You can't understand Twenty-first-Century Politics with an Eighteenth-Century Brain.
Interpretation
Modern political issues require contemporary thinking and understanding.
George Lakoff's quote suggests that to effectively comprehend and navigate the complexities of today's political landscape, one must adopt a mindset that is relevant to current times. The phrase emphasizes the gap between historical understanding and the demands of modern society, implying that outdated perspectives are inadequate for addressing contemporary challenges. It advocates for intellectual adaptability and the necessity of evolving thought processes to engage with current realities.
In practice
In a political debate, this quote could be used to illustrate the need for current thinking in policy-making.
Do we really think that the United States will have the protection of innocent Afghans in mind if it rains terror down on the Afghan infrastructure? We are supposedly fighting them because they immorally killed innocent civilians. That made them evil. If we do the same, are we any less immoral?
Moreover, metaphor is typically viewed as characteristic of language alone, a matter of words rather than thought or action. For this reason, most people think they can get along perfectly well without metaphor. We have found, on the contrary, that metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action. Our ordinary conceptual system, in terms of which we both think and act, is fundamentally metaphorical in nature.
The mind is inherently embodied._x000D_ Thought is mostly unconscious._x000D_ Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
what is lost because it is most precious what is most precious because it is lost
I felt myself in a solitude so frightful that I contemplated suicide. What held me back was the idea that no one, absolutely no one, would be moved by my death, that I would be even more alone in death than in life.
The gods confound the man who first found out How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too, Who in this place set up a sun-dial, To cut and hack my days so wretchedly Into small portions.
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
Night was a very different matter. It was dense, thicker than the very walls, and it was empty, so black, so immense that within it you could brush against appalling things and feel roaming and prowling around a strange, mysterious horror.
since some people had told me that I was ugly, I always preferred shade to the sun, darkness to light
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