DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The latest issue of earthwise, from the Union of Concerned Scientists, contains a mission statement that even the folks from the red states would support:

The UCS is motivated by deeply held values that cross party lines: that allpeople have a right to clean air, water, and land; that we should pass on to our children a world that can sustain them and their children; that decisions affecting our future ought to be guided by an honest assessment of the best available science.

I’ll be the first to admit that as a recovering Midwesterner and ex-political-conservative, my viewpoint is biased, but I really don’t see anything too unreasonable there. I mean, nobody wants to breathe toxic chemicals, do they?

Yet the people who continue to win elections are, in the opinion of scientists at organizations like the UCS, working hard to enact laws that will result in additional environmental poisons. How is this happening?

George Lakoff would argue that the Republican Party won the election by superior “framing” — in a nutshell, by describing ideas in terms that evoke beneficial associations and feelings, even if these terms are not accurate or true. “Clear Skies” is a perfect example, in that (despite its warm and fuzzy name) it would have caused more toxic pollution than allowed by current law. For the GOP, this was an effective frame, but fortunately for all of us not effective enough to carry the bill through Congress.

This is a tired rant. I’m wallowing briefly because it sets up the good news to follow.

Kevin Knobloch, UCS president, notes in this latest earthwise that the UCS has begun following George Lakoff’s advice. Rather than simply reporting facts and attempting to appeal to readers’ logic, the UCS will begin actively framing its positions in order to appeal to readers’ emotions. In a sense, this is about spin. But I’m learning from Lakoff too, so instead of spin I’ll call it “effective communication.”

If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, consider how effective framing can be. You may be one of the roughly 53% of voters who think George Bush is doing a fabulous job by rolling back pollution controls and setting up an oilfield in a wildlife preserve, and you may believe that all the Republican Party’s pronouncements are morally right and just and true. I’d invite you to wake up and smell the toxins. The “reckless Right” has out-framed the moderates, the progressives, the Greens, and the liberals for five years. They’ve set the rules. It’s about time we started to play their game.