main body…
clock | September 13, 2008
This was first posted on http://www.jregrassroots.org/ forums on July 10, 2004, then republished on Science And Politics on August 18, 2004. That was to be just the first, and most raw, post on this topic on my blog. It was followed by about a 100 more posts building on this idea, modifying it, and changing my mind in the process. You can see some of the better follow-ups here. Also, I have since then read Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz, which is a much better and more scholarly work than E.J.Graff's book. Below the…
clock | September 9, 2008Read this.
Then watch this:
How does Palin fit into this?
Like this?
Or this?
Or this?
Or this (check my comments there)?
Related
clock | September 6, 2008owlz:
Stated or not, the extreme right, the real audience intended to be won over by the Palin choice, will be eagerly anticipating her becoming president at the earliest possible date. They will be looking for her to have influence even while McCain is in office. The cynicism of choosing someone at odds with his one-time positions on major issues for the purpose of getting in the Oval Office could be among the most irresponsible actions ever taken by the presidential candidate of a major party.
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McCain's choice was to give a person from the quite far-right the greatest boost…
clock | September 6, 2008We know they speak in dog-whistles. If you were wondering what Sarah Palin meant by dissing 'community organizers', she was not thinking about Jesus, or Martin Luther King Jr, or Mahathma Gandhi....just so you know who their base is....
'Community Organizers' Is a Dog Whistle:
Matt is absolutely right on the merits, but, make no mistake about it, "community organizers" is code for 'uppity black people who are taking your tax dollars.' One thing that is becoming pretty clear is that the Republicans are making a desperate pitch to the remnants of Nixon's 'silent majority' (which is getting…
clock | September 4, 2008From the Science Communication Consortium:
"Ten Lessons from the Political Psychology"
A talk by John Jost
The Center for Science Writings
Stevens Institute of Technology
October 29, 4:00pm, Babbio Center Room 122
Jost is an authority on the "cognitive and motivational differences between liberals and conservatives," the "social and psychological consequences of supporting the status quo, especially the members of disadvantaged groups", and other topics relevant to the upcoming election.
I wish I could go to this....I have previously mentioned one of his interesting papers - The Secret…
clock | August 25, 2008It is so nice teaching biology to adults when there are no (obvious) Creationists in the classroom. It does not always happen that way - I have had a couple of cases in the past - but this time it was really nice as I could freely cover all topics deeply within an evolutionary framework (not always seen in my public notes, though, as I try to gauge the class first and then decide how overtly to talk ebout everything in evolutionary terms). It is always a conundrum. If there is a potential resentment of my lectures, I have to thread carefully. I have to remember that I am not trying to…
clock | August 4, 2008Thomas Frank, the author of the popular book What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, has a new book out - The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule - which sounds even better. He was the guest on NPR's Fresh Air tonight (listen to the podcast - it's worth your time) and I have to say I agree with him 100%.
Heck, I wrote about this many times before, and especially focused in this post and this one - conservatism is antithetical to Free Market.
As conservatives tend to do, they say one thing and think the opposite (you know, black is white, up is down,…
clock | August 4, 2008Obligatory readings of the day:
FNB Politics
Contradictions don't phase us, as we outgrew thinking long ago