January 24, 2005

George Lakoff

Moral Politics B How Conservatives and Liberals think

2^nd Edition (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL), 1996/2002

The Quantification of Well-being: Conceptualization of well-being as wealth allows us to convert the qualitative and elusive concept of well-being into the quantitative concept of money. By thinking about well-being the way we think about money, we can bring to bear on it our extensive forms of quantitative reasoning. The ubiquitous conception of well-being as wealth is a fundamental economic metaphor behind much of morality and brings quantitative reasoning into the qualitative realm of morality.

We talk about gain or loss of well-being, the human cost of a plan, profiting from an experience, an action being worth it, a noise giving a headache, owing a favor, being in debt after someone does us a favor, repaying that debt, and paying back someone for harm done to us. When we do something good for someone, we have a credit. When a person acts immorally, he is discredited, morally bankrupt. To be trusted, a person has to build trust, establish a history of being trustworthy B a moral credit rating (pp. 44-45 and 62).

Morality as Spatial: We conceptualize action as movement. For conservatives, moral action is seen as bounded movement B movement within permissible, sanctioned areas, ranges and paths, immoral action being motion outside these and called deviant. Moral boundaries are then seen as putting constraints on freedom and a Aright@ is seen as a clear path along which one can move freely without being impeded. For liberals, morality also has boundaries and immoral actions are transgressions B over the line of moral behavior (pp. 84-86 and 132-133).

Morality as Vertical: We conceptualize morality in terms of verticality. To be good is to be upright. We talk of uprightness, high moral principles, being an upstanding citizen, on the up and up, or else doing a low thing, being underhanded, being a snake in the grass. We have to stand up to evil and have the backbone to resist it. We see becoming more moral as growing. A moral midget is someone of low moral character. We speak of moral development as sometimes being stunted. To do evil is to fall, the most famous example being the fall from grace (pp. 71 and 124-125).

Experiential Forms of Morality: The above metaphors for morality are grounded in non-metaphorical morality B in forms of well-being. Because the same forms of well-being are widespread around the world, many of the same metaphors for morality are used in different societies (pp. 42 and 43).

Our basic experiential forms of well-being form the grounding for our system of moral metaphors. Immoral actions are those that cause harm or lack of well-being B depriving others of the conditions basic to their well-being (Table 1, page 2; and Table 2, page 9) (pp. 41-42).

Table 1 B The Experiential Basis of Morality

(Metaphors favored by the Strict Father Morality in bold letters)

Experiential Form of Well-being Other things being equal, it is better to be:	Conceptual Metaphor for Morality
Healthy rather than sick.	Health, purity, cleanliness. Safety
Rich rather than poor.	Wealth, reward, punishment, retribution, restitution.
Strong rather than weak.	Strength, power, authority, control, self-discipline, self-reliance, character, willpower, the (unchangeable) essence of a person. Strength to sacrifice for others.
Whole rather than lacking.	Unity of form, uniform standards, order, homogeneity. These make a family or a society strong, stable, predictable and resistant to pressure.
Free rather than imprisoned.	One=s actions (chosen destinations in space) are freely chosen (not a result of social forces). Any restriction of freedom is immoral. Competition, standards. Mastery, cooperation, free expression.
Able to stand upright and not fall down.	To be good is to be upright, not fall to evil B temptation by one of the seven deadly sins.
Beautiful rather than ugly.	To be a beautiful person.
Cared for rather than un-cared for.	Empathy, nurturance, self-nurturance, self-development (therefore, assuming that adults are capable of growing), happiness, social nurturance, social forces, self-interest.
Happy rather than sad.	The cultivation of one=s own happiness.
Functioning in the light rather than the dark.	Fair distribution, equal rights.
In a community with close social ties rather than in a hostile or isolated one.	Interdependence. The maximization of cooperation and minimization of hierarchical relationships.
Young children are also better off if they are obedient to their parents.	Obedience (to legitimate authority or deriving from love, trust and respect).

Two Models of the Family: There are two models of the family, the Strict Father and the Nurturant Parent models, each a culturally elaborated variant of traditional male and female roles (p. 155).

Family-based Morality: Models of the family lead to a family-based morality. The two different models use the same moral principles, grounded in well-being, but give these principles different priorities. The resulting moral systems B put together from the same elements but in a different order B are radically opposed (pp. 31 and 34-35).

The Nation as a Family: We commonly conceptualize the nation metaphorically as a family, with the government, or head of state, an older male authority figure, typically a father. We talk about our founding fathers, refer the U.S. government as Uncle Sam, send our sons to war, and ask God to crown thy good (the good of the nation) with brotherhood. One who loves his fatherland is a patriot (from the Latin, pater, father), and George Orwell named the nightmare head of state in his book, 1984, Big Brother (p. 153).

From the Family to the Nation: The metaphor of nation as family does not specify what kind of family the nation is. Implicitly and unconsciously, conservatives conceptualize the nation as a Strict Father family while liberals conceptualize it as a Nurturant Parent family.

Conservative and liberal worldviews are thus the results of a maximally economical use of existing conceptual resources for the purpose of making sense of politics. Conceptualizing the nation as a family leads us to extend our family-based morality to the nation, the Strict Father model leading to conservatism, the Nurturant Parent model to liberalism (pp. 6, 13, 31, 154-156 and 159).

The Parents= System of Childrearing reproduced in the Child: Both the Strict Father and the Nurturant Parent model of childrearing assume that the system in which a child is raised, will be reproduced within the child. In the Strict Father model, discipline of the child becomes self-discipline and ability to discipline others. In the Nurturant Parent model, nurturance of the child becomes the ability to take care of oneself and nurture others (p. 110).

The Strict Father Family Model

The Strict Father Family: The idealized, stereotypical model of the Strict Father family posits a traditional nuclear family, with the father having primary responsibility for supporting and protecting the family as well as the authority to set overall policy, formulate strict rules for the behavior of children, and enforce all of his directives. The mother has the day-to-day responsibility for the care of the house, raising the children, and upholding the father=s authority. Children must respect and obey their parents. By doing so, they build Acharacter@ B that is, self-discipline and self-reliance. Love and nurturance are a vital part of family life but can never outweigh parental authority, which is itself an expression of love and nurturance B Atough love.@ Self-discipline, self-reliance and respect for legitimate authority are the crucial things that children must learn.

Once children are mature, they are on their own and must depend on their acquired self-discipline to survive. Their self-reliance gives them authority over their own destinies, and parents are not to meddle in their lives (pp. 33 and 159).

Morality in the Strict Father Family

Background: Life is difficult. The world is fundamentally dangerous. The most basic assumption of the model is that the exercise of authority through the distribution of reward and punishment is moral. It is moral to reward obedience and punish disobedience (pp. 65-67).

Children: Children must respect and obey their parents, partly for their own safety, and partly because by doing so, they build character, that is, self-discipline and self- reliance. Only if a child learns self-discipline, can he become self-reliant later in life (p. 66).

Adults: A mature adult becomes self-reliant through applying self-discipline in pursuing his self-interest. Competition is moral because it is a condition for the development and sustenance of the right kind of person. Without competition, there would be no source of reward for self-discipline, and no motivation to become the right kind of person. A moral world is a meritocracy. The hierarchy of this world is moral. Those who have risen to the top have a responsibility to exercise their legitimate authority for the benefit of all under their authority (pp. 66 and 69-70).

Moral Priorities in the Strict Father Model

* Moral strength (the self-control and self-discipline to stand up to external and internal evils).

* Respect for and obedience to authority.

* The setting and following of strict guidelines and behavioral norms.

* The pursuit of self-interest as a way of using self-discipline to achieve self-reliance (p. 35).

The Vocabulary of the Conservatives: Words do not have meaning in isolation. They are defined relative to a conceptual system. The conservative discourse uses such words and phrases as character, virtue, discipline, tough it out, get tough, tough love, strong, self-reliance, individual responsibility, backbone, standards, authority, heritage, traditional, competition, earn, hard work, enterprise, property rights, reward, freedom, intrusion, interference, meddling, punishment, human nature, common sense, dependency, self-indulgent, elite, quotas, breakdown, corrupt, decay, rot, degenerate, deviant, lifestyle (pp. 29-30).

The Model Citizen for Conservatives: The model citizen for conservatives is a successful, wealthy, law-abiding, conservative businessman who supports a strong military and a strict criminal justice system, and is against government regulation and affirmative action. Part of the conservative myth is that this model citizen has been given nothing by the government and has made it on his own (pp. 169-170).

Metaphors for Morality in the Strict Father Model

Morality is:

1. Strength: To be good is to be upright, to be bad is to be low. To do evil is to fall. Evil is reified as a force, either internal or external, that can make you fall. Courage is the strength to stand up to external evils and overcome fear and hardship. Internal evils must be resisted by one=s willpower which is necessary for exercising control over one=s body, seen as the seat of passion and desire. Desire, typically for money, sex, food comfort, glory and things other people have, is to be resisted. The seven deadly sins B greed, lust, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy and anger, are Atemptations@B evils that threaten to overcome one=s self-control. The metaphor of Moral Strength thus defines forms of internal evil and divides the world into good and evil. It pictures the world in terms of a war of good against the forces of evil, thus imposing a strict us-them dichotomy (pp. 71-74).

2. Authority: Moral behavior by someone in authority is setting standards and enforcing them. Moral behavior by someone subject to authority is obedience. Moral behavior by the child is obedience to the parent=s authority (pp. 76-77).

3. Order: The moral order is the natural order of dominance as it occurs in the world B God over people; people over animals, plants and natural objects; men over women; adults over children (p. 81).

4. The Essence of a Person: People are understood as if they were objects made of substances that determine how they will behave B We say, AShe has a heart of gold,@ AHe doesn=t have a mean bone in his body,@ AHe is rotten to the core.@ The Strict Father morality assumes that people are born with, or develop early in life, essential moral properties that stay with them for life. Properties which are moral are called Avirtues@ and those that are immoral, Avices.@ ACharacter@ is the collection of virtues and vices attributed to a person. Discipline is essential for character development (pp. 87-90).

5. Wholeness of Society: Natural, strict, uniform, unchanging standards of behavior must be followed if society is to function. Wholeness B overall unity of form, homogeneity B make an entity strong, resistant to pressures, stable and predictable. Integrity is the virtue of being morally whole. There is no such thing as progress in morality. What is and is not moral is fixed for all time. One must be constantly on the lookout for signs of moral decay and erosion and stop these immediately (pp. 90-92).

6. Purity in Society: To be viable, society must be purged of corrupting individuals and practices (pp. 92-93).

7. Health: Immorality, like disease, can spread through contact. Immoral people must be kept away from moral people, lest they become immoral too (pp. 93-94).

8. The Pursuit of Self-Interest: Without the morality of pursuit of self-interest, there would be no moral link between self-discipline and self-reliance. Interference with the pursuit of self-interest threatens the foundation of the whole framework (pp. 94-95).

9. Nurturance: Punishment is a form of nurturance because it teaches self-reliance and respect for legitimate authority B it is tough love. Irresponsible people (people responsible for their own misfortunes) should not be helped because if they do not have to face the consequences of their own actions, they will never become responsible and self-disciplined (pp. 96-97).

10. Boundaries: To be moral, action must be within the sanctioned areas. Action, seen as self-propelled motion, is always under the control of the one who is moving, and hence any destination is freely chosen. Immoral action is deviant and leads others astray by creating a new path. Life is a journey. Choosing a particular path, or Adirection@ in one=s life, can affect the whole rest of one=s life (pp. 84-85).

Conservative Categories of Moral Action: Categories are extremely stable and resist efforts at change. Categories which allow conservatives to classify actions instantly into moral or immoral, include the following:

1. Promoting Strict Father morality in general. Moral strength, moral boundaries and moral authority imply a strict good-evil division. The moral system is right B so right that it defines the nature of right and wrong. Defending this system is the primary moral obligation.

Demons are feminists, gays and other Adeviants.@ Other demons include egalitarians, advocates of multi-culturalism, and postmodern humanists who deny the existence of any absolute values.

2. Promoting self-discipline, responsibility and self-reliance.

Demons are unwed mothers on welfare, unemployed drug users, able-bodied people on welfare.

3. Upholding the morality of reward and punishment.

a. Preventing interference with the pursuit of self-interest by self-disciplined, self-reliant people.

Demons are the protectors of the Apublic good@ who want the government to interfere with the pursuit of self-interest and thus constrain the business activities of conservative model citizens. Such demons include environmentalists, consumer advocates, advocates of affirmative action, and advocates of government-supported universal health care.

b. Promoting punishment as a means of upholding authority.

c. Ensuring punishment for lack of self-discipline.

4. Protecting moral people from external evils.

Demons include abortion doctors, gun control advocates, and those who oppose the way in which the military and criminal justice systems have operated, such as anti-war protestors, advocates of prisoners= rights and opponents of police brutality.

5. Upholding the moral order. The moral order defines legitimate authority.

Demons include advocates of equal rights for women, gays, non-whites, and ethnic Americans (pp. 163-165 and 170-172).

Table 2 B The Experiential Basis of Morality

(Metaphors favored by the Nurturant Parent Morality in bold letters)

Experiential Form of Well-being Other things being equal, it is better to be:	Conceptual Metaphor for Morality
Healthy rather than sick.	Health, purity, cleanliness. Safety
Rich rather than poor.	Wealth, reward, punishment, retribution, restitution.
Strong rather than weak.	Strength, power, authority, control, self-discipline, self-reliance, character, willpower, the (unchangeable) essence of a person. Strength to sacrifice for others.
Whole rather than lacking.	Unity of form, uniform standards, order, homogeneity. These make a family or a society strong, stable, predictable and resistant to pressure.
Free rather than imprisoned.	One=s actions (chosen destinations in space) are freely chosen (not a result of social forces). Any restriction of freedom is immoral. Competition, standards. Mastery, cooperation, free expression.
Able to stand upright and not fall down.	To be good is to be upright, not fall to evil B temptation by one of the seven deadly sins.
Beautiful rather than ugly.	To be a beautiful person.
Cared for rather than un-cared for.	Empathy, nurturance, self-nurturance, self-development (therefore, assuming that adults are capable of growing), happiness, social nurturance, social forces, self-interest.
Happy rather than sad.	The cultivation of one=s own happiness.
Functioning in the light rather than the dark.	Fair distribution, equal rights.
In a community with close social ties rather than in a hostile or isolated one.	Interdependence. The maximization of cooperation and minimization of hierarchical relationships.
Young children are also better off if they are obedient to their parents.	Obedience (to legitimate authority or deriving from love, trust and respect).

The Nurturant Parent Family Model

The Nurturant Parent Family: The idealized, stereotypical model of the nurturant family posits two parents, but perhaps only one. If two, the parents share household responsibilities (p. 108).

Love, empathy and nurturance are primary, and children become responsible, self-disciplined and self-reliant through being cared for, respected, and caring for others, both in their family and community. Support and protection are part of nurturance, and they require strength and courage on the part of parents. The obedience of children arises out of their love and respect for their parents and their community, not out of the fear of punishment. Good communication is crucial. If their authority is to be legitimate, parents must explain why their decisions serve the cause of protection and nurturance. Questioning by children is seen as positive, since children need to learn why their parents do what they do, and since children often have good ideas which should be taken seriously. Ultimately, of course, responsible parents have to make the decisions, and that must be clear.

The principal goal of nurturance is for children to be fulfilled and happy in their lives. A fulfilling life is assumed to be, in significant part, a nurturant life B one committed to family and community responsibility. What children need to learn most is empathy for others, the capacity for nurturance, and the maintenance of social ties, which cannot be done without the strength, respect, self-discipline, and self-reliance that comes through being care for. Raising a child to be fulfilled also requires helping that child develop his or her potential for achievement and enjoyment. That requires respecting the child=s own values and allowing the child to explore the range of ideas and options that the world offers.

When the children are respected, nurtured, and communicated with from birth, they gradually enter into a lifetime relationship of mutual respect, communication, and caring with their parents (pp. 33-34).

Morality in the Nurturant Parent Family

Background: The primal experience is to be cared for and cared about, having one=s desires for loving interactions met, living as happily as possible, and deriving meaning from mutual interaction and care (p. 108).

Children: Children develop best through positive relationships with others, contributing to their community, realizing their potential and finding joy in life. They become responsible, self-disciplined and self-reliant through being cared for and respected, and caring for others. Obedience derives from their love and respect for their parents.

Adults: Open, two-way, mutually respectful communication is crucial. The non-aggressive side of competition is mastery, which is developed naturally through nurturance and encouragement. Interdependence is a non-hierarchical relationship (pp. 108-109 and 113).

Moral Priorities in the Nurturant Parent Model

* Moral nurturance requires empathy for others and the helping of those in need.

* To help others, one must take care of oneself and nurture social ties.

* One must be happy and fulfilled in oneself, or one will have little empathy for others.

* The moral pursuit of self-interest makes sense only within these priorities (p. 35).

The Vocabulary of the Liberals: The liberals discourse uses such words and phrases as social forces, social responsibility, free expression, human rights, equal rights, concern, care, help, health, safety, nutrition, basic human dignity, oppression, diversity, deprivation, alienation, big corporations, corporate welfare, ecology, ecosystem, bio-diversity, pollution (pp. 30-31).

The Model Citizen for Liberals: The model citizen for liberals is one who is empathic, helps the disadvantaged, protects those who need protection, promotes and exemplifies fulfillment in life B and takes care of him/herself so that he/she can do all of these. The model citizen lives a socially responsible life (p. 173).

Metaphors in the Nurturant Parent Model of Morality

Morality is:

1. Empathy: To act morally toward people needing help to survive, one must have absolute and regular empathy with them. Metaphorically, empathy is the capacity to project your consciousness into another so that one can feel what the other feels B imagine that one is the other. Since one must empathize with people who have different values than one=s own, including different moral values, it is not possible in this model to maintain a strict good-evil dichotomy. The other cannot be seen as an enemy to be demonized (pp. 114 and 127).

2. Nurturance: Moral action may require making sacrifices to help truly needy people. Community members have a responsibility to see that people needing help in their community are helped (pp. 117-118).

3. Self-nurturance: Self-nurturance B taking care of one= own basic needs B is a necessary condition for nurturance (pp. 119 and 135).

4. Social Nurturance: The nurturance of social ties is necessary for nurturance within a community. One must attend constantly to social ties (pp. 120-121 and 135).

5. Self-development: What counts as self-development is determined by the rest of the moral system. In the Nurturant Parent system, self-development is in the cause of increasing empathy, helping others, nurturing social ties, making people happy, and increasing one=s capacity for happiness. Becoming more moral is seen as Agrowing.@ Adults are capable of growing morally either by being helped or by exercising nurturance. If one is serving the cause of nurturance and interdependence through self-nurturance, happiness and self-development, one may also seek one=s self-interest (pp. 122-123, 124-127 and 129-130).

6. Happiness: Unhappy people are less likely to be empathic, compassionate and nurturant than happy people. Therefore, one should make oneself as happy as possible B provided one does not hurt anyone in the process (p. 121).

7. Fair Distribution: Fair distribution may be any or a combination of the following:

Equality of distribution (one child, one cookie).

Equality of opportunity (one person, one raffle ticket).

Procedural distribution (playing by the rules determines what one gets).

Right-based fairness (one gets what one has a right to).

Needs-based fairness (the more one needs, the more one has a right to).

Scalar distribution of work (the more one works, the more one gets).

Contractual distribution (one gets what one has agreed to).

Equal distribution of responsibility (the burden is shared equally).

Scalar distribution of responsibility (the greater one=s abilities, the greater one=s responsibilities).

Equal distribution of power (one person, one vote) (pp. 60 and 123-124).

8. Strength: Strength is the strength to nurture. One must be strong in order to confront and protect oneself and one=s family from external evils, dangers and hardships. Such strength comes through the regular exercise of nurturance. Internal evils which must be confronted are those interfering with empathy B lack of social responsibility, selfishness, self-righteousness, narrow-mindedness, inability to experience pleasure, aesthetic insensitivity, lack of curiosity, difficulty communicating, dishonesty, insensitivity to feelings, inconsiderateness, uncooperativeness, meanness, self-centeredness, and lack of self-respect (pp. 126-127).

9. Authority: Nurturance is both a precondition of and productive of authority. The authority of a leader is based on trust that this leader will communicate effectively, arrange for participation, be honest, and have the wisdom, experience and strength to succeed in helping (p. 134).

10. Boundaries: Moral action is action with nurturant consequences. Actions which are likely to lead to an impairment of people=s well-being are immoral B transgressions, over the line of moral behavior (pp. 132-133).

Liberal Categories of Moral Action

Categories are extremely stable and resist efforts at change. Categories which allow liberals to classify actions instantly into moral or immoral, include the following:

Empathic behavior and the promotion of fairness.

Demons include the wealthy companies and businessmen who only care about profit.

Helping those who cannot help themselves.

Demons include companies against unions, and large agricultural firms which exploit their farm workers by paying them poorly and exposing them to poisonous pesticides.

Protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

Demons include violent criminals, out-of-control police, polluters, those who make unsafe products or engage in consumer fraud, developers with no sense of ecology, and large companies which, in return for their contributions to the coffers of politicians, are able to make extensive profits from government subsidies in the form of mining, grazing, water and lumber rights.

Promoting fulfillment in life.

Demons include those who are against public support of education, art and scholarship.

Nurturing and strengthening oneself in order to do the above.

Demons include those who are against the expansion of health care for the general public (pp. 172-174).

The Political Views of Conservatives and Liberals

Table 3: Social Programs

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Social Class	Class hierarchy is a ladder available to be climbed by anyone with the strength, character, self-discipline and talent to do so (p. 203).	People who are Atrapped@ by social and economic forces need help to Aescape@ (p. 203).
Taxation	Progressive taxation removes the incentive for profit (p. 191).	Citizens who have more, have a duty to help out those who have much less (p. 190).
Military Spending	Supporting the military as an institution supports the culture of Strict Father morality (p. 193).	Much of the money spent on the military could be spent in better ways (p. 193).
The Deficit	The military protects America. Lowering taxes for the rich rewards enterprise and eventually helps eliminate social programs (p. 195).	Deficits show fiscal irresponsibility (p. 194).
Welfare, Drug Addiction, Teenage Pregnancy, HIV/AIDS	Social programs remove the incentive for responsible efforts by citizens (p. 182).	Social programs are investments helping unproductive citizens become productive (pp. 179-180).
Immigration	AIllegals@ should be punished. They have broken the law and are unwelcome (pp. 187-188).	Illegal immigrants contribute to the economy. The law should focus on law-breaking employers (p. 188).

Table 4: Crime

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Violent Crime	Strict punishment will eliminate violence. We need tougher sentencing laws and more prisons (pp. 197 and 200).	Crime has social causes B poverty, unemployment, alienation, lack of caring and lack of community. We need social programs to address these (pp. 198 and 201).
Gun control	Guns help the Strict Father protect his family (p. 199).	The presence of a gun evokes scenarios in which guns are used (p. 199).
The Death Penalty	The death penalty is a disincentive for crime. If it does not work, it must mean that the criminals are inherently bad and should be locked away for life (p. 205).	Most of the people on death row are poor members of minority groups. The state often abuses its power. Nurturance will help diminish crime (pp. 206-207).

Table 5: Government Regulations

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Regulations	Regulations interfere with the ability of self-disciplined people to become self-reliant (and, if possible, rich) (p. 211).	Regulations protect citizens against possible harm by the unscrupulous (p. 210).
Minimum Wage	There should be no minimum wage. Labor is a commodity like any other. Its value is not inherent but rather determined by what people are willing to pay in exchange for it (p. 203).	There should be a minimum wage in the name of a bare minimum of social justice (p. 203).
The Environment	The Anatural order@ is that man dominates nature. Nature is there as a resource to be used by man for his self-interest and profit. Our relationship to nature should work according to free-market principles (pp. 212-213).	Our relationship with nature is as the recipient of nurturance, and involves attachment, inherent value, gratitude, responsibility, respect, interdependence, love and continuing commitment to sustainability (pp. 215-217).
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)	The EPA should be eliminated on the ground that government should encourage and reward free enterprise, not constrain and punish it (p. 219).	The EPA was instituted to protect the environment and protect the citizenry from environmental dangers (p. 218).

Table 6: Women and Minorities

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Abortion	Teenage girls should not be having sex. Lack of self-discipline deserves punishment. The girl has to be responsible for the consequences of her actions. Married women should raise children instead of seeking careers or independent lives (pp. 267-268).	A girl Ain trouble@ needs help and deserves empathy. She has plenty of time to have children later when she can raise them properly. She should have an abortion if that is what she wants (pp. 269-270).
Women and Minorities	Affirmative action gives preferential treatment to women and minorities (p. 223).	Affirmative action is a means to remedy unfairness for whole groups over time (p. 224).
Gays	Homosexuality challenges the very idea that the Strict Father model of the family is the right one to have (and, therefore, the right one to have for morality and for politics) (p. 225).	The government should treat all citizens fairly and equally, gay or not (p. 225).
Multi-culturalism	Forms of morality not based on the Strict Father family model, are not moral and hence, should not be tolerated (p. 228).	Each citizen has something different to contribute. Diversity is positive and toleration necessary (p. 228).

Table 7: Education and the Arts

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Education	The major ills of our present society come from a failure to abide by the moral system based on the Strict Father family model (p. 229).	Much of the history of progress in America is the history of what has been made possible through the progressive extension of nurturant morality (p. 231)
Educational Standards	Students should sink or swim (p. 235).	The less talented students should be helped to learn as much as they can (p. 235).
Art	Art should serve a moral purpose B build moral strength and character, or display moral modes of life (p. 236).	Art should question and probe, force one to look at the dark side of life, unveil denial, force one to face unpleasant truths, and lead one into self-exploration and re-evaluation (pp. 237-238).
Moral Education	The Strict Father morality should be the official version of morality taught in schools (p. 241).	Children need to be taught alternative moral views. They should understand the form of morality built into their religious teachings (pp. 242-243).

Table 8: Christianity

Issue	Conservatives	Liberals
Relationship to God	Central to the conservative view, are God=s authority, his strict commandments, the requirement for obedience, the priority of moral strength, the need for self-discipline and self-denial, and the enforcement of rules through reward and punishment (pp. 248 and 251).	Central to the liberal view, is God=s Grace, understood metaphorically as nurturance. One accepts God=s authority because of his original and continuing nurturance. Separation from God, natural to the human condition, is what gives rise to the need for His Grace (pp. 248, 255 and 257).
Original Sin	Being made of flesh, human being are morally weak. This inherent moral weakness, called Original Sin, is exemplified by the weakness of Adam and Eve (p. 249).	Sin is non-nurturant action toward others. Original Sin is our inherent inability to be fully moral (nurturant). We naturally act non-nurturantly toward others and must learn to act nurturantly (p. 257).
Adam and Eve	The moral weakness of Adam and Eve resulted in God taking everlasting life away from human beings (p. 249).	The expulsion from Eden is a metaphor for the stage beyond infancy, when humans are no longer completely loved and nurtured, and must learn to act morally in a difficult world. Humans have to find God and, through His Grace, grow morally, becoming as nurturant as they can (p. 258).
Christ	Through his crucifixion, Jesus paid off mankind=s Original Sin debit, thereby making it possible for the sufficiently righteous to go to heaven (p. 249).	Heaven is the state of receiving perpetual nurturance from God. Through his suffering, Christ paid off the moral debt of human beings. By accepting Christ and following his example, humans can gradually incorporate his nurturance (pp. 258-259).
Issue (Continued)	Conservatives (Continued)	Liberals (Continued)
Accepting Jesus Christ	Many sinners, destined for hell even if they do not sin the rest of their lives, can still be Aborn again@ with a clean slate, by accepting Jesus into their heart and making him their essence. Jesus can then Asave@ them with the moral credit he has accumulated from his crucifixion (p. 250).	Those who Atake Christ into their hearts@ (take nurturance as the essence of their being), have their moral debts paid off with the moral credit Christ obtained through his suffering. These people are saved from hell B Aredeemed@ B and henceforth, can earn their way into heaven through nurturant behavior (pp. 259-260).
The Last Judgment	At a time unpredictable by human beings, the world will come to an end and all will be judged. The only way to guarantee a spot in heaven, is to accept Jesus now so that on Judgment Day, he will be one=s Redeemer B pay off one=s old moral debts and redeem one from the clutches of the Devil (p. 251).
The Bible	Conservative Christians give the Bible an interpretation in terms of Strict Father morality and, through metaphor, link that interpretation with conservative politics (pp. 252 and 255).	Liberal Christians give the Bible an interpretation in terms of Nurturant Parent Morality. They have not linked that interpretation with liberal politics (pp. 160 and 424-426).

Reference

All page numbers refer to:

Lakoff, George, Moral Politics B How Liberals and Conservatives think, 2^nd edition (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL), 1996/2002, 471 pages.

The present summary includes only parts I-IV (pages 1-280).

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