Whose Freedom?

The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea

De: George Lakoff

Narrado por: George Lakoff

Freedom is one of the most contested words in our deeply polarized nation. This eye-opening work reveals how this has happened and how it will continue on all fronts, economic, education, healthcare, religion, science, civil justice, and security, unless we reframe the debate with traditional progressive ideas of empathy, integrity, and responsibility.

Engaged citizens can regain their power. Our government can function honestly. In this critical time for our country, Lakoff argues that it is possible for progressives to reclaim freedom and communicate effectively about its real meaning.

©2006 George Lakoff (P)2006 Audio Partners Publishing Corp.

A really insightful book

I personally lean more towards the right on a lot of things, president Trump in the 2016 election was the first election I was involved in as a young adult . That being said I wanted to take a step back and try and understand what issues Democrats valued and I was surprised to find that I agree with a lot of what said in this book. so thank you for opening my eyes to the other side of the party line

Compelling and enlightening

Wow! I find this a potent and helpful view into the explanation for the different ways of reasoning of today's dominant conservative rhetoric versus classic liberal thought. All this time, I couldn't understand how my Republican associates "didn't get it" and refused to believe some very compelling fact about the ruling party's behavior and justifications. It all makes sense now.

Important ideas to grapple with

No one will accuse George Lakoff of being a gifted writer, or narrator for that matter. Both his writing and his reading are just OK: workmanlike, successful, but not delightful.

However, as the subtitle suggests, the "idea of freedom" he is analyzing is important and I found the analysis compelling. Agree or disagree with Lakoff's conclusions, if you find the ideal of "freedom" or "liberty" important, you need to work your way through Lakoff's basic insights. At worst you will understand your own thinking better; at best you will have a genuinely useful new understanding.

Descriptions of conflicting perceptions provides clarity of the conflicts in our political discourse

The format of the book offers a manual on to how to make changes in our own understanding of opposing views, and apply those understandings to our own behaviors. It also clarifies for progressives like me the need for and manner of altering our own expression of the foundations of our political views in order to assert properly their value as opposition to those promoted by conservatives. An excellent book!

Fantastic

This book is an important read for anyone with progressive passions or ideals. You don’t have to be a left-winger to take away its valuable lessons on the American traditions of Freedom. However, those on the far-Christian-right and those fundamentalists of the Invisible Hand will no doubt be discouraged by its tone.

The author creates a fantastic, systematic analysis of conservative vs. progressive thought and maps it into cognitive science. The ideas in this book have rejuvenated my passion toward freedom and given me a solid basis for discussion of progressivism with others. For years, I’ve secretly challenged the contradictions and paradoxes of the populist Right, as I could never correctly deconstruct it. Now I understand – Freedom is more than markets; it requires rights, free-movement, and unobstructed access for all.

Oh. Wow.

Why didn't I read this book years ago? This is simply amazing. The insights shared in this book help me to finally understand the growing polarity in this country. I'm using this to frame arguments now and its helping me to reach my audiences -- both sides. Thank you Mr Lakoff.

informative but lacking

Buck is very informative regarding the " radical conservative " and how that differs with progressive thought. very descriptive but lacks equal description of both for better comparison. However, it is still a worthwhile read.

What a load of hypocritical BS

The author is far from biased and doesn’t even attempt to hide it. He blasts the “radical right” for utilizing specific language, to elicit desired responses when discussing their views but he does exactly the same thing when extolling the virtues of the “progressive” point of view.

Throughout he will compare and contrast these two points of view but he only discusses the bad points of the conservative points of view while failing to acknowledge short comings of “progressive” policies. Neither side is without flaws.

Lastly, the entire premise of this book seems to be about the evil right forcing their conservative views on others, while simultaneously calling on the “progress” left to do the exact same thing. What a hypocrite!

PhD material: piled high and deep

if there was to be anymore double speak and circular reasoning in this batch of lies it would tell you flat out that it is lying to you. I have seen less BS in a feed lot.

Another gift from Linguistics at UC Berkeley

Lakoff is not as anti-american as Noam Chomski but certainly has more in common with Marx than mainstream America. While accusing the radical right of spin, tired socialist philosophy is framed as (self flattering) "progressive". Lakoff over simplifies left-right ideology into nurchuring progressives v.s. "strict father" radical rightists. According to him, all you have to do is reframe freedom in terms like "freedom from want" and people won't mind being forced by law to donate to socialist programs (presumably not a threat taxpayer's freedom). No new ideas here - just a long winded liberal rant sprinkled with a little brain biology pseudo-science. A real "progressive" would have ideas to move freedom forward rather than backward.