George Lakoff

THE POLTICAL MIND

America is a contry founded in the bases of enlightmenet principles, at the time there where great, but they don't really fit situation nowadays. According to enlightement reason is supposed to be: concious (you know what you thing) 90% of you reason is unconcius! dispassionate (separated from emotions) in neuroscience has been discovered that patients with brain damages who lose the ability to feel emotions, at the end are not rational at all, the only-rational brain doesn't exist (if you don't know what makes you happy you'd not be able to choose anything), people that cannot feel emotions have a really hard time in funcioning in taking decision and in working in the world. literal (logical of mind able to fit logical of the world) logical (conistent with the properties of classical logic) disembodied (free of the body) based on self interest universal (the same for everyone) all these assunpions are false! THE NARRATIVES Let's suppose that life is based on different narratives: these narratives have emotions built in. The hero/villain narrative: depending on what happens, you can feel different pathways such as anxiety, satisfaction, joy, ecc. (Positive pathway dopamine circuit / Negative pathway neroepinephrine circuit) The intellectual part having to do with roles is tied with neurocirlatory apparatus. ...there is no separation between reason and emotion! Examples: Anna Nicole, narrative of rags to reaches (dalle stelle alle stalle) the gold digger/how to marry a millionaire. George Bush, the redempion narrative. Wars, the enemy is always the villain: when you accept a narrative, you ignore or hide a big part of the story. THE METAPHORES We think metaforically: metaphores are not arbitrary, but during our life we learn hundreds of metaphores without even noticing it. The binding circuitry creates new metaphores, making the connetions between the downsrtream and upstream parts of the brain, then the somatic markers bind the emotions to event sequences in a narrative, allowing the right emotions to go where they should in a story. It turns out that metaphores are the way we understand the world, including politics and morality: the governing institution is a metaphore of the family. From here comes the distinction between consevatories and democrats: the strict father model (morality is based on obedience) and the nurturant parent model (morality is based on nurturance). The strict father model is good in defending, indicating the right way to live, teaching ritgh from wrong, giving people internal discipline. The nurturant parent model is about caring, about empathy, education, protection. In the democratic governement people are supposed to care about eachother. To influence our emotions, a narrative must have a link with our lived ones: this is the job of the mirror neuron circuitry, which integrates action and perception. We apparently have mirror neurons circuits in the premotor cortex, that fire when we either perform an action, or see someone else preform it. The example of the monkey and the banana can be applied to narratives too: is not necessary to direcly live an experience to feel it neurologically speaking. This is the base of empathy, the ability to feel -even phisically- someone else's pain.

Progressive's big mistake: they don't know how to estabilish their own issues, they follow conservative issues, it's not a fair battle. Progressive approach is all about facts & figures, not enough, they have to involve emotions. Also: war on terror

privateering

rational actor model

the problem of self interest

need of a new enlightement