Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea

“There is a radically different and frightening notion of what extremists on the right call ‘freedom’ shaping our culture and our political life,” he warns. Lakoff talks about the right’s use of the word and decodes a July 7 statement by George Bush on “freedom” in Iraq.

Mother Jones Radio

Michael Krasny discusses the meaning and uses of the word “freedom”, and its political significance, with linguist George Lakoff.

Forum on KQED

At Book Passage - Corte Madera, CA George Lakoff talks about Whose Freedom. An advisor to the Democratic party, Lakoff states that the conservative revolution has remade freedom in its own image and deployed it as a central weapon on the front lines of everything from the war on terror to the battles over religion in the classroom and abortion.

Fora TV broadcast

The F Word
No, not framing. Freedom! TAP speaks with George Lakoff about freedom, populism, and the common good.

American Prospect online

Both conservatives and liberals say they’re for freedom. But they don’t always agree on what the word means. In Whose Freedom? , George Lakoff argues that freedom has been politicized, and redefined, since September 11th.

WNYC

Berkeley linguistics don George Lakoff came roaring out of academia and into political celebrity after the presidential election of 2004. Republicans, said Lakoff, were trouncing Democrats at the polls by using language to frame every debate their way. The proudly partisan professor said it was time for liberal progressives to fight back or fade away.

Now, Lakoff is making an even bigger claim: that American conservatives are rapidly redefining the idea of freedom itself — away, he claims, from its traditional American meaning and into something smaller and meaner, something dangerous.

– National Public Radio

Hear the full NPR conversation .

I originally intended my conversation with George Lakoff to focus on the immigration debate, following the publication by the Rockridge Institute of a report by Lakoff and Sam Ferguson, “The Framing of Immigration,” in late May. However, as Lakoff quickly proved, the focus and outcome of all debate rests in how one frames that debate. He believes that conservatives have sunk a lot of time and money into framing their issues. In the case of progressives, Lakoff says “a conceptual overhaul” and “reframing” of how to approach and define issues is in order if their message is to be understood. Lakoff’s latest book, Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea, published in June by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, discusses the competing rhetoric used by progressives and conservatives in shaping political discourse.

– Chronogram

“America is at a cusp, at a turning point in its history. The question is, Whose concept of freedom is going to prevail.”