Today, Maybe Tomorrow
That’s a depressing title for an attempt to understanding why people don’t accept each other’s views and why we think our view is the only one really true.
We all need to make an effort to accept the perspectives of other people who we think are wrong but are still reasonable, like the 50-year-old guy whose job went to Vietnam where his brother almost died. He is diving a school bus. his son is on drugs, daughter’s in Florida living with some guy, his wife has late stages of dementia and his grandson who he put through college has a degree in psychology but is still tending bar in Milwaukee. He worked his butt off getting his kids educated: for what? His status, income and family have left him. He doesn’t think anyone cares.
A recent Pew study found that 58% of Republicans say that colleges “are having a negative effect on the way things are going in the Country.” Two years ago, Pew found that 54% of Republicans rated Universities’ effect as positive. Why the change?
In July 2017 George Lakoff wrote, “When it comes to politics, progressives and conservatives essentially have different brains.” Lakoff is a Linguistics professor at UC Berkeley. He has studied the way we think and the language we use in thinking and has concluded that we are “significantly influenced by central metaphors that we use to explain complex phenomena.” A metaphor is figure of speech when a word or phrase is used in place of an idea which is difficult to describe. In 1980, Lakoff co-wrote “Metaphors we Live By” and in 1996 he released “Moral Politics” in which he describes the behavior of conservatives as driven by the “strict father model”, which favors strong authoritative leaders and disciplinarians, i.e. Father know best. Liberals he said are directed by a “nurturant parent model” that is parents working to protect their children and family from dangers.
The dominant father principle according to Lakoff establishes a moral hierarchy: God about man, man above nature, man above women, rich above poor, employer above worker, and strong above weak. This principle easily establishes a world view, in which western culture is over others, America is better than other countries, Christianity is better than other religions, Whites are above Nonwhites.
This Fathers Knows best principle is very old and ingrained in many cultures. Joseph Campbell famous for his PBS Lecture Series with Bill Moyer, in 1961, when I was a conservative supporter of Richard Nixon, Campbell wrote a piece titled “The Impact of Science on Myth” which is part of a collection called, “Myths to Live By.” He outlines the strong authoritative, male dominant, leadership model of God, Pope, King and Father established a recognized system of law and order and social behavior from the Roman Empire until the Religious Reformations and the American and France Revolutions. The authoritative principle fit nicely into the ancient understanding of the natural world with earth at the center of a series of crystal spheres. Over the centuries as our knowledge expanded, acceptance of this leadership model, slowly eroded. He points out that as absolute fatherly authority gradually dissolves, new freedoms evolved which brought social problems, “vice, crime, mental disorders, suicides, dope additions, shattered homes, impudent children, violence, murder, and despair.”
I can understand why conservatives mistrust higher education because knowledge brings freedoms which breed disorder. With education and knowledge of the universe, we no longer believe that fathers always know best, or that the pope is infallible, or a single person should have absolute power. Many of us accept that humanity evolved without a Garden of Eden, and that at death we go either to the Streets of Gold in Heaven or to a Fiery Hell. This rejection of a principle of Monotheistic religions is a major political barrier and a perceived threat to those who expect the Creator will intervene and straighten out our tiny grain of sand in the vast universe.
With the external moral constraints weakened, individuals must create their own guiding principles. Lakoff claims Progressives, follow the first Republican Presidents Principles, “a nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated that all men are created equal… government of the people, by the people, and for the people…” We look to government to set up the order needed to protections from those who take advantage of the expanded freedoms for profit.
Most of us have a bit of both principles and waffle back and forth letting the political environment determines which dominants both individually and collectively. Progressive must stop idealistically emphasizing what separates us and focus on the need pragmatic solutions that can be implemented in our complex political environment. No one can be helped without political influence which depends on vote which depend on money. Conservatives must accept the father doesn’t know best and that we can’t create crystal spheres to protect us.
John (Jack) Riordan