UC Berkeley professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics George Lakoff explores how successful political debates are framed by using language targeted to people's values instead of their support. I'm reading Lakoff's new book "The Political Mind". I'm impressed. No matter if you are conservative or progressive, you will enjoy the book and this talk summarizes the bulk of his important ideas. It is important that we understand this phenomenon in the way our brains work and how that relates to our political discussions.

watch the entire lecture...

Pay close attention to how Lakoff ties this into religion later in the lecture. It is a powerful critique of the shifts in religious thought during the modern enlightenment. I see a direct relationship to the way the Emergent movement has found ways to write a progressive theological narrative without losing post-conservatives on the way.