Dinesh's photos with the keyword: George Lakeoff

As he recounts in his book, Lakoff en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakoff sometimes challenges his students in a class on semantics with a simple task: Don’t think of an elephant! The point is that, once the word in invoked, it automatically triggers a neural frame; you can’t ‘not’ think of an elephant. Lakeoff writes, “It’s not just the world ‘elephant’; it’s all words. And it’s not just one frame that’s activated unconsciously and automatically by words -- it’s a whole system of frames and metaphors. The more that system is activated, the stronger its synapses become, and the more entrenched it is in your brain -- all without your conscious awareness. That is why the conservative message machine, operating over thirty-five years, has been so effective.” It is also why, as Matt Bai chronicled in a fascinating ‘New York Times Magazine’ article, the Democratic Party rushed to adopt Lakoff’s ideas on framing in its recent campaigns. ~ Page 260 . . . On land, the heavy-weight brain champion is the African elephant. In terms of the absolute number of neurons, African elephants come out on top too, with an absurd 250 billion, around three times more than ours, in second place with around 86 billion. . . . Page 30 {From ‘Humanimal’ Author : Adam Rutherford}

There is a persistent and terribly damaging myth about our economy, namely, that American economy poverty can, in principle, be eliminated -- if only there is better education, more jobs, more opportunity, and if people will just work hard, save, invest, and pull themselves up by their boot-straps. This is simply false. Our economy as it is presently structured requires substantial poverty. The present American economy requires that certain jobs have low wages: cleaning houses, caring for children, preparing fast food, picking vegetables, waiting on tables, doing heavy labor, washing dishes, washing cars, gardening, checking groceries, and so on. In order to support the lifestyles of three-quarters of our population, one quarter of our work force must be paid low wages. These are the people who make two-income families possible, because they take care of the house and the children, allow fast food outlets, restaurants, and hotels to exist, and perform other tedious unpleasant, unsafe, and physically difficult jobs that support middle', upper-middle, and upper-class life. ~ Page 421