In a frontpaged diary, howieinseattle speaks of a problem with the so-called progressive left that HE frames as Fear of Framing.
I totally disagree.
He begins by making a couple of possibly good points if they were…I cannot resist here… framed well, and then makes a completely wrong turn right into a wall of “framing” language.
Barely English.
Spinglish, at best.
Here is his first quote.
From a Deanna Zandt’s post on AlterNet, where she also discusses Peter Teague’s earlier comments in a post called Suitable for Framing?, where Teague says:
C’mon…
“Message framing without deep conceptual reframes”!!!???
What the FUCK does that mean?
Really.
ZzzzzTalk.
FUCK Lakoff.
Jakoff is more LIKE it.
He then quotes Zandt as saying…quite accurately… “Reframing is the difficult, and often scary, prospect of admitting what doesn’t work and rediscovering our fundamental core. We’ve pointed fingers at those who give in to their fears, but maybe it’s time for us to stop being afraid as well.”, but the damage has already been done.
Spinglish soon becomes the order of the day.
The rest of the comments on the thread rapidly devolve into the usual Madison-Ave.-Meets-K-Street gobbledygook that the word “framing” seems to engender every time it is used outside of an art store.
My response continues below.
“Fear of Framing”?
NO!!!
That’s not it.
It does not even BEGIN to deal with the problem.
HERE’s the truth of the matter.
The “truth” frames itself.
In the comments to the diary to which I responded, someone mentioned Hugo Chavez, Arundhati Roy, etc. as examples of “framing”.
This framing thing is ass backwards.
These people…as well as Martin Luther King Jr, Mahatma Gandhi, Howard Dean, FDR, Winston Churchill and any number of OTHER great political and moral leaders…did not “frame” things.
Framing (as the word is used today) has more to do with advertising, packaging and brand management than it does with any faith in the power of the truth or objective morality. It is a symptom of just how cynical Hologram America has become.
Framing is the attempt to add a semblance of structure to a holographic image, to an idea the content of which makes absolutely no difference at all. The very WORD comes from the “frame” that the TV set provides around the screen. Put ANYTHING on that screen in a well produced manner and the tranced-out sleep watchers go “Oh. YEAH!!! THAT”s the ticket!!!”
You “frame” Wonder Bread.
Not democracy or freedom.
The truth frames itself.
Put the truth…simply and well produced…in THAT frame and it will trump Wonder Bread politics every time.
But we have not done so.
Was it a lack of “framing” that stopped the Democratic Party from effectively attacking the vote frauds of 2000 and 2004?
HELL no!!!
It was fear. (Coupled with a sort of stupid…and stupefied…innocence in some circles. “That can’t happen HERE!!!” Bullshit. It can and did.) Fear of losing.
“I like a man who fights with a grin on his face.” Winston Churchill.
That’s not framing, it’s courage. The kind of courage that knows it is right, that it CANNOT be beaten. (Well… sometimes it’s insanity too, of course. But we could use probably some of THAT right about now as well.)
Is it lack of framing that is preventing the Democratic Party from connecting with the mainstream working classes…white, black and hispanic…in this country? A connection which would win back both houses of the legislature AND the presidency within 2 years if made correctly and made soon?
No.
It is too MUCH framing.
“I been FRAMED” says the perp.
Yup.
We (And I say “we” under serious advisement, because I do not really feel myself to be part of the Democratic Party anymore, and have not felt so since it passively and almost gratefully allowed Howard Dean’s media assassination to occur and then replaced him with Small K kerry.) “we” ignore the real truth-tellers and workers in this party and promote people who make a better digital image…fit better into the TV FRAME, goddammit…of what a “Democrat” should be as that image is imagined by the spinmeisters and hustlers who are really running the show.
Kerry for Dean.
Edwards…that prettyboy, John fucking Ritter lookalike, bad haircut, pasted on, dental surgeon-produced smile and all…for Kucinich.
Barack Obama…and I told y’all a year ago that he was a hustler, not the real deal (Did you see his politician’s pas de deux act with the Alito thing? Masterful. Masterfully FALSE.)…for John Conyers.
Etc.. etc. etc., etc. etc.
So go ahead and blah blah blah about the lack of framing, etc.
Lose again.
And again and again and again until one day every son of a bitch at the Democratic Convention will be required by law to wear a Washington Generals jersey (The hapless basketball team that ALWAYS lost to the Harlem Globetrotters.) Or maybe (better yet) …they will simply change the name of that team to “The Washington Democrats”.
OR…stand the fuck up and say:
“The 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen and here’s the proof. What are we going to do about it?”
“This administration lied through its teeth about the reasons for the Iraq War, and here’s the proof. What are we going to do about it?”
“The Republican Party is corrupt straight through, up and down the line, from Texas right through taxes. Here’s the proof. What are we going to do about it?”
The truth don’t NEED no steenking framing.
It stands up quite well on its own, thank you.
I got yer “framing”, right HERE!!!
Wake the fuck up.
It’s getting a little late in the game for “framing” to be able to do much of ANYTHING.
Except of course…lose.
It’s about time we tried a little “aiming” instead.
BULLSEYE!!!
Try it.
You’ll like the results.
AG