OWS == A Framing Memo for Occupy Wall Street

[L. Coyote]

*LAKOFF: A FRAMING MEMO FOR “OCCUPY WALL STREET”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/george-lakoff/occupy-wall-street_b_1019448.html
How to Frame Yourself: A Framing Memo for Occupy Wall Street
Posted: 10/19/11 09:58 AM ET

Below, from Huffington Post, is an important memo by the renowned linguist GEORGE LAKOFF. It is good background for our meeting tonight, when Thirster in Residence DAVID RAPHAEL will share his ideas about the political potential of the “Occupy” phenomenon.

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BY GEORGE LAKOFF:

I was asked weeks ago by some in the Occupy Wall Street movement to make suggestions for how to frame the movement. I have hesitated so far, because I think the movement should be framing itself. It's a general principle: Unless you frame yourself, others will frame you -- the media, your enemies, your competitors, your well-meaning friends. I have so far hesitated to offer suggestions. But the movement appears to maturing and entering a critical time when small framing errors could have large negative consequences. So I thought it might be helpful to accept the invitation and start a discussion of how the movement might think about framing itself.


About framing: It's normal. Everybody engages in it all the time. Frames are just structures of thought that we use every day. All words in all languages are defined in terms of frame-circuits in the brain. But, ultimately, framing is about ideas, about how we see the world, which determines how we act.



In politics, frames are part of competing moral systems that are used in political discourse and in charting political action. In short, framing is a moral enterprise: it says what the character of a movement is. All politics is moral. Political figures and movements always make policy recommendations claiming they are the right things to do. No political figure ever says, do what I say because it's wrong! Or because it doesn't matter! Some moral principles or other lie behind every political policy agenda. .......

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[polichick]

1. Good piece - I agree, OWS is fundamentally a movement about morality...

...and it's important not to let others do the framing.

[L. Coyote]

2. Lakoff has a good head for words

understatment :rofl: