--- Jim Devine <jdevine03 at gmail.com> wrote:
> The Communist Parties and the Social Democratic
> Parties, where and
> when successful, involved a big "infrastructure" of
> cultural
> institutions that encouraged working people to
> participate in, belong
> to, and identify with the movement.
Lakoff makes the following point:
<<People do not necessarily vote in their self-interest. They vote their identity.>> He feels that the American Left (in his very broadly defined terms), unlike the Right, spends too much time trying to demonstrate why this or that policy would be in the self-interest of a particular group and too little time promoting ideals and values. He comes at this, he says, from studies in Cognitive Science, and claims the Left just doesnt understand how people think and then is frustrated when groups vote in a way that is at odds with their true, say, economic interests. Something to think about.
On the other hand, part of me cringes at the idea of creating CYO (that can stand for Catholic Youth Organization or Communist Youth Organziation, take your pick) type organizations for young leftists. Feels like a form of manipulation: "Vote communist, EVERYBODY's doing it".
Thomas
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