Psychobabble

Marc Cooper delivers one of the least useful and inaccurate book reviews in recent memory. Read it here.

The book he reviews is George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant!”.

Marc seems to think that political beliefs have nothing to do with how those beliefs are instantiated in brains. Any attempt by Democrats to change people’s beliefs based on research about the brain is doomed to failure, and is merely psychobabble.

The funny thing is that Lakoff is not proposing anything in his book that marketers have not done for years, that is, go all out to capture a share of mental space. Republican versus Democrat politics in the United States is marketing and it is exactly like the battle of Tide versus All detergent soap.

As far as his discussion of Democrats posing as counter culturists in the cultural wars, I would find it a betrayal of my beliefs to agree with people who believe in shit that is not true. Whatever that makes me, so be it.

Marc summarizes his recommendation as follows:

The trick of effective politics -- as opposed to thinly disguised self-affirming psychotherapy and aesthetically gratifying rebel poses -- is precisely to unite people with different views, values, and families around programs, candidates, and campaigns on which they can reach some consensus, however minimal. Before liberals and progressives dash out with their new vocabulary to try to convince others of the righteousness of their values, they might consider spending some time listening to others instead.

It appears Marc’s book review engages in quite a bit of psychobabble itself. At the end of the review, I find it difficult to discern the difference between his recommendations and Lakoff’s. I think he’s jealous of George Lakoff’s status as guru.

I wish Marc all the luck in the world assisting the Democrats in finding those meat and potato guys walking around on the street with whom they can build a consensus.