Some useful frame shifts....
Joy and I have been meaning to start discussing some of the methods and techniques we've learned from this great book by George Lakoff. If you're even remotely left-leaning, it's a quick read, and you should go get a copy, and read it right now. You can read more of Lakoff's articles at the Rockridge Institute
Anyway, the book suggests that part of the reason it's so hard to make inroads against the right-wing viewpoints so commonly expressed around us, is that the right-wing has established the frame of the discussion in their own terms. Turns out, you can't fight an opposing frame with facts - cognitively, once someone has accepted a frame, they reject opposing facts. So, instead of using the right-wing frames, and voicing our objection, we need to build new frames from our viewpoint.
Here are some that we think are promising. It's hard to encounter one frame, and remember to re-cast - but worth it.
Forced-birth: The anti-abortion side of the argument is rarely about actually caring for living people. They are not “pro-life” - all they care about is making sure that pregnant women actually have babies. Generally, the position doesn't include pre- or post-natal care, money to cover education or health care for the new family... all of which would be necessary to be “pro-life”.
The Iraqi Offensive: They haven't ever attacked us. We invaded them under false pretenses - no ties to Al-Qaeda, no weapons of mass destruction. This “war” was really an invasion, that has caused tens of thousands of deaths. The whole thing has truly been offensive.
The War Against Hatred of the United States: Why are we in danger? Because people want to kill us. Why do they want to kill us? Because they hate us. So, what should we be doing to stop this? We need to stop the spread of hatred of our country. You can't stop terrorism; terror is a tactic. It's the hatred that's the problem. Our current approach is making the problem worse. Thus we need to be fighting a war against that hatred.
Save the Human Race: “Save the Earth” sounds good, but the earth is going to be here not matter what we do. The real problem is that our lack of strong environmental protection policies is going to lead to the ultimate destruction of humanity. This new frame brings the idea to a more personal level.
We'd love to hear your comments and reactions.