Folks,
George Lakoff, cognitive psychologist, linguist and leading light in the
science of "framing" debates, notes a change in the language that the
Bush administration is using to describe what it now terms the "global
struggle against violent extremism."
A key point:
"... [D]ropping the [term] "war" while addressing the public
will result in a shift in thinking in the public mind: If the
war frame is not evoked in the public mind, the failure of the
president's war policy will be less visible."
When it was a "war," it justified the President's tough-guy stance,
appeals to patriotism, practically unlimited resources and so on. Now
that it's a "struggle," there's no specific mission to accomplish, so
the failure to accomplish any specific mission is no big thing.
Dave
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