George Lakoff's Gulf War Avoidance Plan

George Lakoff is a professor of linguistics and cognitive science at the University of California - Berkeley and, as such, it should surprise no one that he is an extreme Leftist in his political views. What is somewhat surprising is that, after three decades or so in academia, he can be so absolutely wrong in some of his assertions.

One baseless premise he espouses is that conservatives are tyrannical fathers and liberals are nurturing mothers in their approach to child-rearing. John Ray effectively disputes Lakoff on the subject in his paper, Lakoff "Deconstructed," pointing out statements that have no foundation in reality. One is even outrageously comical, the contention that a conservative man "tells his wife what to do." I challenge him, as did John Ray, to try it sometime.

My take on Lakoff's writings remind me of experiences I had with Moonies (followers of Sun Myung Moon) back in the 1970s. Invariably, I'd be asked something like, "Well, how do you know you are whole?" I'd answer, "Because when I decide to go somewhere, all my parts come along." I thought they spoke gibberish. The Moonies were believers, so they understood it. Lakoff's writings have a lot of gibberish in my opinion and, in most cases, it seems he takes relatively simple concepts and complicates them with lots and lots of words.

In the period leading up to the start of the first Gulf War, Desert Storm, in January 1991, Lakoff was very actively voicing his opinions and, apparently, no one was listening. In frustration, he decided to write An open letter to the Internet from George Lakoff in which he explains his ideas on the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. After many, many words justifying his thought processes, he concludes with his plan for solving the problems caused by Saddam invading and occupying Kuwait. Let's examine his plan. Lakoff states (paraphrasing):

War should be renounced on humanitarian grounds.

Troops should be rotated out of the region and kept at a minimum level to deter invasion of Saudi Arabia.

Institute a system of international inspections to prevent development of Iraq's nuclear program.

Provide a certain amount of "face-saving" for Saddam.

Kuwait monarchy can be sacrificed [Lakoff's exact words] and . . .

I'm going to interject here because the rest of the statement is nonsensical. So far, troops are on the border, Kuwait is in Saddam's control, the monarchy has been sacrificed, and now Lakoff says:

. . . elections are to be held in Kuwait.

Next, pressure is to be placed on the Kuwaitis to invest significantly in development to help poor Arabs. [Since there are probably no Kuwaitis alive at this point in his plan, I have no idea what he's thinking.]

Lastly, initiate efforts to disarm the region. This is to include the US and Russia refusing to give them spare parts.

That's it. George Lakoff's plan in an open letter to the Internet. If we had implemented his plan to prevent war, he apparently thinks that the world would be a better place.

I don't think a rational adult would agree with his plan and, to my knowledge, Lakoff hasn't come out with any statement after his open letter which indicates he thinks differently now. I also was disturbed by the offhand way he would sacrifice the monarchy of Kuwait.

Based upon the absurd war avoidance plan and the fact that his thinking is infected with a measurable number of wrong perceptions, I'm of the opinion that George Lakoff should not be an opinion leader and the attention given to him by the media and academia is unwarranted.