Moral Politics: How Our Parents Have Influenced Our Political Minds How was your childhood? A question frequently asked when encountering new acquaintances. The human mind is very inquisitive, and with that said you can tell a myriad of things about a person based on their childhood. Professor George Lakoff, a Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley has crafted together an insightful collection of information based of two different child-rearing models. The Nurturant Family Model which is the Progressive Worldview, and the Strict Father Family Model known as The Conservative Worldview. Exploring these two very diverse models Professor Lakoff believes that you can determine what type of political mind a child will have based on their upbringing. Which do you think you were? To be succinct, The Nurturant Family model is one of being cared for and cared about, having one's desires for loving interactions met, living as happily as possible, and deriving meaning from one's community and from caring for and about others. With that being said, Professor Lakoff feels that the child will have the highest moral values such as empathy and responsibility; effective nurturing is imperative based on these two moral values. In society, nurturant morality is expressed as social responsibility. This requires cooperation rather than competition, and recognition, and recognition of interdependence. Nurturant morality is help don’t harm approach. The Nurturant Family model is characterized by these values: Strength, Safety, Protection, Fulfillment in Life, Fairness, Freedom, Opportunity, Prosperity, Opportunity, Community, Cooperation, Trust, Honesty, and open Communication. These values shape Progressive politics being that they translate directly to political values. Progressive political positions are based on a responsive morality that centers on empathy and responsibility, which are cornerstones in the Nurturant Family model. (Lakoff, 2006) In The Strict Father Family Model, the children are brought up with discipline. The children are naturally bad since they want to do what feels good, not what is morally right. They have been made good by the hand of discipline. There is an evil in the world and to stand up to evil one must be morally strong or disciplined. The Father is the moral compass and leader of the family, he dictates what is North and South, and what is right and wrong. Only black and white are relevant to him and gray is not a color on his wheel. The authorities of the strict father are merit based and it is the duty of the Father to make certain that his children grow into self reliant, disciplined, competitive, and responsible adults. The Father ensures these values are followed by mean of punishment, because punishment corrects error and instills discipline. The mother does not play a significant role in the family model, she is morally weak and her genders lacks discipline. In short, it is the responsibility of the strict father to produce self-reliant, obedient and well-disciplined adults who will one day become strict fathers. This model represents the conservative approach to family values and inevitably and conservative political view. (Lakoff, 2008) A study was conducted trying to find the answer to the question, Do Fathers or

Mothers Influence a Child’s Political Mind More? The population considered in this

Study was the entire sophomore class at Buckingham Browne and Nichols School

(BB&N), a small, private college preparatory school in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. This suggests there is a very strong association between a fathers's

Political views and student's political views; that is, knowing something about a

Father’s political views can tell us something about his children's. With that being Said, a large correlation is found with that of The Strict Father Family Model. The

Study did in fact show that a father would have more political influence over a

Child’s mind that their Mother’s. This suggests that knowing a mother's political

view can tell us something about her teenage child's political views. (Shurcliff, 2010)

In conclusion, it is believed by the study at the BB&N School that a father does

Influence the political moral mind of a child. These results are even further proven by

George Lakoff’s theory about the Nurturant Family vs. Strict Father Family Model.

Much can be observed from this study and more people should pay attention to the

finding and realize that not only do they have control over who their children are now,

but who they are to become for our political world.

Works Cited

Lakoff, George. (2006) The Progressive Worldview. Rockridge Institute.
Lakoff, George. (2008). The Political Mind: Why You Can't Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain. New York: Viking.
Shurcliff, Meggie. (2010) Do Mother’s or Father’s Influence Children’s Political Views
More.<http://www.bbnschool.org/us/math/ap_stats/project_abstracts_folder/proj_student_research_folder/children_shurcliff/childs_politics_shurcliff.htm>