Deflating the Elephant:

Framed Messages behind conservative dialogue

Cinema Libre Studio

R1 DVD

Narrated by Academy Award winning actor and political activist Sean Penn, this is a fascinating exploration of the use and misuse of language. So often documentaries on politics focus on specific social issues and or events within the political arena. Most do not examine the way in which language is manipulated to get the required result. So often the simple use of terms such as "free market," "tax relief," “pro life” and "war on terror" are actually used to deflect real debate and reinforce prejudice. In the US (and this doco focuses on some 35 years of US political discourse), the conservative side of politics has spent millions of dollars to encode their own interpretation of language on the public so that in any debate the simple use of certain terms automatically illicit opinions that support conservative thinking and at times downright prejudice. For example, in many the term “Gay Marriage” automatically triggers a response including such concepts as attacking the traditional family and destroying social cohesion rather than giving equal rights to a very large percentage of the population.

This work is based on University of California Professor George Lakoff's theories on language and "framing” and is comprehensive and highly informative. The title comes from Lakoff’s bestselling book “Don't think of an elephant”. Lakoff is considered one of America's foremost cognitive linguists and he offers a fascinating journey into how ideas can be conditioned by language and how the public is easily manipulated by conservatives. He explains in easy to understand terms what “framing” is and how it is used to shape ideology, behaviour and thought. Sadly it is a strategy that has worked throughout the world by a diverse spectrum of conservative movements from family value patriots to the far right.

It is so easy to see framing in action through the Australian experience of thirteen years of Prime Minister John Howard and appreciate how he controlled the debate on so many issues by flagrant manipulation of language. You only have to consider his carefully encoded discussions of “queue jumping asylum seekers” ,“family values” and “Australian values” to see the process in action in an Australian context.

Lakoff explains how to critically decode the framing strategy, understand how and why it works and defuse its power. He also offers advice on what the progressive movement must do to cut through the propaganda and get some real debate going on significant issues.

This is quite an extensive examination of this important subject with “Deflating the Elephant” going for over 2 hours. In the current world economic crisis we all need to read “between the lines” and see what the real debate is all about. Highly recommended.

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.4 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

If you came to this page directly (and missed our menu), click here to go to the Synergy Magazine front page. (http://www.synergy-magazine.com)